The Most Unique Resort in America With Amphicars, Ted Hilton’s Moodus, CT - With Video Link!

Mark Richardson

Active Member
Frank Davis bought the famous Ted Hilton’s campground & resort in the early 1960’s and ran it for many years. They had lots of activities and entertainment including Coo Coo the clown who was the social director seen in the flowered hat.

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The resort had a fleet of about 12 Amphicars which they used to entertain the thousands of campers they had each season. The resort was located in Connecticut on the Salmon River but is now gone. There is a rich history of memories and stories of great times spent there over the many years they were in business including Ron Hamill, who at the age of 12 shot 8mm footage of an Amphicar with his Brownie camera. He included this footage in a documentary he did on the resort called “Ted Hilton’s to Sunrise: A Personal Reflection /Documentary” which is on YouTube if you follow this link.


The Amphicar comes in at about the 15:00 minute mark, but the documentary is very interesting and worth watching.

I found an employee named Mike Lyman who worked there in the late 1970’s who used to maintain the Amphicars. He said they had 3 red ones in good condition and several blue and green ones and a single white car they used for parts to keep the red ones going each season.

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Thanks Mike,

I heard back from Ron Hamill after posting this and he said there was another clip out there of the cars in the water on you tube, but could not get that person to respond to incorporate it into his project.

The video is worth watching even though it is 30 minutes long. Takes you back to those times.
 
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