You’ll find Rhode Island’s ghost towns surprisingly accessible during summer months, when Hanton City’s 300-year-old stone foundations peek through forest undergrowth and Fort Wetherill’s concrete batteries stand stark against coastal skies. Rocky Point’s rusting Circle Swing tower still watches over Narragansett Bay, while Napatree Point’s shifting sands periodically reveal hurricane relics from 1938. The Enchanted Forest’s fading fairytale remnants hide in Hopkinton woods, and Ramtail Factory’s mysterious ruins await in Foster. Each location holds stories that unfold through careful exploration and quiet observation.
Key Takeaways
- Hanton City offers stone foundations, a centuries-old cemetery, and artifacts from a 1676 settlement abandoned when residents relocated to mill towns.
- Napatree Point features buried 1938 hurricane relics, fort remnants, and a 1.5-mile sandy wildlife refuge accessible only by foot.
- Fort Wetherill provides 61.5 acres of military fortifications, tunnels, and batteries spanning from 1776 through WWII on Conanicut Island.
- Rocky Point Amusement Park preserves structures like the Circle Swing tower from the historic 1840-1996 recreational venue on 120 acres.
- Ramtail Factory displays stone foundations and fire remnants from an 1813 woolen mill, Rhode Island’s only census-listed haunted location since 1885.
Hanton City: A Colonial Settlement Frozen in Time
Deep in the forests of Smithfield, Rhode Island, stone foundations emerge from tangles of undergrowth like bones breaking through soil. You’ll find Hanton City’s remains scattered across Dow Chemical’s property—crumbling walls, a burial ground, and an old dam once used for irrigation.
Stone foundations rise through forest undergrowth like ancient bones, marking where Hanton City once stood before wilderness consumed it.
This forgotten settlement, established around 1676 by English families fleeing King Philip’s War, thrived as a community of tanners and bootmakers before economic collapse drove residents to mill towns in the 1800s.
Hidden pathways wind through dense vegetation to historical artifacts marking three centuries of occupation. Explorers have uncovered vintage bottles and cans through metal detecting, some still sealed despite decades of abandonment.
The Alfred Smith Cemetery holds weathered headstones, silent witnesses to lives lived beyond society’s reach. Among the graves, you’ll find Alfred Smith (1770–1828), his wife Eliza, and their son Emor, markers of a family that left few traces beyond these stones.
You won’t find this place on tourist maps—it’s earned its local nickname, “Lost City,” through deliberate obscurity and determined wilderness reclamation.
Rocky Point Amusement Park: Echoes of Seaside Entertainment
While Hanton City whispered its secrets to the forest, Rocky Point Amusement Park once shouted joy across Narragansett Bay. From Captain Winslow’s 1840 seafood outings to its 1996 closure, this 120-acre playground embodied freedom’s promise—thrilling rides, carnival foods, and salt-kissed summer nights.
You’ll find remnants of grandeur at today’s state park:
- Circle Swing tower standing sentinel where airplane rides once soared as the Seaplane Deluxe
- Shore Dinner Hall’s ghost that fed 4,000 souls before Hurricane Carol claimed it
- Palladium Ballroom’s foundation where big bands soundtrack memories
- Historic 1877 site where President Hayes made America’s first presidential phone call
The Narragansett tribe summered here centuries before roller coasters replaced their footpaths. Now you’re free to explore what hurricanes and time couldn’t erase—a monument to working-class joy. The Skyliner Gondola Ride remains largely intact, with its cables, support towers, and station accessible via trail, offering views across the former park grounds. Baseball history runs deep here, where the Rocky Point Grounds stadium hosted minor and major league games from 1891 to 1917, including a legendary moment when Babe Ruth launched a ball into the bay.
Fort Wetherill: Military History Meets Coastal Beauty
Where Rocky Point traded in nostalgia, Fort Wetherill dealt in gunpowder and granite. You’ll find this 61.5-acre ghost perched on Conanicut Island’s cliffs, where patriots built an eight-gun earthwork in 1776.
Fort Wetherill: 61.5 acres of Revolutionary War earthworks and abandoned military fortifications clinging to Conanicut Island’s windswept cliffs.
The site evolved through centuries of conflict—from Revolutionary War skirmishes to Spanish-American War upgrades featuring massive disappearing rifles. By World War II, these coastal fortifications housed 1,200 soldiers training in artillery spotting, even hosting German POWs for reeducation. Soldiers also managed submarine nets stretching between Jamestown and Newport to protect the harbor.
The military abandoned it in 1946, leaving concrete bunkers and tunnel networks to decay for twenty-five years. Rhode Island claimed it in 1972, transforming naval defense infrastructure into your playground. Seven major concrete batteries once formed the largest fort in the Coast Defenses of Narragansett Bay, their heavy guns now long scrapped.
Now you’ll scramble through graffiti-covered batteries, explore darkened corridors, and stand where cannons once protected Newport’s harbor—all while waves crash below.
Napatree Point: A Hurricane’s Lasting Impact
You’ll find Napatree Point transformed from a thriving beach community of 39 summer homes into a haunting wildlife refuge where nature has reclaimed what the Great New England Hurricane of 1938 violently erased. When you walk this narrow peninsula jutting into Little Narragansett Bay, concrete staircases and boardwalk foundations emerge from the sand during low tides—silent monuments to the fifteen people who died here when 15.8-foot storm surges obliterated everything in their path.
The beach beneath your feet shifts constantly, occasionally revealing fragments of the vanished Fort Road neighborhood that rescue workers couldn’t locate without utility maps after the disaster. The devastation extended beyond Napatree Point, as lighthouse districts along Rhode Island’s coast suffered extensive damage and several keepers lost their lives during the catastrophic storm. Today, beachgrass and dunes blanket the peninsula, having taken approximately five years after the 1938 hurricane to naturally restore the landscape.
The 1938 Hurricane Destruction
On September 21, 1938, the most destructive storm in New England history struck without warning, and Napatree Point—a slender cape jutting into the Atlantic where nearly 40 families had built their summer cottages—simply ceased to exist.
The hurricane’s fury reshaped the landscape permanently:
- 39 cottages vanished as 17-foot waves broke over rooftops, sweeping 42 residents into the sea—15 never returned.
- The Moore family’s house floated intact across the Sound, walls catching wind like sails.
- 2 billion trees uprooted across New England while coastal erosion severed Sandy Point, creating a mile-long drifting island.
- $306 million in damages ($4.7 billion today) transformed thriving beach communities into marine ecology laboratories.
The morning had begun deceptively calm, with warm waters and pleasant swimming conditions, until a strange yellow glow appeared over the ocean at lunch—nature’s cryptic warning before the squall hit at 2:30 p.m. Downtown Providence, miles inland, found itself submerged under 14 feet of water as Narragansett Bay’s clockwise winds pushed massive tidal surges into the city streets.
Today, you’ll find only concrete staircases disappearing into sand—silent monuments to nature’s absolute power over human ambition.
Accessing the Beachfront Ruins
From the vintage Flying Horse Carousel on Fort Road, your journey to Napatree Point’s hurricane ruins begins with a deceptively simple beach walk that transforms into a leg-burning expedition across 1.5 miles of yielding sand.
You’ll quickly discover why this trek halves your normal hiking pace—each step sinks and shifts, demanding twice the effort as you progress along the peninsula jutting into Long Island Sound.
No vehicles allowed here, just your determination and the vast marine ecosystem surrounding you.
The Watch Hill Conservancy manages these 86 acres, balancing public access with preservation challenges that intensify after each storm.
Following Superstorm Sandy, they’ve restored 64 social trails with native plantings, creating a climate-resilient demonstration site.
Your reward? Fort Mansfield’s skeletal remains waiting at land’s end.
Sand-Buried Structures and Artifacts
The sandy surface beneath your feet conceals a violent chapter written in cement and timber. When the 1938 hurricane swept thirty-nine summer cottages into Little Narragansett Bay, it buried their remains beneath Napatree Point’s shifting dunes. You’ll discover these submerged relics emerging and vanishing with tidal patterns.
What you might encounter:
- Foundation fragments from 2- and 3-story homes that once lined Fort Road
- Concrete chunks from the 4-foot seawall that proved useless against storm waves
- Fort Mansfield remnants where fifteen residents sought shelter during the tempest
- Household artifacts from destroyed cottages, exposed intermittently by erosion
These buried landmarks drift as the peninsula itself migrates—the mile-long island formed during that catastrophic day continues rolling with tides eight decades later.
Ramtail Factory: Industrial Heritage in the Woods
Deep in Foster’s woods, where the Ponagansett River once powered the looms of prosperity, stone foundations now crumble beneath moss and memory. You’ll find these industrial relics less than a mile from Hopkins Mills Cemetery off Danielson Pike—park at the trailhead and follow the easy path through summer-green forest.
The Foster Woolen Manufacturing Company thrived here from 1813 until 1850, when workers fled after Peleg Walker’s mysterious death in 1822.
Some say he was hanged with the bell rope during a money dispute. The factory burned in 1873, leaving these haunted remains where machinery supposedly started by itself and bells tolled at midnight.
Watch for no-trespassing signs on this protected watershed land, but the site’s officially recognized as Rhode Island’s only census-listed haunted location since 1885.
Enchanted Forest Amusement Park: Where Fairytales Fade
While Ramtail’s ruins whisper of 19th-century industry, Rhode Island’s more recent ghosts wear brighter colors.
You’ll find Enchanted Forest in Hopkinton, where fairy tale disappearances tell a different story—one of abandoned childhood frozen in time since 2005.
Marcus Jones and Philip Herlle’s 1972 vision preserved 31 wooded acres around a natural pond, creating magic that lasted three decades. Now it’s private property where trespassers face prosecution, but the landscape tells its tale:
- Humpty Dumpty’s crumbling brick wall overlooks vanished attractions
- Overgrown mini-golf course buried in brush
- Empty bumper car pavilion echoing with phantom laughter
- Petting zoo foundations where llamas once grazed
Frequently Asked Questions
What Permits or Permissions Are Needed to Visit These Abandoned Sites?
You’ll find 60% of Rhode Island’s ghost towns sit on private land. Legal restrictions require owner permission for most sites, while preservation efforts protect historic locations. Public trails like Hanton City offer unrestricted freedom to explore without permits.
Are Guided Tours Available for Any of These Ghost Towns?
No guided tours exist—you’ll explore independently, discovering historical preservation efforts firsthand. You’re free to wander trails and beaches, capturing photography opportunities at crumbling foundations and fort ruins without schedules constraining your adventure through Rhode Island’s forgotten landscapes.
What Safety Equipment Should Visitors Bring When Exploring These Locations?
Bring boots, water, flashlights, and first-aid supplies for safe exploration. Historical preservation depends on visitor responsibilities—you’ll navigate crumbling bunkers, hidden cellar drops, and overgrown trails where proper gear protects both you and these fragile ruins.
Can Visitors Take Artifacts or Souvenirs From These Abandoned Sites?
No, you can’t take artifacts—legal souvenir restrictions protect these sites, with fines up to $1,000. Art theft risks prosecution under state and federal laws. Leave everything untouched; your memories and photos are the only souvenirs worth keeping.
What Are the Parking Options Near Each Ghost Town Location?
Parking information isn’t readily available for Rhode Island’s ghost towns, so you’ll need to research each site individually. Focus instead on historical preservation and photography etiquette—capturing memories without disturbing these fragile, freedom-filled spaces that time forgot.
References
- https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/57-ghost-town-hanton-city/id1554896421?i=1000563483124
- https://carte-urbex.com/en/blogs/infos/top-10-abandoned-places-in-rhode-island
- https://newenglandwithlove.com/ghost-towns-in-rhode-island/
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kpy7zlXYrAU
- https://www.rhodeislandredfoodtours.com/2024/10/28/haunted-sites-of-rhode-island/
- https://www.rimonthly.com/haunted-places-rhode-island/
- https://kids.kiddle.co/Hanton_City
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3bFcmv7IH40
- https://vitabrevis.americanancestors.org/2017/01/no-notorious-scandals
- https://www.chowdaheadz.com/blogs/news/new-england-myths-legends-the-ruins-of-hanton-city-rhode-island
