Entry No. 5 — the Providence file — filed under: outdoor
Fort Wetherill State Park
Built 1895-1903 on 100-foot granite cliffs above the East Passage, Fort Wetherill guarded the entrance to Narragansett Bay through both World Wars — including a stint late in WWII as a training site for German prisoners of war — before deactivation in 1946 and transfer to the state in 1972. The concrete gun batteries are still standing, partially buried to the loading platforms for safety and coated floor-to-ceiling in decades of layered graffiti, with pitch-dark magazine corridors you can walk straight into. The 61.5-acre park is also one of New England's best-known shore-diving spots, so on summer weekends the coves fill with scuba flags while the batteries stay strangely empty. The state's whole management approach is a boat ramp, seasonal restrooms, and a shrug — which is exactly why it's good.
→ Three more weird outdoor & roadside oddities in Providence — never the same twice
The story
Fort Wetherill was built between 1895 and 1903 on the 100-foot granite cliffs at the southeastern tip of Conanicut Island, replacing the older Fort Dumpling and named for Captain Alexander Macomb Wetherill, a Jamestown native killed at San Juan Hill. Seven concrete batteries went in: Varnum and Wheaton with 12-inch guns, Walbach with 10-inch, Zook and Dickenson with 6-inch, Crittenden and Cooke with 3-inch. A mine casemate was accepted for service on February 17, 1906 at a cost of $9,370, and roughly 300 submarine mines were managed from here to protect the approaches to Newport, run down to the wharf on trolley tracks.
Five companies of the Rhode Island National Guard garrisoned the fort in World War I, and Battery Zook's three 6-inch guns were shipped to France on mobile carriages. It was reactivated in September 1940 for the 243rd Coast Artillery Regiment — about 1,200 soldiers, sixteen temporary barracks and a theater by 1941 — and late in the war, in 1944 and 1945, it served as a training center for German prisoners of war. The Army walked away in 1946. Rhode Island acquired the property on August 16, 1972 and now runs 61.5 acres of it as a state park under the DEM Division of Parks & Recreation.
Nobody has tidied it since. The batteries stand where they were poured, and as of 2020 nearly every surface is under layered graffiti; the mine storehouse is the best-preserved building on site and carries interpretive plaques. Trails run through scrub woods and along the rock. The boat ramp is used year-round by dive clubs — the coves here are among the best-known shore dives in New England — and picnic tables and pavilions can be reserved April through October. The beach scenes in Wes Anderson's Moonrise Kingdom were shot here in 2012.
What it's like
You come over the Jamestown Verrazzano Bridge, wind down Fort Wetherill Road, and park in a lot that on a summer weekend is mostly divers pulling tanks out of hatchbacks. The batteries are a short walk from the cars, and there is no gate, no ticket, and no interpretation beyond the plaques at the mine storehouse — you simply walk into them. Daylight reaches a few feet past each doorway and then quits, so a real flashlight is the difference between a corridor and a wall. Footing is uneven and there is broken glass; the cliff edges are unfenced, with nothing between you and the East Passage. Go early enough to be back out on the rock for the sailboats and the sunset, and leave the spray paint at home — the graffiti here is other people's.
The move: Arrive two hours before sunset with a headlamp apiece, work through the batteries while there's still daylight to retreat to, then take the cliff edge for the parade of sailboats entering the bay; dinner after in Jamestown village, five minutes up the road.
📍 Before you go Free, open roughly dawn to dusk. The tunnels are genuinely lightless — bring a real flashlight, not a phone. Wear solid shoes for broken glass and uneven floors, and mind the unfenced cliff edges. Restrooms operate May 1 to October 31 only. About 35 minutes from Providence via the Jamestown Verrazzano Bridge.
- 📍 Jamestown
- 💸 Free
- ⚡ Up for anything
- 🌗 Outdoors
Where: Fort Wetherill Rd, Jamestown, RI 02835
Hours: Added 2026-08-25 — confirm current hours before you go.
⚠ Seasonal or scheduled — always check before you go.
Pair it with
- Purgatory Chasm (Middletown) — Twenty-odd minutes away across the Newport bridge and the same day in geological form — a fifty-foot puddingstone cleft with a footbridge over it, if the unfenced cliff edges at the fort left you wanting more.
- The Bodhi Spa — On lower Thames Street in Newport, on the way home, and the correct antidote to two hours of cold concrete and salt wind: a 98-degree mineral pool, steam, and a whisper policy.
More weird in Providence
Good to know
How far is it from Providence, and what does it cost?
About 35 minutes: Route 138 across the Jamestown Verrazzano Bridge, then south through Jamestown to Fort Wetherill Road. Entry and parking are free, and the park runs roughly dawn to dusk. Questions go to the district office at (401) 884-2010.
Do I really need a flashlight?
Yes, and a proper one. The magazine corridors and interior rooms of the batteries go fully lightless within a few steps, and a phone torch lights about three feet of floor. Bring one apiece so nobody is following someone else's beam over broken concrete.
Are there restrooms and picnic facilities?
Restroom facilities operate May 1 through October 31 only. Picnic tables, pavilions and shelters can be reserved from April into October; outside that window they are first come, first served with no fee. The park is carry-in, carry-out, and it is pet-friendly.
Can I dive here, and do I need anything for it?
Shore diving off the coves is the park's biggest single draw, and the boat ramp is used year-round by dive clubs. Organized groups need to provide a certificate of insurance, and any large group event requires a Special Use Permit applied for 30 days ahead.
Is it suitable for kids or anyone unsteady on their feet?
Treat it as a ruin, not a playground. The cliffs are unfenced 100-foot granite, the battery floors are uneven and littered with glass, and there are no railings or lighting inside. Solid shoes, daylight for the first pass, and hands on small children.
Plan a visit & invite your people →
Further reading: riparks.ri.gov · Wikipedia
last checked: 2026-08-25