Verona Beach State Park is located on Route 13 in the Town of Verona, Oneida 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.
The park, set on 1,700 acres (7 km2) 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 celebrated it's 50th anniversary in 2006.
Park manager Allan Gordon said the state started buying lots in 1946. By 1962, 59 lots comprising 1,355 acres (5 km2) had been purchased at a cost of $276,300. The final acres, purchased in 1969-70, increased the park's size to 1,734 acres (7 km2) 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. 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 the beach is closed, although the campgrounds are open through Columbus Day in October and hiking trails remain open as well. Daily use fee is $7 per car. The beach is open from 11:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. daily.
Ranger Rick
The Verona Beach ranger, known as ranger Rick, became very popular after his first year working at the park in the summer of 2008. On July 17th 2008 ranger Rick confronted three men who were illegally planting marijuana plants off of the park's trails. Upon confrontation the three men assaulted the ranger, two of them armed with knives. The ranger was able to incapacitate all three of the men with no weapons, but suffered minor cuts to his forearms and a moderate cut in his midsection. All three of the criminals were hospitalized, one in critical condition with serious knife wounds. The other two were admitted for broken bones, torn ligaments, and head trauma. While being interviewed after the incident ranger Rick disclosed that he had at one point been a navy S.E.A.L and has been training in both muay thai and aiki jujitsu for several years. The ranger had served on the Russian Chechen boarder for a year prior to becoming a ranger at Verona Beach, so it is assumed that he also speaks Russian.[1] [2] Because Rick is such a friendly ranger most people don't know about the incident, however; to the Verona Beach staff he is considered a legend or even a God among men.
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43°10′48″N 75°42′54″W / 43.18°N 75.715°W
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