Napatree Point is the southernmost and westernmost point of mainland

Rhode Island Rhode Island ( ) is a state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It borders Connecticut to its west; Massachusetts to its north and east; and the Atlantic Ocean to its south via Rhode Island Sound and Block Is ...

. Often referred to simply as Napatree, it is a long sandy spit created by a geologic process called

longshore drift Longshore drift from longshore current is a geological process that consists of the transportation of sediments (clay, silt, pebbles, sand, shingle, shells) along a coast parallel to the shoreline, which is dependent on the angle of incoming w ...

. Up until the

Hurricane of 1938 The 1938 New England Hurricane (also referred to as the Great Long Island - New England Hurricane and the Long Island Express) was one of the deadliest and most destructive tropical cyclones to strike the United States. The storm formed near th ...

, Napatree was and sickle-shaped and included a long northern extension called Sandy Point, today an island. Napatree now extends westward from the business district of Watch Hill, a village in

Westerly, Rhode Island Westerly is a New England town, town on the Coast, southwestern coastline of Washington County, Rhode Island, Washington County, Rhode Island, United States, first settled by English colonists in 1661, and incorporated as a List of municipalitie ...

forming a protected harbor.

Name origin

The name "Napatree" is derived from Nap or Nape (Neck) of Trees. Napatree Point was once heavily wooded. However, most of the trees were destroyed when the

Great September Gale of 1815 The Great September Gale of 1815 was a deadly and fast-moving Category 4 Atlantic hurricane in 1815 that became the second of five known major hurricanes to strike New England. At the time, it was the first hurricane to strike the greater area ...

struck the area."Watch Hill In The Hurricane of September 21st, 1938" a special pictorial issue of Seaside Topics published November 1938.

Geography and geology

Napatree Point is a slender, 1.5 mile long peninsula in

Block Island Sound Block Island Sound is a marine sound in the open Atlantic Ocean, approximately wide, separating Block Island from the coast of mainland Rhode Island. On the west, it extends to Montauk Point on the eastern tip of Long Island, as well as P ...

. To the north of the peninsula is Little Narragansett Bay, a small

estuary An estuary is a partially enclosed coastal body of brackish water with one or more rivers or streams flowing into it, and with a free connection to the open sea. Estuaries form a transition zone between river environments and maritime enviro ...

draining the

Pawcatuck River The Pawcatuck River is a river in the US states of Rhode Island and Connecticut flowing approximately .U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map accessed April 1, 2011 There are eight da ...

into the Atlantic Ocean. The peninsula is partially made from

. It is also made from

glacial moraine A moraine is any accumulation of unconsolidated debris ( regolith and rock), sometimes referred to as glacial till, that occurs in both currently and formerly glaciated regions, and that has been previously carried along by a glacier or ice s ...

, and is similar in makeup to nearby Fishers Island. The same moraine that Fishers Island is made out of resurfaces in Watch Hill, which Napatree Point is part of. The island of this region of the Northeastern United States made by glacial moraines from the Wisconsonian glaciation are known as the

Outer Lands The Outer Lands is the prominent terminal moraine archipelagic region off the southern coast of New England in the United States. This eight-county region of Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and New York comprises the peninsula of Cape Cod and the ...

History

In 1898, the federal government purchased at the elbow of Napatree Point for the construction of a coastal artillery installation, one of many such forts designed to protect the eastern entrance to Long Island Sound as part of a defense network for

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

. Fort Mansfield began operations in 1901. However, war games in 1907 demonstrated a fatal design flaw, and by 1909 it was removed from the list of active posts."Fort Mansfield" by Clement A. Griscom, 1984. Sponsored by the Westerly Historical Society In 1926, the government put the land up for sale. A New York developer proposed that Sandy Point be subdivided into 674 lots. A private syndicate of Watch Hill residents mobilized to prevent the construction of "cheap little houses" and protect the exclusive character of their town. The purchase was finalized in 1928, and all government buildings at Fort Mansfield were demolished that winter. Today, all that remains are the three concrete gun emplacements. The syndicate was unable to meet mortgage payments and the land was foreclosed on by the Washington Trust Company in 1931. Napatree Point beach south side

The

caught New England by surprise. Forty-two people were in their Fort Road homes on Napatree when the hurricane struck, and 15 died. The storm demolished all the homes built on Napatree as well as one of the Fort Mansfield gun emplacements. It created several breaches in the spit. The first of these breachways was near the current beach club bathhouses. At least three more broke the connection between Sandy Point and Napatree Point, severing it from the mainland. Sandy Point is now an island in Little Narragansett Bay. Erosion by the sea has caused the Napatree beach line to retreat some 200 feet since the mid-1930s. In 1940, the Sandy Point portion was deeded to Alfred Guildersleeve of Stonington, Connecticut. In 1945, the remainder of the land was sold to the Watch Hill Fire District for $10,000.

Conservation

Napatree Point is now a wildlife preserve - home to deer, fox, osprey, and migratory birds - and a popular public beach. It is protected by the Watch Hill Conservancy and Fire District and patrolled by its rangers, who also work with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to protect the

piping plover The piping plover (''Charadrius melodus'') is a small sand-colored, Passerellidae, sparrow-sized wader, shorebird that nests and feeds along coastal sand and gravel beaches in North America. The adult has yellow-orange-red legs, a black band acro ...

, a federally endangered species.

In film

In 2006, a scene from the movie

Dan in Real Life ''Dan in Real Life'' is a 2007 American comedy drama film directed by Peter Hedges, and stars Steve Carell, Alison Pill, Juliette Binoche, Dianne Wiest, John Mahoney and Dane Cook. This is the first Touchstone Pictures film to be distribut ...

was filmed at Napatree Point.

References

External links

The Watch Hill ConservancyAerial view of Napatree Point (bottom) and Sandy Point (top left), as they now exist after the 1938 hurricane split the peninsula in two
{{coord, 41.316884, N, 71.873932, W, region:US-RI_scale:30000, display=title Nature reserves in Rhode Island Landforms of Washington County, Rhode Island Westerly, Rhode Island Spits of the United States Protected areas of Washington County, Rhode Island