Walking RI: Ninigret National Wildlife Refuge harbors naval, tribal history
CHARLESTOWN — The Grassy Point Trail winds across a small peninsula covered with small trees, shrubs and native grasses to an outlook above Ninigret Pond, the largest coastal salt pond in Rhode Island.
The Narragansett Tribe once fished here, built villages along the shoreline and hunted in the oak and maple forests. Now, flat-bottomed boats cruise the pond to harvest traps filled with oysters and mussels.
Inland from the pond, there are salt marshes, mudflats, kettle ponds, freshwater wetlands and maritime shrub lands in the Ninigret National Wildlife Refuge. The sanctuary attracts 250 species of birds, especially during the migratory season, and 70 nest here.
Two friends and I set out to explore Ninigret Pond and the 409-acre nature preserve. We started out from a massive, asphalt-covered lot, quite a contrast to the natural area we would soon visit, at the entrance to Ninigret Park, owned by the Town of Charlestown. We parked by a granite Navy memorial inscribed with the words, “Through these portals pass the hottest pilots in the world.”
'Charlietown': Where George H.W. Bush became a naval aviator
From 1943-1973, the site served as the Charlestown Naval Auxiliary Landing Field, called “Charlietown” by the young night fighter pilots. Many of the 1,500 men stationed there were trained to fly, including George H.W. Bush, who later became the 41st president. In its heyday, the base had 150 buildings, including hangars, mess halls, bunkers, barracks, administration offices, radio transmitters, a wastewater treatment plant and a fire station.
Most are long gone, but you can still see the remains of the three runways (each 200 feet wide and 4,800 feet long), two taxiways and rings in the asphalt that were used to tie down the 300 planes, including Hellcats and Avengers, that were parked there.
We walked across the lot, used now for the annual Charlestown Seafood Festival, and noted the town’s playgrounds and ballfields on the left. We picked up a bike path that paralleled a road and followed it by the gray-domed Frosty Drew Observatory, which opens on Fridays for stargazers.
Across the paved road is a nature center, under a sprawling willow tree next to Little Ninigret Pond and a sandy beach. Red and yellow bobbers caught in branches on the banks indicate the pond’s a fishing spot, too.
We continued down the road, noticed red blazes on the right and took a short loop trail through dense vegetation before reemerging onto the road.
Ahead is the entrance to the Ninigret National Wildlife Refuge, with a parking lot, bathroom and kiosk with a map of the area.
A landing spot for jets, and birds
We went left on a dirt path and got our first whiff of the ocean from a sea breeze coming from the east before reaching another asphalt lot. This one is painted with a white “30” in huge block numbers to mark Runway 30, named for the first two digits of the compass reading used by pilots to find the spot. We also passed remnants of landing lights, poles and foundations.
At this point, the path loops through a habitat restoration area to the northern edge of Ninigret Pond, which is bracketed with private property on the left. Across the pond is a line of cottages along a barrier beach. A fishing boat crossed the water. Several cormorants stood offshore on some rocks while an egret walked across some mud flats and an osprey soared overhead.
The trail then skirts a small pond and crosses a wooden bridge next to a kayak and canoe launch. We picked up the Grassy Point Trail and headed south along the edge of Ninigret Pond before turning east on the peninsula.
The wide path of crushed stone eventually passed a bench before ending at a rise in the land with water on three sides. We looked through a mounted telescope to zero in on a flat-bottomed fishing boat anchored in the pond. Another boat, with its rear deck filled with wooden traps, motored across the pond.
I walked down to a thin beach, covered in shells and pebbles. An angler from Worcester, Massachusetts, pulled on waders and walked 15 feet into the pond to fly-cast for stripers.
Remnants of Native American life uncovered by archaeologists
After a break, we retraced our steps to a trail junction and took a left on the Cross Edge Trail through what’s called a glacial outwash plain. The flat ground is east of the Charlestown Moraine, a long ridgeline created during the Ice Age, and was formed when retreating glaciers deposited a rich, rock-free, silt-loam soil. In the fertile ground, Native Americans planted corn, beans, squash, pumpkins, and tobacco used for medicines and ceremonies.
At several sites in Ninigret, archeologists have found remnants of Native American life, including “middens," or refuse heaps that contained oyster, quahog, mussel, razor clam and scallop shells, as well as some quartz and pieces of pottery.
In the 1600s, colonial farmers pushed out the Native Americans. One area of Ninigret includes a 1-mile-wide parcel from Watchaug Pond to the ocean that the king of England granted to Jeffrey Champlin. By the 1700s, the land had become a 2,000-acre plantation, and under the ownership of Christopher Champlin, 200 slaves tended more than 600 sheep, 50 dairy cows and hundreds of pigs. Cheese, ham and wool were shipped to Newport, New York, Europe and the West Indies.
By the 1800s, the land was divided into dairy, sheep and pig farms. The owners planted corn and hay, mainly to feed the livestock. Seaweed was also sold as crop fertilizer.
The land stayed largely undeveloped until the Navy acquired the Hunter Harbor summer colony and 588 acres of farmland in 1942. After World War II, the base was used as a practice aircraft carrier landing field for anti-submarine planes that flew from Quonset Airfield.
In 1970, the Navy transferred the land to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, which created the refuge.
As the trail leads through chapters of Rhode Island history, we followed the path through heavy woods filled with the sights and sounds of warblers, sparrows and finches. We also sniffed the sweet smell of honeysuckle. Eventually, we came to an intersection, with a break left to a fishing area.
We went straight and passed through some wooded swamps until spotting Foster’s Cove through some trees on the left. Past a bench built as an Eagle Scout project, I walked down a side path to survey the cove and noted the Willows Inn across the water. At one time, pontoon planes landed on the cove to bring guests to the summer retreat.
We followed a sign for the Charlietown Runway Trail and took a paved path to a large strip of asphalt on the northwest side of the preserve. We crossed an old taxiway and returned to where we parked.
In all, we walked 4.6 miles over 2.5 hours.
After spending the early spring hiking inland trails, I decided it was time to visit the ocean and picked Ninigret. I was surprised to find all the naval and farming history. But it’s the unique walk to the coastal pond that will draw me back.
John Kostrzewa, a former assistant managing editor/business at The Providence Journal, welcomes email at johnekostrzewa@gmail.com.
If you go ...
Access: Off Route 1, look for the signs for Ninigret Park and turn southeast.
Parking: Available at the entrance to Ninigret Park or farther down a road in a lot at the Ninigret National Wildlife Refuge.
Dogs: Not allowed.
Difficulty: Easy, flat, wide paths.
Trail fact
Ninigret (1600-1676) was a sachem of the Niantic and Narragansett tribes and a major figure during inter-tribal rivalries and wars with the colonists. He led a decades-long war against the Mohegans and formed regional alliances with the Mohawks and Pocumtucks. In 1637, Ninigret, also called Juanemo, joined the colonists and the Narragansetts to fight the Pequots. He refused to fight the English during King Philip's War (1675-1676) and died at the end of the conflict.
This article originally appeared on The Providence Journal: Ninigret National Wildlife Refuge in RI is linked to naval, tribal history
