Weston, Connecticut: Where a Meteorite Founded a Science

Weston has no train station of its own — Wikipedia calls it the closest Connecticut town to New York City without one. Exit the Merritt Parkway in Westport onto Route 57 (Weston Road) and follow it north into the town center, where it briefly overlaps Route 53, the only two through-routes in town. Rail travelers can use Metro-North's New Haven Line at Westport (Saugatuck) station, 1 Railroad Place, and drive the remaining few miles north, or the Danbury Branch's Cannondale station in neighboring Wilton. There is no Amtrak, Shore Line East or CTrail Hartford Line service in or near Weston.

The Lucius Pond Ordway-Devil's Den Preserve, The Nature Conservancy's largest continuous preserve in Connecticut at roughly 1,800 acres, draws more than 40,000 visits a year on its 20-mile trail system; Katharine Ordway created it starting with a 1,100-acre purchase in 1966. A second Aspetuck Land Trust property, Trout Brook Valley Preserve, straddles Weston's border with Easton and adds nearly 14 miles of trails through meadows, woods and a working orchard — see Easton's guide for trailhead details. Lachat Town Farm, a 42-acre farm the late Leon Lachat deeded to the town and the Conservancy in 1997, keeps a circa-1770 farmhouse and runs a community garden, farmers markets and concerts. Weston farmers once grew a variety of onion called the Southport Globe, stored in local onion barns before shipment to warehouses in Southport and Norwalk and on to New York City; the surviving Onion Barn, at the Weston Road/Norfield Road junction, still serves as the town's community bulletin board. The Weston History & Culture Center, run by the Weston Historical Society, occupies the David Dimon Coley House and a visitor center with rotating exhibits.