Town Pond

Town Pond (also known as "the Salt Pond") is, reportedly, where the first colonial settlers of Portsmouth landed in 1638. It remained a tidal (salt) pond until about 1949.  It was filled with dredged material from the Fall River navigation improvement project in 1949-50.  It remained a mudflat in the 1950s.  In the 1960s, electrical transmission lines were installed across the site.  In the 1970, phragmites (a brush growth) dominted the area. In the 1990s, the Narragansett Bay Estuaries Program, with the help of Senator John Chaffee got the Congress to authorize a "Narragansett Bay Ecosystem Restoration Study" that included restoration of the pond.  Restoration begain in 2005 and was completed in 2008.  Now a  walking trail provides access along the the pond to the shore looking (maybe) a bit like it did to those 1638 settlers.   Take RI 138 (East Main Rd.) and take a left at Boyd's Ln. Just after going under the RI-24 overpass, take a right onto Anthony Rd. and the parking area is on the left.  


 

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