Harrington Beach State Park facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Harrington Beach State Park
IUCN Category V (Protected Landscape/Seascape)
Trail at Harrington Beach State Park.
Harrington Beach State Park Location in Wisconsin Show map of Wisconsin Harrington Beach State Park Location in the United States Show map of the United States
Location	Belgium, Ozaukee, Wisconsin, United States
Area	715 acres (289 ha)
Established	1992
Governing body	Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources

Harrington Beach State Park is a wonderful place to visit in Wisconsin. It covers 715 acres and sits right on the shore of Lake Michigan. This state park is located in the Town of Belgium. It has a long beach, perfect for walks. The park also features a special white cedar swamp. You'll find a 26-acre lake there too. This lake used to be a stone quarry. Visitors can enjoy camping, hiking, and picnicking. It's also a great spot for watching birds.

Park History and Development

Harrington Beach State Park has an interesting past. From the 1890s until 1925, a large stone quarry operated here. Workers dug up dolomite, a type of rock.

The Company Town of Stonehaven

From 1901 to 1925, a special town grew up around the quarry. It was called Stonehaven. This was a "company town," meaning the company that ran the quarry also built homes for its workers. Many workers were immigrants. They came from places like Luxembourg, the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and Italy. When the quarry closed, some of the houses were moved. They were taken to the nearby Village of Belgium. Today, you can still see the old foundations of these buildings in the park.

Becoming a State Park

The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources started buying land for the park in 1968. This was a big step towards creating Harrington Beach State Park. The park officially opened in 1992.

New Campgrounds for Visitors

In 2009, a new campground opened at the park. This was exciting because it was the first new campground in a Wisconsin State Park in over 20 years! Construction started in 2008. The campground was finished in early September 2009. It offered many different types of campsites. There were 32 sites with electricity and 33 without. There were also 5 walk-in sites, where you hike a short distance to your spot. One special site was for kayakers, only reachable by water. There was also a group campsite and a site for the campground host. Before the campground opened, about 120,000 people visited the park each year.