Fort Mansfield
Watch Hill, RI
Watch Hill, RI
By Megan McGory (as published in The Resident Good News, July 2005)
Zack Keegan of Hanover completely ignores the waves when he goes to the beach in Watch Hill, RI; he’s more interested in the abandoned military fort hidden in the underbrush at the very end of Nappatree Point.
Dressed in jeans and sneakers, 18-year-old Zack was ready for the mile and a half hike to the fort on July 13. “I try to go every year,” he said. “This is my third trip and it seems like I’m always bringing someone new.”
Zack’s friend, Suman Sridhar of Norwich, accompanied him on the trek for the first time. “He’s always talking about it,” she said, “so I wanted to see what all this was about.”
Known to locals as just “the forts,” the concrete abandonment has an official name: Fort Mansfield. Originally built in 1898 during the Spanish American war, Fort Mansfield was operational through World War I and abandoned shortly thereafter. On a map dated February 13, 1920, Fort Mansfield was officially labeled defunct and left to crumble in the dunes.
While the ’38 Hurricane laid much of Fort Mansfield and all of the surrounding community on Fort Road to waste, two concrete gun batteries survived and continue to be sturdy to the present day. During the hurricane, the concrete buildings provided shelter to two stranded lovebirds, according to legend. R.A. Scotti’s book “Sudden Sea: The Great Hurricane of 1938” provides more details on this legend as well as the fate of the rest of the community on Fort Road.
Zack summed it up fairly well when Suman asked what happened during the hurricane. “Well,” he said, gesturing to the deserted beach, “there used to be houses here…and now they’re over there. In the bay.”
Open to the public, Fort Mansfield became a playground by day, party-spot by night, and a canvas for local spray-paint artists. For Zack and Suman, Fort Mansfield is something to explore and photograph. However, there are no signs to show the way. “I never knew about this place,” Suman said, “And I never would have thought to look for something like this on my own.”
The largest standing structure is Battery Wooster, which is two stories tall with plenty of rooms and tunnels to explore. The only problem is getting down, and explorers have three choices: climbing down a straight ladder with no sides to hold onto, sliding two stories down a gentle concrete incline to the bottom floor, or jumping.
The other battery easily accessible but not easily found is Battery Crawford, the smaller of the two structures. In winter, Battery Crawford is visible, but vegetation camouflages it in the summer and only those who have been there before will be able to find it.
There are rumors of another battery within the dunes, whose entrance is visible when the dunes shift. This could possibly be Battery Connell, whose official location is about 20 feet offshore, just under the surface of the ocean. All that is left is a pile of concrete, vaguely visible at low tide.
“I love the history about the place,” Zack said, “it’s cool how it was just left there, and that it’s so old but still pretty safe. And I love to see all the new graffiti, there’s some guy who really goes all out with stencils and metallic spray paint.”
On this particular trip, however, Zack and Suman ran into the unexpected: mosquitoes. “I’ve never encountered bugs out here before,” Zack said, showing off a large red welt. Despite walking all the way out to the end of the point, Zack and Suman decided to head back after about ten minutes at the forts.
For adventurous souls, Zack offered this advice. “Bring bug spray and a flashlight,” he said, “and check the weather reports!” The first time Zack ventured out to the forts, he and two other friends were caught in torrential downpours about half-way between Watch Hill and the forts.
“We couldn’t decide whether to turn around and head back for shelter, or just try to run to the car,” Zack said, “we decided to run for the car, and got completely soaked. We were pretty scared of the lightning too, but there were fishermen out on the beach with metal poles, and we thought they were probably in more danger than us. There’s nowhere to hide on the beach.”
Zack and "two friends"...let me let you in on a little journalism secret. I was definitely one of them. haha. That day in 2002 was absolutely awful--we trekked out to the forts, and saw the storm coming. We figured we had time to make it back to my car, which was parked near the shops on Watch Hill. When we had gone too far to turn back, and still had too far to go to try to make it to town, the storm hit.
Once all of us got back to my car, we grabbed blankets from the trunk, stripped to our underwear, and went through the Taco Bell drive-thru that way.
Fort Mansfield is located at the end of Napatree Point in Watch Hill, RI. Built in 1898 during the Spanish American War, it was abandoned in 1917 and sold by the government in 1926. Battery Connell was destroyed during the 1938 hurricane, which eroded more than 200 feet of the beach and what remains of Battery Connell can sometimes be found at low tide. The larger Battery Wooster and smaller Battery Crawford can be explored today.
I first visited Fort Mansfield on New Year's Day in 1992 and try to make it back at least once a year.
June 29, 2003 shot with: Sony DSC-P31
July 13, 2005 shot with: Kodak DX7590
August 12, 2006 shot with: Kodak DX7590
July 4, 2007 shot with: Kodak DX7590
March 7, 2008 shot with: Kodak DX7590
This trip was a seaglassing trip, which can be read about in my Etsy shop blog, Mannequin Reject - Behind the Scenes, in the entry titled "More than you or I ever wanted to know about sea glass". I didn't actually go to the forts that day because I was out on the beach solo, but decided to include this trip because of the two abandoned boats that were out on Napatree Point.
This trip was a seaglassing trip, which can be read about in my Etsy shop blog, Mannequin Reject - Behind the Scenes, in the entry titled "More than you or I ever wanted to know about sea glass". I didn't actually go to the forts that day because I was out on the beach solo, but decided to include this trip because of the two abandoned boats that were out on Napatree Point.
It's been a long time since I've been out to Fort Mansfield (as of this writing in January 2015 I've realized it's easily been more than 5 years) so I anticipate a springtime hike out there very soon! I know the forts have changed a bit since these photos were taken, some fencing has been put up, and Hurricane Sandy back in 2012 decimated the dunes. In fact, cleanup and recovery from Hurricane Sandy stopped us from revisiting the forts in November 2012.
