The state park contains a 16-acre (6.5 ha) stand of native Rhododendron maximum, the largest of nineteen similar stands in central and northern New England, the northern limit of their growing range.

[4] The park also includes wild blueberries, cranberries, mountain laurel, heathers, mayflower, and wintergreen.

In 1901-1902 Mary Lee Ware played a pivotal role in the creation of the park.

In 1901, landowner Levi Fuller planned to "lumber off" the property and would have if not for Mary, who bought it in 1902.

Giving it to the Appalachian Mountain Club (AMC) a year later, she signed the deal on the condition that the woodland "...be held as a reservation properly protected and open to the public..."[5] The contract barred cutting down any trees or picking any rhododendron, a promise that has been broken only once due to the 1938 hurricane.