Recorded in an oral history of the south coast town, Helen Church recalled “South of Post road was a field that served as an airstrip in the early 1920’s for bi-wing aircraft. Every Sunday the providence journal newspaper would deliver the Sunday edition to the airstrip and the newspapers would be flown to the residents of block island.”
Naval air station
In 1942 the former airport was reused by the Navy, it boasted three runways and was a satellite for the nearby naval air station. At this time night flying was in it’s infancy and the pilots at the time, including a future American President were basically training to fly blind. Between 1943 and 1944, twenty one planes that took off from the three runways crashed. Just about a crash every two weeks.
Crash sites
In 1961 a local 14 year old boy set out to find the crash site of a Grumman f6f-3n hellcat night fighter. He found the sight and began to excavate the twelve foot long engine, and in doing so found the bones of the fighters pilot. This started a life long obsession for the boy, who scoured the woods and water of south county collecting wreckage, and some say the spirits, of the downed aircraft and the pilots.
Modern day
Today, most of the airstrips are gone, native grass has been reintroduced in place of most of the torn up runways, but the area is far from abandoned. People flock to the open space sports fields, basketball and tennis courts, the frisbee golf course, and huge playground, And that’s not all. On whats left of the runway is a bike track roughly a mile long, miles of hiking trail including a paved inner loop and well blazed pathways reaching into the adjacent wildlife refuge and along the large salt pond, there’s a dog park, a kayak launch, a freshwater pond for swimming, and because it has some of the lowest light pollution in Rhode Island, with a 360 degree view of the sky, there’s an observatory open to the public every Friday night, weather permitting of course.
What had I gotten into
Here’s the interesting thing is that when I decided to write about Ninigret I didn’t know about some of it’s dark history. I’ve been to this park probably close to a hundred times. I lived in Charlestown for over two years when I moved back to New England and this park has so much recreational things to chose from, that’s there’s almost no reason not to go.
Even during the pandemic, right in the beginning, remember when local governments shut down everything? The town placed barriers in front of the entrance to the park, but not at the adjacent wildlife refuge. And since the trails connect when you get far enough in, you could find yourself almost alone in the park. Of course I wasn’t the only person at the time who realized this loophole, so I just gave a knowing nod to any other people out keeping their distance too.
History
So going back to the oral history I mentioned at the beginning there is no written record as to when the original runway was built, the first record of there being an airport is in the Boston chamber of commerce’s 1931 “airports and landing fields of New England” It was described as a commercial airport nine miles east of westerly. It was described as a 64 acre rectangular field 3340 by 700 feet with a 60 by 40 foot hangar. Known as the Atlantic airport and the Charlestown airport it was closed in 1939.
Still feels like an airfield
I want to take a minute to note that when you are out on the airfield, or really any open section at the park and the wind is blowing, it becomes very obvious as to why this area made for a good airport. I’ve been out there in all seasons but it’s especially noticeable in the winter, the wind will pick up and just hang steady. It also feels like you can watch storm clouds coming in from New York. As I mentioned in the intro, Ninigret has a big, open sky.
The earliest aerial picture of the airport was taken in 1941 and showed an unpaved northeast/southwest runway and a single small building on the north end.
In 1942 the Navy constructed the Charlestown Naval auxiliary Air Station. This was a satellite airfield for the nearby Quonset point Naval air station. It was used to train night fighter squadrons and was home to the Navy Air Navigation Project, where they tested navigation aids and traffic control systems. As I said before between 1943 and 1944 twenty one planes that took off from the air station crashed in the woods and water of the surrounding area. In 1944 Ensign George H.W. Bush trained as a naval aviator before shipping out to the Pacific Theater during world war 2.
So I’m going to step off of the park and airfield for a second and take you down a personal rabbit hole, hang on please, I promise it will be worth it.
A little family history tie in
So I grew up on the Cape, and for most of my life I knew my grandfather was a chief engineer on tugboats and travelled all around the Atlantic for work. And being on the Cape and working on the water he had all kinds of nautical stuff all around the house. One picture on the living room wall was of a boat that sort of looked like it had a funny sort of hull and something like decoration draped down the side, and the number 230 on the tip of the bow.
As I got older I learned about my families more nautical heritage, I had been named after my great grandfather who passed just before I was born, so his first name was also Joe but he went by the moniker “Captain Ted”. This particular Joe Gelinas had made his way from his home in Quebec and settled on New England’s southern coast and eventually Cape Cod, where from the early 1950’s to 1968 he ran the Nantucket express line ferries to Nantucket and Marthas Vineyard. Affectionately known as the Tek fleet, the three ferries of Captain Ted carried passengers on luxury cruises to and from the islands. The Catherine-Tek was a former luxury yacht, The Kateri-Tek had served in a former life as a Coast guard cutter, both named for the Catholic saint Kateri, or Catherine Tekakwitha.
The third ship, the ss Marthas vineyard, was built at Bath Iron works in Maine for the New England steamship company and was launched on July 23rd, 1923 and began service to Nantucket on august third under the name the Islander. In 1928 the ship was renamed Marthas Vineyard and continued to sail until 1956. In 1959 the Marthas Vineyard was purchased by the Rhode Island Steamship lines in conjunction with the Nantucket express line. The old steam engines were replaced with a diesel/electric engine and the ship sailed on the Nantucket express line until 1968.
Purchased by the Bridgeport and port Jefferson steamboat company and ferried passengers from Connecticut to New York until 1986. A preservation group called “The friends of Nobska” tried to purchase the ship with plans to restore it to it’s steamship roots and create a floating museum. Since the Nobska itself wasn’t for sale at the time it’s sister ship the Marthas vineyard was the next best thing. The deal ultimately did not work out and she was bought by the Massachusetts bay lines, their plans had been to convert the old steamship into a dinner cruise ship. The Marthas vineyard was docked in the Charlestown Boston, naval dock 11 until 1990, when late one night the boats guard rail snagged the pier as the tide went out. Beginning to list she started take on water and sank at the dock. She was scrapped in place.
Ferry man
Out of the three of my great grandfathers ferries, the Marthas vineyard is the only one I have verified was in fact demolished, the fate of the Kateri-Tek and the Catherine-Tek are hitherto unknown. Sure they were probably scrapped, dragged up out of the water and sold for their weight in rusty iron, but who knows, maybe someone will know something and maybe a part of one of them, or one of the ships is waiting to be found again. What would I do if I found one of these ships? I don’t have a place to keep and restore a hundred plus foot retired ferry. But it’s fun to speculate. My Grandfather passed in 2013 and none of my aunts can recall what happened to any of the ships.
Trip down memory lane
Anyway, in 2022 I took my son to Minnesota to visit with family, my mother and her husband live out there, along with some other family. And on one night Ron and I start talking about my grandfather and Ron starts pulling out all these old books and picture albums, along with an old service manual for a diesel electric engine setup. He started telling me a tale my grandfather had told him about the converted steamship. The engine and drive system came from a scrapped Naval Submarine. Captain Ted had the drive system ready to go for the Marthas vineyard, but, like any good mechanic, you need the service manual to show you what needs to go where and how to maintain the equipment. So there was some pushback while trying to acquire the service documents from the Navy, apparently they believed that a civilian shouldn’t be given the schematics for a submarine, as it posed a risk, or he didn’t have the proper clearance, or something along those lines. Captain Teds response was “well, I already have the engine.” Eventually the Navy relented and gave him the manuals for the ship.
In one of the picture albums was the same photo that hung on my grandfathers was, the photo was from Kittery Maine, taken august 25th, 1941. It was the day the USS Finback was launched. It’s a weird feeling being able to punch in a few keywords online today and find a picture that hung on my grandfathers living room wall, silently and without fanfare for decades. But lets go on.
The USS Finback
The USS Finback reached Pearl Harbor on May 29th 1942 from New London and two days later was ordered out to patrol during the battle of Midway. On July 5th she made first enemy contact when they attacked two destroyers. For twenty four hours the sub was attacked with depth charges from the Japanese ships. On the verge of surrendering for lack of oxygen the attack finally ceased. On the second patrol the USS Finback managed to sink three ships in two engagements.
She sank a ship on each of her third and fourth patrols, sank two on the fifth patrol, three on her sixth. On her seventh patrol and on new years day of 1944 she sank the 10044 ton tanker Isshin Maru in a surface attack. On the eighth and ninth patrols she served as a lifeguard for carrier air strikes in the Carolie Islands and the Marianas operation.
Saving Lives
On her tenth patrol she served again in lifeguard duty in the Bonin’s. Guided by friendly aircraft she rescued a total of five naval aviators, one of them a tall lanky pilot who would later become the 41st president of the united states, George H. W. Bush. I told you this rabbit hole was going to come all the way around.
After two more Patrols in the Pacific the Finback was docked at Pearl Harbor at the close of the war, and sailed for New London on august 29th 1945. There the ship served in training student mariners and in 1948 sailed to the Caribbean to take part in second fleet exercises. The USS finback was decommissioned and placed on reserve on April 21st 1950. She was stricken on September 1st 1958 and sold for scrap on July 15th, 1959, just in time to find her heart transplanted into the ss Marthas Vineyard for the Nantucket Express line.
Wow, that felt good, and now that all those different stories have been weaved so intricately together, lets get back to the park.
Back to Ninigret Park
The Charlestown Naval aux air station also saw use as a landing field during the Korean war, and was eventually decommissioned in 1974. During that time a total of sixty two pilots died while on training maneuvers. In 1958 and 1959 the runways were used as dragstrips. But honestly, during that time what flat, straight road wasn’t being used as a dragstrip.
The idea of building Rhode Islands first nuclear plant was floated for a bit, but true to the Charlestown residents aberration for development the idea was struck down and the area was incorporated into the nearby wildlife management area. In the 80’s the hangars were demolished and in the late 90’s the longer sections of the runways were torn up and native grasses and plants took their place.
Ninigret park is now an open space, free use park, the northern section of runway is now a bike track, well marked hiking trails run through the woods, down the old runways and along the Ninigret salt pond. There’s a dog park, a kayak launch, a freshwater pond, an updated playground, soccer fields, tennis and basketball courts, and the Frosty drew observatory. Open every Friday, weather permitting from about 7-10 pm, with a suggested donation of 5 dollars you can see the most unobstructed views of the milky way in Rhode Island.
Ghosts of Charlietown
And going back to the intro, a Charlestown native by the name of Larry Webster found the wreckage of a fighter plane when he was 14. This sparked a life long obsession with wrecked aircraft. Larry spent decades scouring south county for crash sites and collected everything he could at his families property.
Larry didn’t just find plane wreckage either. Many times in these horrific crashes other military personnel would only pick up what they could find of the pilot that was easy to grab. So when Larry went to digging up plane parts he would sometimes come across bones and other remains along with the debris.
In 1969 Larry found the crash site of a Gruman f6f- hellcat in the cedar swamp behind town hall that had been flown by naval lutenent Charles Stimson. Larry found an airspeed indicator that was broken from the impact reading 330 knots when it hit the bog. The cold spring water must have helped stave off decomposition because Larry said about digging up the crash site. “I’m down there yanking on this and that,” and “This whole spinal column comes up, flopping around.”
Around 2008 Larry got married finally in his fifties, and his wife patsy started to notice strange things on the farm around where all the plane wreckage Larry had collected was stored. Orbs, shadow figures, and even puckwudgies have been seen by Patsy, and a group of paranormal investigators called in on several occasions.
Now that I know about all the crashes, and the ghosts that haunt the woods and swamps of Charlestown, I’m not sure that I’ll be able to see the park the same way. I mean, I’ll still enjoy it, even more so now, especially having that six degrees of Kevin Bacon with the park and my families history.
I hope you’ve enjoyed reading this blog as much as I enjoyed writing and researching it. Don’t forget to leave a five star review, follow tales trails and taverns on all the social media platforms, and until next time, get out in the forests, and find your spirits.
