Queen's Fort is a historic site in Exeter, Rhode Island. A round, rocky hillock, the site has long been described as the site of a Native American fortification constructed before 1676 by Queen Quaiapen and members of the

Narragansett Indian Tribe The Narragansett people are an Algonquian American Indian tribe from Rhode Island. Today, Narragansett people are enrolled in the federally recognized Narragansett Indian Tribe. They gained federal recognition in 1983. The tribe was nearly la ...

who survived the Great Swamp Massacre. The fort's layout included an eastern

bastion A bastion is a structure projecting outward from the curtain wall of a fortification, most commonly angular in shape and positioned at the corners of the fort. The fully developed bastion consists of two faces and two flanks, with fire from the ...

and a flanking wall built amongst large naturally occurring boulders. The fort was described as containing an enclosed chamber as well:

Within the fort a chamber – six square feet with a seven-foot ceiling and a sand floor – was perhaps built for the Narragansett queen Quaiapen (also called Matuntuck). She supposedly hid out at the site during King Phililp’s War before moving somewhere else, where she died. Some have also suspected that Quaiapen and Stonewall John were lovers."

The fort was known for the skill of its design, which used naturally occurring boulders connected with laid stone walls. Admiring colonists created the mistaken rumor that Stonewall John was an escaped English engineer. The fort was described in conflicting Victorian-era accounts, and the rocky nature of the site prevented its reuse. The site has been owned by the Rhode Island Historical Society since 1931 and was listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...

in 1980.

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