Nahaco Park is a 134 acre community park straddling the border between the towns of Woodstock and Eastford, CT.   The Park therefore has land in both towns.  The towns have permanently preserved 120 acres of the Park, with the remaining land along Crystal Pond comprised of the park center, ball field, dining hall, and other park buildings being available for parties, picnics, camping, and sports use.  The Park has 2,500 feet of frontage on beautiful Crystal Pond.

 

Crystal Pond Park can trace its roots back to 1916 and Camp Keemosabee - a camp started by the New Britain Area Council of the Boy Scouts.  In 1968, the New Britain and Bristol Area Councils merged to form the Nathan Hale Council and they renamed the camp “Camp NAHACO” – the name being derived from NAthan HAle COuncil.  The Boy Scouts used the camp regularly until 1977.  The summer of 1977 was the last time the boy scout camp had a full summer camp program.

 

By the early 2000’s the camp was in limited use and in disrepair.  In a referendum in 2002, voters in the Towns of Woodstock and Eastford approved purchasing Camp Nahaco from the Boy Scouts' Connecticut Rivers Council.  On March 3, 2003 the transaction was completed and the camp became the joint property of the two towns.  It is now a wooded, lakeside community park for the citizens of Woodstock, Eastford and the surrounding communities.

 

Following its purchase in 2003, the park was managed by the Camp Nahaco Park Commission, comprised of 4 commissioners from Woodstock and 4 commissioners from Eastford.

 

In 2017, the Camp Nahaco Park Commission proposed changing the name of the park from "Camp Nahaco Park" to "Crystal Pond Park".  The proposal was discussed at special town meetings in both Eastford and Woodstock, and then approved in separate town referendums held in the Summer of 2017.  The new ordinance governing the park also changed the name of the commission managing the park from the "Camp Nahaco Park Commission" to the "Crystal Pond Park Commission", and increased the number of commissioners from eight to ten.