We continue our trip by driving to Whispering Pines Campground in Hope Valley, RI on 05/16/2012. Then on 05/18/2012 we visited Conanicut Island Lighthouse, Conanicut Island Lighthouse, Fort Getty State Park, Fort Getty, and Fort Wetherill State Park on Conanicut Island in Jamestown, RI. In the late 1800s, the Wickford Rail and Steamboat Company operated a ferry between Newport and Wickford, in Narragansett Bay. The company had a private arrangement with the landowners on the northern tip of Conanicut Island to operate a light beacon for the ferry captains’ benefit. In 1882, the company was apparently the force behind a petition asking for the government to place an official lighthouse on the site, since the boat company would have been the primary beneficiary of such a beacon. Two years later, Congress approved $18,000 in funding for that purpose. The Lighthouse Board purchased a 200-foot strip of land, less than an acre altogether, on the northern tip of the island. The cost was $1,000, but there was a delay because a member of the Conanicut Park Land Company, whose signature was required on the title papers, was in Europe. Work began in the summer of 1885, with a break near the end of the year to wait out the winter weather. A temporary beacon was put up at that time, but it apparently wasn’t good enough to stop the steamer Eolus from running aground on the rocks just west of the lighthouse during a blinding snowstorm. Fortunately, nobody was injured in the incident, and passengers were taken ashore in small boats and put up in local farmhouses. The lighthouse at Conanicut Point was first activated on April 1, 1886. The tower is attached to a square, wood-framed keeper’s dwelling with six rooms and a basement. The house shows Victorian influences, with its gingerbread trim and scrolls around its windows. The beacon was a fifth-order Fresnel lens, and the station also had a fog bell. In 1903, a compressed-air fog siren was installed. Other buildings at the site include a barn from 1897, and a brick oil house and a storage building from 1901. The picture is of the Conanicut Lighthouse.
Dutch Island Lighthouse sits on a small island off Conanicut Island, in the West Passage of Narragansett Bay. In 1825, the state of Rhode Island deeded the southern tip of Dutch Island to the U.S. government for the purpose of building a lighthouse. The following year a thirty-foot tower built of stone and slate extracted from the island was completed. A keeper’s dwelling was attached, church-style, to the tower, which housed a Winslow Lewis lamp and reflector optic showing a fixed white light. The light was fifty-six feet above the water and could be seen for thirteen nautical miles. William Dennis, an American colonial and ship captain, was on a vessel in Europe when he heard news of the Boston Tea Party. The uprising prompted his quick return, and soon he was fighting in the Revolutionary War on the side of the colonists. In 1827, Dennis, who had twice been taken prisoner during the war, was appointed as the first keeper of the Dutch Island Lighthouse, a position he would keep until retiring thirteen years later at the age of ninety-three. In 1843, his son Robert Dennis assumed the keeper position. The picture is of the Dutch Island Lighthouse.
An Endicott Period Coastal Fort first established in 1900 on Conanicut Island, Jamestown, Rhode Island on the site of previous fortifications. Named on 25 May 1903 after Colonel George W. Getty, 4th U.S. Artillery. Battery construction began in 1901 and continued through 1905. All three of the batteries were accepted for service on the same day, 7 Jun 1910. Post construction was very limited with only one 10-man-barracks and one storehouse constructed. The 10-man-barracks doubled as the caretakers quarters during the years the post was in caretaker status. The garrison was first established 16 Jul 1909, a sub post of Fort Greble and a garrison for artillery troops during World War I. The fort went back into caretaker status after the end of the war. By the beginning of World War II all of the Endicott Period batteries were obsolete. By the end of 1942 all of the armament had been either salvaged or redistributed to higher priority installations. The 12″ guns and carriages of Battery Tousard were ordered scrapped as a part of the first nationwide scrap drive of the war. The 3″ guns and carriages of Battery Whiting were transferred to Beavertail Point on 20 Jul 1942. The 6″ guns and carriages of Battery House were transferred to Boston Neck on 20 Jul 1942. The only armament added to the post was Battery AMTB 922 built in front of Battery Tousard. This battery had four 90mm guns, two in fixed mounts and two in mobile mounts. In 1941 post construction built up the fort to some 40 temporary World War II structures including fourteen 63-man-barracks, five mess halls and all the support structures required to support the troops. During the war some German POWs were kept at Fort Getty for training as post war German civil servants. After the end of the war, the post was declared surplus by the army in 1948. The picture is of the Fort Getty Gun Battery.
The rising importance of shipping to the colony of Rhode Island led to a lighthouse being proposed for the southern tip of Conanicut Island, known as Beavertail Point. Beginning in 1731, ships calling at Newport had their cargoes taxed to fund the future lighthouse. Construction was delayed for about ten years by war between England and Spain, but the lighthouse was finally finished in 1749. The wooden tower stood 68 feet tall, was 24 feet in diameter at its base, and tapered to 13 feet at the lantern deck. The lighthouse, known early on as the Newport Lighthouse, was the third to be built in what would become the United States. The wooden lighthouse burned to the ground only four years after it was finished, but in 1754 a 58-foot brick and stone tower was built to replace it. A wooden spiral staircase led to the lantern room, which housed a light consisting of a two-tiered spider lamp with 15 whale-oil burning wicks, each with a nine-inch reflector. During the early part of the Revolutionary War, British troops-controlled Newport. In 1779, as they were retreating, the redcoats set fire to the lighthouse and took the optic. Although the fire warped the masonry walls, the tower was repaired and put back into service in 1783. In 1827 the lantern was refitted with a Winslow Lewis optic that could be seen for sixteen miles. The picture is of the Beavertail Lighthouse.
Fort Wetherill State Park, on the Island of Conanicut (Jamestown), situated upon 100-foot-high granite cliffs across the water from Fort Adams State Park, is a former coastal defense battery and training camp. Comprised of 61.5 acres, it was formally acquired by the State of Rhode Island from the United States in 1972. Its history as a military site dates back to the American Revolution. As a prominent overlook to the East or Middle passage of Narragansett Bay, it has been a favorite site for viewing Tall Ship events and America’s Cup races. The military story of the site began with an effort by the American colonists to fortify it to prevent British attacks on Newport at the outbreak of the Revolution. The battery here to be known as the Dumpling Rocks Battery was captured before it could go into effect. In December of 1776, the British captured Jamestown along with Newport. The British retained control of the lower Bay, except for a brief interlude in August of 1778, until 1779. During the Battle of Rhode Island, the troops of the French fleet occupied Jamestown. The location of the first permanent fortification at the southeastern end of Jamestown went atop odd-shaped outcroppings, called the Dumplings. Fort Dumpling, a defensive installation, built here in 1799-1800, was a round, Martell-style, fortified tower. Its purpose was to support Fort Adams blocking enemy ships from entering Newport Harbor. It was never really used and in the 19th, century became a stabilized ruin after gunners at Fort Adams used it for target practice. Fort Dumpling remained a romantic image that appeared on countless artist’s canvases and in dozens of picturesque prints, almost rivaling the other popular icon of the day, the Newport Viking Tower made famous by Longfellow’s poem. Unceremoniously, what remained of Fort Dumpling was blown up in 1898 to make way for more modern defenses. In 1885, Congress had directed the Secretary of War, William C. Endicott to draw up plans for new coastal defenses all along the Atlantic seaboard. With the outbreak of the Spanish American War in 1898, and with the growing importance of Newport to the U.S. Navy, the property was enlarged for new gun emplacements as part of the Endicott Defense system. This tied Jamestown to other defensive locations around the lower bay. In 1900 Fort Dumpling became Fort Wetherill in honor of Captain Alexander M. Wetherill who died at San Juan Hill in Cuba. His family was area residents. The new 12-inch, 10-inch, disappearing rifles and their mounts were installed in 1905 and 1906. Endicott batteries, as described by military historians “were designed for two or three weapons, each gun having a separate platform protected on three sides by concrete walls 15 to 20 feet thick. These massive structures were further protected on the exterior by parapets of sand and dirt 40 or more feet thick. Vegetation was planted so that the mounds would blend with the natural terrain. Located below and adjacent to the gun platforms were offices, plotting rooms, communication equipment, and ammunition vaults with mechanical hoists for moving powder and shells.” Seven separate batteries like these were located at Fort Wetherill. In 1940, just prior to the United States’ entry into World War II, new construction began at Fort Wetherill and nearby Fort Getty. Managing the site were units of the 243rd Coast Artillery, based at Newport’s Fort Adams. The barracks installed here at that time could accommodate 1,200 men. The training which occurred at Wetherill during this period included artillery spotting, signaling, and observation. While the Endicott defenses were the most modern for the period of the Spanish American War and World War I, they were not suitable by World War II and the age of air power. Fortunately, the revamped facilities were never put to the test. Part of Wetherill’s responsibilities included caring for the mine fields and submarine nets between Jamestown and Newport. After the war, as was the case of the interwar years, Wetherill was placed under a caretaker status. Guns were removed and by 1970 the land was put on the Federal government’s list of surplus facilities. Wetherill became one of several properties acquired by the State of Rhode Island for open space and recreational uses. The picture is of the Fort Wetherill Gun Battery.
On 05/20/2012, we visited RI Capitol in Providence, RI, Plum Beach Lighthouse in Saunderstown, RI, and Point Judith Lighthouse in Narragansett, RI. The Rhode Island State House is composed of 327,000 cubic feet (9,300 m3) of white Georgia marble, 15 million bricks, and 1,309 short tons (1,188 t) of iron floor beams. The dome of the State House is the fourth-largest self-supporting marble dome in the world, after St. Peter’s Basilica, the Minnesota State Capitol, and the Taj Mahal. On top of the dome is a gold-covered bronze statue of the Independent Man, originally named “Hope.” The statue, weighing more than 500 pounds (230 kg), is 11 feet (3.4 m) and stands 278 feet (85 m) above the ground. Independent Man represents freedom and independence and alludes to the independent spirit which led Roger Williams to settle and establish Providence and later Rhode Island. The chamber of the Rhode Island Senate is located in the east wing of the building while the chamber of the Rhode Island House of Representatives is located in the west wing. Other notable rooms in the State House include the rotunda (beneath the dome), the State Library (north end), and the State Room (south end). The State Room is an entrance area for the office of the Governor and contains a full-scale portrait of George Washington by Rhode Island native, Gilbert Stuart. This room is also where the Governor has press conferences and bill signings at the State House. One of the first public buildings to use electricity, the Rhode Island State House is lit by 109 floodlights and two searchlights at night. Inside the State House is carved marble. Over the pillared porticoes are quotations and historical chronologies of Rhode Island. Throughout the rotunda are battle flags, statues, and guns representing the state’s military past. In the center of the rotunda, under the marble dome, is a brass replica of the state seal. The picture is of the South side of the RI Capitol.
Mariners who used the West Passage of Narragansett Bay had for many years been pleading for a navigational aid near Plum Beach Shoal. Sometimes in heavy fog, captains trying to avoid Dutch Island went too far west and ended up running aground on the shoal. In 1895, Congress approved $60,000 in funding for the purpose of building a lighthouse and fog signal on Plum Beach. Just after construction of the cast-iron tower began during the summer of 1896, crews discovered that the bedrock was much deeper than they had thought, and funds ran out before the foundation could be securely anchored. When work stopped, the foundation was barely above high mean water and was covered with timber. A temporary warning light and fog bell were added atop the foundation. When Congress allocated additional funds in 1898 work resumed, but the weather caused more delays. During a blizzard, the construction ship dragged anchor and headed down the West Passage of the bay. Just when it looked as if the schooner and crew would either smash on the rocks or be carried out to open sea, the anchor caught on a cable near Beavertail. In a December 3, 1898, letter to the Lighthouse Board asking for a temporary halt to construction, the contractor wrote, “Plum beach, Narragansett Bay is the stormiest place we ever worked. It is either raining or blowing half the time.” Work ceased shortly thereafter and resumed in the spring. The lighthouse was finally completed in May of 1899. The picture is of the Plum Breach Lighthouse.
