Connecticut is an historic collection of treasures with deep connections to the sea and proud agricultural traditions. The Brooklyn Fair is one of the best in New England where visitors learn about farming, animals and hot-rod tractors at the tractor pulling competition. At the Rich's dairy farm, the family pre-dawn ritual is milking, and sometimes they work their land the old-fashioned way with horse drawn machinery. When they're not milking cows they're making gourmet ice cream in their roadside stand. With the arrival of the Antiques Marketplace in Putnam, the community was transformed from a mill town on the skids into a booming antiques mecca that draws visitors from around the region to purchase everything from postage stamps to vintage pieces of furniture selling for thousands of dollars. Mystic Seaport is a maritime historic village with authentic wooden ships and an opportunity to discover the region's connection to the sea. In Groton, the "Submarine Capitol of the World," the US Navy's Submarine Force Museum and Library preserves the heart and soul of "the silent service." Project Oceanology brings high school students out to sea to conduct water quality research in a real life setting. It looks like a mediaeval fortress but in reality the stone castle overlooking the Connecticut River is one of the Connecticut's most popular and intriguing attractions - the home of William Gillette, the original actor who played Sherlock Holmes. In 1968, a bulldozer operator accidentally uncovered 2000 dinosaur footprints from 200 million years ago. Today they are preserved underneath a geodesic dome at Dinosaur State Park where visitors learn about the creatures who once walked on this very spot. In Hartford, take a peek inside America's oldest public art museum, the Wadsworth Atheneum, and step back in time to the gilded age in the house where Mark Twain created "The Adventures of Tom Sawyer" and other tales. Nearby Bristol, is home of the new High Definition production studios of ESPN. It's all here in the small state of Connecticut, rich in culture and remarkable because of its people.
