The Allure and Dangers of Rhode Island’s Dutch Island
Sunday, March 07, 2021
It is one of Rhode Island’s most fascinating — and inaccessible — locations, steeped in Native American and military history, and now crumbling ruins.
Dutch Island, located just off the west coast of Jamestown, was known originally by its Native American name “Quotenis” and was a trading post of the Dutch West India Company dating back to 1636, and purchased by English colonists in 1654.
GET THE LATEST BREAKING NEWS HERE -- SIGN UP FOR GOLOCAL FREE DAILY EBLASTNow owned by the Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management, it is “closed to hunting and all other access.”
In 1863, it was sold to the United States government, and featured prominently in the American Civil War through World War II, when it was used as a German prisoner-of-war camp before being discontinued from service in 1947.
One of Rhode Island’s top tourism executives is calling for it to be opened to the public “in an environmentally responsible manner."
RI DEM however says it poses a public health risk.
Call to Open for Tourism
“I live in Jamestown and see [Dutch Island] every day,” said Evan Smith, CEO of Discover Newport. “I know there’s been great debate about what to do. There are some dangerous Navy relics there among other things — I do know there have been multiple attempts to do something more accessible with that fabulous resource.”
“As a resident of Jamestown, an environmental explorer, and someone who always wears the tourism hat, I support opening it up for all three of those reasons,” said Smith. “And I support the same for Gould Island, which was a seaplane port. The north end was the torpedo testing. They’re magnificent resources.” Gould Island is located off the east coast of Jamestown.
Drone videographer Donn Collings captured haunting footage of the island back in 2015, and shared his footage with GoLocalProv.
“I decided to shoot [Dutch Island] because as a kid, I visited Jamestown all the time and was always intrigued by the island just a stone's throw away,” said Collings.
And Smith argues the island shouldn’t be “left for the birds.”
“I am not in that camp. I’m not saying build a resort, but I’d like to see maybe a basic environmental center and some camping permits,” said Smith.
“Imagine if Gould and Dutch had nice lean-to campsites — everything environmentally sound — to go out enjoy nature and learn. Someone has to pay for the remediation, of course. There were some big cisterns that if you fell into, no one would find you,” said Smith.
“I’ve kayaked out to Dutch Island and around the shoreline. I know the Boy Scouts sometimes get permits to camp there, so there is some limited access, but not at a level that could easily be accessed in an environmentally responsible manner," said Smith. "You could do some really cool stuff and upgrade it up from a wild place to one people could enjoy.”
DEM, however, says the land -- located between Saunderstown and Jamestown -- poses a public health risk.
"Dutch Island is closed to the public due to safety concerns. Once a military site, Dutch Island has entrapment hazards in interior spaces, falling hazards presented by weakened structures, open cisterns, and other safety hazards," said DEM spokesperson Mike Healey.
"Also, Dutch Island is infested with ticks. Dutch Island also supports important habitat, and DEM is working to conserve a colony of the Northern Long-Eared Bat (Myotis septentrionalis), threatened under the Endangered Species Act, that make their home on the island," he added. "Ultimately, it would take substantial resources to prepare this site to be open to the public."
Despite the restrictions, people continue to visit -- and document -- their visits to Dutch Island.
History of Island
Peter Randall writes about the history of the island extensively in “History of the Dutch Island Island LightHouse and The Society."
Little “Dutch” Island, comprising 81 acres, is located in the West Passage of Narragansett Bay between Jamestown and Saunderstown, RI. Originally it was called “Quetenis” by the Narragansett Indians who sold it to the Dutch West Indian Company about 1636. The Dutch from New Amsterdam (later New York) used the island as a safe place to trade their goods to the Indians for meat, fish and furs. Later the English settlers of Rhode Island used the island to graze sheep.
For many years it was fortified to protect the West Passage from sea invasion. It is not known whether this included the Revolutionary war era when the Conanicut Battery was activated further south on the western shore of Conanicut (Jamestown) Island. Dutch Island was later heavily fortified with massive concrete gun emplacements. These were started with large granite stone structures near the southern end of the island during the Civil War. The greatest building was during the Spanish American war and World War I. At one time there was a battery of 25-ton cannon which used a 50-pound charge of black powder to fire a 300-pound cannonball as far as 3 miles.
There were similar fortifications at Fort Getty on Conanicut near the present Recreational Vehicle Camp and at Fort Kearny near South Ferry on the west shore. The fort on Dutch Island was called Fort Greble after Lt. Jon T. Greble who was one of the first officers killed in the Civil War. It included 3 sizeable brick homes for officers and many other frame buildings for families, a hospital, supplies, stables and a bakery, etc. Photographs taken at that time showed almost no trees
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