Queen's Fort

United States historic place


Queen's Fort
U.S. National Register of Historic Places


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Location	Exeter, Rhode Island
NRHP reference No.	80000024
Added to NRHP	November 26, 1980

Queen's Fort is a historic site in Exeter, Rhode Island. Little more than a round, rocky hillock, the site has long been described as the site of a Native American fortification constructed in 1676 by Queen Quaiapen and members of the Narragansett Indian Tribe who survived the Great Swamp Massacre.

The fort's layout included an eastern bastion 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 in 1980.

References

^ "National Register Information System – Queen's Fort (#80000024)". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. January 23, 2007. Retrieved 27 July 2021.
"Preliminary Survey Report, Town of Exeter" (PDF). Rhode Island Preservation. Retrieved 2014-09-14.
"Six Mysterious Stone Structures of New England". New England Historical Society. 15 April 2017. Retrieved 28 July 2021.
Malone, Patrick M. (March 1973). "Changing Military Technology Among the Indians of Southern New England, 1600-1677". American Quarterly. 25 (1): 48–63. doi:10.2307/2711556. JSTOR 2711556.

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v t e Forts in Rhode Island
20th century forts	Adams Burnside Church Getty Greble Greene Kearny Mansfield Oak's Inn Varnum Wetherill
Other forts	Adams Anne Barton Conanicut Battery Dumpling Greene Hamilton Ninigret Queen's Fort Wolcott

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