Napatree point Watch Hill - Bunker

[sneaker]

Has anyone been out to the bunker in watch hill, RI on napatree point?

Pretty cool place. Completly unmanaged. Napatree used to be a military installation back in the early days of the US. Most people forgot about it or assume its not there anymore. Several Urban explorer sites list it as nolonger existing but it is definetly still there.

Nealry a hundred years ago the point had a road that lead out to the end. The barracks were mostly converted into houses over time and then the hurricane of 1938 cleared off the whole point. The wooden buildings were all washed into the watch hill bay and now all that is left is a 2 mile beach and a half buried fort /bunker at the end. The fort/bunker isn't obvious when you reach the point. There are just some large rocks around, but if you wander into the overgrown area it soon becomes clear that there is a fort there. Ther are a couple of gun placements and you can venture down into a lower level in a few places. Winter is the best time to explore as in the summer the plants hide alot of the structure.
Evertime I visit I seem to find a new section uncovered by time.

I'm trying to get some diving gear together for my next adventure out there. After a little research at the Westerly Library I got the original layout of the place and it appears a large portion of the site is now under water around the point.

The only military reference I could find about it is a project schedule for future projects listing the site as potential missing ordinance. However the site is so old I doubt the governement will ever inspect it. About ten years ago a small group uncovered a buried antique artiliery piece and some other artifacs after a month of searching a small section of the point with high end metal detectors.

Its a long walk out to the point but a good day trip to the beach.

[curr]

westerly library!!!........thats where i am now, what do ya know, i think we`re neighbors

[MovingUnit]

You know, I've lived in Westerly my whole life and always wanted to go there.  You just gave me a good idea for next weekend.  

[MovingUnit]

I finally took a trip out there for the first time tonight; it's only about fifteen minutes from my house.

After the long hike out I spotted the bunker, but was not prepared to go skulking through the bushes to get to it after running into a family of skunks which scared the s#!t out of me.  Perhaps on another trip.

I did take some nice pictures of the surrounding area though:
http://photos.yahoo.com/travman342 - just click the Napatree Point link.

Enjoy.

[Gdrock33]

Hey,
Just came across this site, and I figured I'd post a link to more info on Napatree Point (Fort Mansfield).

Fort Mansfield

[truckie]

I visited there about 15 years ago and it was pretty overgrown then.  I went back ther two years ago and did some walking thru the place.
Some advise.....walk the beach to get there its quicker, if you walk all the way around it will talk you along time.

As a kid my grandparents had a boat and we used to anchor off sandy point and my grandfather was the the one who told me about the fort. At the Haul of Fame in Canterbury CT they have one of the trucks that hauled the guns out there.

[MovingUnit]

I finally have some free time today, so I'm going to head back out to Fort Mansfield, and I'm a little more prepared this time.

I'll post some pics later.

[metalwitch]

Is this place any where near the flying horse carousel??

[MovingUnit]

Yeah, it's at the end of the stretch of beach that's right behind the carousel.

Skully, if you guys ever take a trip back there (I know your last attempt was unsuccessful lol), let me know - I can show you an easy way to it from the beach that I found without having to go through all the overgrowth which surrounds it.  Exploring the tunnels by myself was awesome.





I posted the rest of the pics up, as usual, at http://photos.yahoo.com/travman342 - just click on Fort Mansfield.

[Dakiel]

From your photos i see Kaos has been there as well.......................

[Photohunter]

K-OS!!!!!!!!!

[skully]

Nice pics spacemonkey.  Can you talk more about the tunnels? How many?  Underground?  Water in them?

[MovingUnit]

The tunnels aren't really that extensive.  They're more like underground chambers which snake around underneath the main battery, which is probably 300-350 ft long by 50-60 ft wide.  Being at or slightly below sea level, they're flooded just a little (about 3-4 inches of water), but someone has strategically placed rocks all around for someone who wouldn't want to get their feet wet.

Despite being hung over like a banshee on Wednesday, I made a return trip just cuz it was such a nice day and found another small battery located in the bushes about 300 ft away.  Pretty cool; gun placements and a few underground rooms.

[alexi]

Spacemonkey, How big around is that tunnel in photo number 14?
Thanks much :)  

[MovingUnit]

That tunnel's only about fifteen feet long and really really narrow (about 2-3ft wide).

[skully]

Cool.  Thanks for the info.  

[MovingUnit]

No problem on the info.

In honor of Halloween, here's me looking like a zombie emerging from one of the tunnels today.  Ha!



Happy Costume Day!

[skully]

Nice!

[Megan]

More Fort Mansfield Pics!

[Megster]

For spacemonkey684:

Where is the tunnel in photo 14?  I've been there lots of times and I've never seen it before...

Your photos are beautiful, by the way.


(I had to clarify on whose pics because I posted a link to mine just above this post)

[MovingUnit]

That tunnel is kind of hard to find.  It's located in the base of a wall in one of the rooms.  I almost went crawling into it, but I was by myself and figured that if I'd gotten stuck, I'd have been screwed.   B)

Interesting little site you've got there btw.

[MovingUnit]

I also see you talk of being interested in old graffiti on your site there.  Take a look at this:



Yup, that says 1848.

I took a trip this past February to San Antonio to visit my family, and fit in a little exploring in my time there.  I found that carved into the side of an abandoned Mexican mission about ten miles outside of the city.  There were other initials carved all over, mostly dating back to the mid-to-late 1800's.  Pretty cool, eh?

[Megster]

Very cool!

I'm not sure why I find old graffiti intriquing, all I know is that dates fascinate me. :)

You've got a fantastic find!  I'm jealous lol.  

In the Metropolitan Musuem of Art you can find graffiti from the early 1800's on the small Egyptian temple they have inside the building--I thought it was kind of cool, but to find something like that what you found, left in its original context is definitely better than seeing it on a cut up rock in a re-built temple.

Thanks for the compliment!

[CarbonCavi]

i might go up there tommorow afternoon and snap some pics for everyone. also of the watch hill mansion.

[Megster]

How ironic, I was just talking to my boss about this place today.  Now he wants to go lol.

[CarbonCavi]

went last night, WHAT A WALK! im still feeling it almost 12 hours later, didnt think we were going to find it, although it was a nice night out. Got all the way to the end, ended up being a bunch of rocks, we saw a steep path up the rocks, we went up and boom there it is! pretty cool. lotta graffiti, but pretty nice. Probably go up again in the daytime to get a better look. although we could see clearly last night.

[Megster]

Hahaha. In the summer once I didn't feel like paying $20 for parking so we parked like two miles away from the beach.  I didn't mind the walk, but my friends did...

[urbanexplorer]

$20.00 for parking holy schnikes you should have told them you only wanted 1 parking spot not the whole dam lot lol going today  will upload the pics tonight

[urbanexplorer]

i went out to napatree point ft mansfield today i took my 6 year old daughter with me and we had a blast it was a great sunny day and we spent 3 solid hours out there i got some nice photos they are in my member gallery we couldn't go down below because it was all flooded i wasn't about to take my daughter down there but we still had a great time and she was amazed to be standing in her 1st old fort" we are exploring daddy lets go" is what she said to me when we climbed down from the top of the fort to the level below it i will definitely be going back here again to go in the tunnels weather they are flooded of not and ill try to map them when i do for those of you how would be interested check out my pics in my gallery

[Megster]

That's awesome...I'll probably be heading there in a couple weeks or next weekend with my new boyfriend. He's never been there and it's always so awesome bringing people who've never gone before   Glad your daughter liked it!  (I first went there when I was about 10 with my grandparents.)