Rhode Island

Rose Island, about a mile offshore from Newport, Rhode Island, has a commanding position in Narragansett Bay's East Passage, with a clear view to the south all the way to Block Island. The local Indians knew the island as Conockonoquit, meaning "place of the long point." This name referred to a long grassy point on the island that once pastured cows, reduced by the great Portland gale of  1898 to tidal flast visibl only at low tide. The island-once more than 25 acres in size-today encompasses only about 18 acres.

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.

Bullock Point Lighthouse was one of twenty-six lighthouses constructed on Rhode Island's Narragansett Bay and on the Providence River. In the latter half of the 19th century and first two decades of the 20th century, these waterways were very busy. Several steamship lines had daily departures from Providence to New York, Boston and other east coast ports. Today, nine of those light stations no longer exist and others have been discontinued and are privately owned.

Watch Hill is located at the most southwestern point of the mainland in what is now the State of Rhode Island and is part of the town of Westerly. The area was purchased from the local Native American tribe, the Narragansetts, by a group in Newport in 1658. Watch Hill Point is an ideal location for lookout. There is evidence that the hill was used by the Narragansetts long before the European settlers arrived. The tradition of watching from the hill continues to this day.

Strategically located near the entrance to Newport harbor, between the east and west passages of Narragansett Bay, sits Beavertail Point at the southern end of Conanicut Island. As colonial Newport became a major port through its part in the Triangle trade, Beavertail was recognized as the most advantageous site for a navigational beacon. The town of Jamestown maintained a watch house at the site (probably for security due to the shifting alliances among the British, French, Spanish and Indians) and before long a beacon was added as well.

The Plum Beach Light is familiar to users of the Jamestown Bridge as the rusty structure a few hundred yards north of the bridge on the mainline side. The bridge, by guiding boats away from the Plum Beach Shoal, has made the lighthouse obsolete, and for almost fifty years it has been abandoned by all but cormorants and gulls.