At the State of CT website they say, "Hammonasset" means, "where we dig holes in the ground" and refers to the place where a settlement of eastern woodland Indians farmed along the Hammonasset River. They subsisted on corn, beans, and squash, and by fishing and hunting. The first colonists arrived in 1639. Property changed hands frequently between Native Americans and the first colonists."
But Wikipedia comes closer to what I'd remembered it as: (Hammonassett) "place of sand bars," just as it says at:
I sort of remembered it as (The place of) the long sandbar, but just can't remember the source.
But I do know you dig holes to get clams and that corn, beans and squash were planted together in mounds, but then again you'd dig a hole to build a fire in a stone lined pit, wait for it to turn to coals and cover them with seaweed, add what ever you harvested including clams and other seafood delights, plus some corn, cover that with seaweed and wait a while before you have a seaside clam bake, just like has been written about the excavations on Pilot's Point.
So I've just returned from a week long camping trip at the Hammonassett Beach State Park, noticing for the first time in a life time of camping there, the Great Big Boulder at the east of the entrance and the short row of stones on either side of it, plus what looks like a nice little clambake spot at the edge of the salt marsh. These pictures are from the entrance at Route 1, and you'll note the saw horses and screen in one of them, as well as a Rock Pile I can't really say is old or new. There have been excavations there, dated back 7,000 years from the present, but I haven't read any of them (and I was going to add something here about the nearby airport, but suddenly I can't copy and paste what I wanted to)...
And I'm adding this just because there's familiar names in it:
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