History
Judges' Cave and the Regicides Trail (which traverses the length of the ridge), receive their names from two judges Edward Whalley and his son-in-law William Goffe, who had signed the death warrant of Charles I of England in 1649. After the restoration of the monarchy with Charles II of England in 1660, the pair of regicides fled to the area to avoid arrest and hid in a boulder cave on the crest of the ridge intermittently over the summer of that year.
Other notable historic events include the portrayal of the ridge by 19th century landscape painter Frederic Edwin Church in 1849.
The General Assembly of the state of Connecticut established An Act Concerning West Rock Ridge State Park, which established the park when the Connecticut Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) purchased 600 acres (2.4 km2) of land from the city of New Haven in 1975. This act gives the DEP the right of first refusal to purchase private land sold within the West Rock Ridge conservation area. The intent of the act is to allow the state to increase the size of the park, which is about 1,600 acres (6.5 km2).
Read more about this topic: West Rock Ridge
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—Thomas Henry Huxley (1825–95)