- Verona Beach State Park
Verona Beach State Park is located on the east shore of
Oneida Lake inOneida County, New York . The park is northwest of the City of Oneida and south of Sylvan Beach.Oneida Creek enters the lake south of the park.The park offers a beach, a playground, picnic tables and pavilions, hiking and biking, a bridle path, a nature trail, fishing and ice-fishing, a campground with lakeside tent and trailer campsites, cross-country skiing and snowmobiling. There is a diverse wetland habitat.
Verona Beach State Park on Route 13, Town of Verona, is a perfect spot to "get away from it all."
The park, set on convert|1700|acre|km2|0 along the east shore of Oneida Lake, offers swimming, picnicking and camping. Operated by the Central Region, New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation, the facility celebrates its 50th anniversary this year.
Park manager Allan Gordon said the state started buying lots in 1946. By 1962, 59 lots comprising convert|1355|acre|km2|0 had been purchased at a cost of $276,300. The final acres, purchased in 1969-70, increased the park's size to convert|1734|acre|km2|0 for a total cost of $288,888 or roughly $166 per acre.
The park offers three-quarters of a mile of supervised beach, bathhouse, concession stand, two pavilions, seven tents which are rented on weekends for larger gatherings, 45 campsites with a recreation building and numerous picnic sites. For more active visitors, there are four miles (6 km) of nature trails for hiking and eight miles (13 km) of horseback/mountain bike trails which convert into cross country ski trails during the winter.
Special events are frequently scheduled.An arts and crafts fair will take place Aug. 9-10, along with a reunion of former park employees on Aug. 10. The annual "Frog Fest", a country music concert sponsored by WFRG-104-FM radio on Father's Day in the park, attracts between 12,000 and 15,000.
The park has about 35 seasonal employees. It is open for daily use through Labor Day, after which only the camp grounds are open through Columbus Day in October. Daily use fee is $5 per car. The beach is open from 10:30 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. daily.
External links
* [http://nysparks.state.ny.us/parks/info.asp?parkID=26 New York State Parks: Verona Beach State Park]
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