Thursday, September 22, 2011

Great Swamp Paddling in Narragansett Country

Yesterday, in the predawn hours,  I traveled to Rhode Island's Great Swamp for some paddling and terrestrial exploration.  It was Nathaniel Philbrick's book Mayflower and his account of this place and the event that occurred here in December 1675 that compelled me to experience the area first hand.  In history written by the colonists, the event is referred to as "The Great Swamp Fight", whereas the Narragansetts remember it as the "Great Swamp Massacre".  The area in question envelops 3,349 acres and is shown on this map.
I launched into the southeast corner of Worden Pond as the sun was just illuminating Stony Point (opening photo), across the pond to the northwest.  The pond's surface was like a mirror as my boat and I sliced our way over to where the Chipuxet River enters from the northeast.  A pair of mute swans helped in guiding me to the spot which is not so easy to discern.   Ascending this small river, it began to look more like a stream...

Proceeding upstream required pushing over a small beaver dam, and scaring a bittern in the progress.  After about a half mile or so, I found out why water had been in such short supply...

This beaver dam was substantial and required exiting, lifting over, and re-entering my boat.  Above the dam, the Chipuxet was more like a river and wood ducks were encountered upon rounding each succesive bend...

 Large clusters of these yellow flowers were greeting the morning's sunshine...


After surmounting another substantial beaver dam, I passed under some power lines and the bridge which once carried trains of the Narragansett Pier Railroad (now a bike path), before reaching my destination of Taylor's Landing...


Here I stopped for an early lunch near the intersection of Rt. 138 and Liberty Lane.  The trip downriver went a little faster, though I did have concerns about fairly close gunfire, just upstream of the power lines.  Seems a little early to be hunting season.  Once I dropped below the second beaver dam, it was back to paddling more grass than water...


Wildlife encountered on the trip downriver included tree swallows, woodpeckers, a kingfisher, a heron, wrens, turtles, a kestral, 2 hawks, and a water snake sunbathing on the smaller of the 3 beaver dams.
Once back into the pond, I paddled to Stony Point, and on the way, the haunting call of a loon was heard from near Tefft's Island.
Following some leg stretching at Stony Point I continued heading west in search of the Pawcatuck River and the spot where it leaves the pond.  It was easier to find than the Chipuxet and the current leaving the pond was clearly seen and felt.  I paddled only about a quarter mile down this river before deciding to begin my paddle back to my put-in location.  This was the view from the Pawcatuck as I returned to the pond...
  
It was mid-afternoon when I arrived back at the Worden Pond Launch...

With my boat cartop again I drove west on Worden's Pond Road to Biscuit City Road to Route 2 north and began carefully looking for Great Swamp Monument Road.  There is little to mark the entrance and the .7 mile dirt road soon transitions to something more typical of a fire road.  After about half a mile there is a circle around a bunch of trees with nothing else.  Out of this strange circle the path continues to the south and finally arrives at one of the more interesting monuments I've ever seen...
This uninscribed granite obelisk reaches toward the sky and is surrounded by 4 stout granite blocks and 2 plaques at ground level.  The site looks neglected and the plaques are in rough shape.  In fact one is missing completely.  The monument was installed here by the Rhode Island Society of Colonial Wars in 1906.  The 4 stout blocks each represent a colony and are so inscribed: Connecticut, Massachusetts, Plymouth, and Rhode Island (odd since it is my understanding that Rhode Island did not officially participate in the event).  The remaining plaque is hard to read...

Thanks to Historical Marker Database the original wording can be found.

I was left to stand there in this lonely and forsaken spot and ponder what occurred here.  A large number of Narragansett people were hunkered down for the winter inside a large (5 acre) pallisaded fortress.  There were several hundred wigwams inside the fortress.  The war known as King Philip's War was underway and it pitted their neighbors the Pokanokets against the colonists.  The Narragansetts had somehow managed not to be drawn into the conflict.  However, because they provided refuge for some of the Pokanoket women and children, the colonists declared war on them and launched a pre-emptive attack on the fort December 19, 1675.  A force of 1,000 men drawn from the 3 colonies attacked the fort and battled the Narragansett warriors for several hours before prevailing and capturing the fort.  This part is known as the "Great Swamp Fight". 

It was what happened following the battle that is disturbing, and an example of history as told only from the victor's perspective. The colonial army now possessed a fort containing hundreds of wigwams in which there were women, children, sick, and old.  There were also many injured soldiers, and darkness was approaching rapidly.  There was a debate as to whether they should stay in the fort until morning, or destroy the fort and march back to Wickford in the dark.  The commander, Gen. Josiah Winslow hesitated and the debate became mute as soldiers had begun torching the wigwams.  Soon the darkness was filled with screams from within as hundreds of non-combatants were trapped in the wigwams.  Perhaps this part should be known as the "Great Horror".  It's amazing what humans are capable of once they dehumanize an enemy.
The soldiers claimed the flames from the inferno lit their way for several miles.


According to the 1861 book Indian Names of Places in Rhode Island by Usher Parsons, M.D., the Narragansett name for Worden Pond was Aquabapaug and the Narragansett name for the monument locale was Quawawehunk.  Parson's book can be found online at this URI site.

While subsequently visiting the web site of the Narragansett Tribe, I saw listed under News/Events that the tribe will be conducting a Great Swamp Pilgrimage this Sunday, 9/25/11. Quite a coincidence!

I found much useful information on paddling in the Great Swamp at this link regarding Jim Cole's favorite Rhode Island paddle. 


A modest amount of trash was recovered from the various sites I visited today...

There were 14 recyclable containers and 25 pieces of miscellaneous rubbish.  Total of 39 bringing YTD total to 5009.


1 comment:

PenobscotPaddles said...

Very interesting; I've read many of the same books, always informatiove to see the places live.