Conanicut Lighthouse, RI: Only Yesterday

Certainly every citizen of Jamestown, on Rhode Island's Conanicut Island, is familiar with the Beavertail Lighthouse on the island's southern end. However, it is less certain that local citizens are familiar with Conanicut Lighthouse on the island's north end. It may be that many local people aren't aware of it at all. Yet for 48 years it served as a significant aid to navigation for shipping in Narragansett Bay. For 28 of those years it was under the charge of Keeper Horace Weeden Arnold, an eighth generation descendant of Benedict Arnold, who at one time was proprietor of all land south of the causeway at Mackerel Cove.