Neutaconkanut Hill

Neutaconkanut Hill  was mentioned as a boundary in the land transfer from the Narragansetts to Roger Williams.  In the 1800s, the hill was the site of the King farm, and an old cemetery and building foundations remain. Although today the hill is topped with TV antennas and surrounded by urban Providence and Johnston, it retains many traces of its past.  The top of the hill is a woodland decorated with stone rows, manitous, bent trees and propped boulders.  If not for the roar of traffic from Plainfield Street, one would think it was a remote forest.

Here is a stone row with a young bent tree.  The stone rows pass over an outcrop, with these propped rocks.

A sign nearby reads "monument", but there is no further explanation.  Probably the most impressive sight is the outcrop resembling huge natural manitous. It faces east and has an unobstructed view of Providence.

Unfortunately, trees have fallen across the front of this outcrop.  The lower picture  from April 2010 gives an impression of the size of these natural structures.  Here is the outcrop from further away, photographed in May 2010.  A stone row, visible to the right, heads north following the contour of the hill.

Here is the view from the top and behind the manitous.

In front of the outcrop is a  terrace with this view.

I have seen outcrops forming natural manitous at other locations in northern RI, and these often have stone rows and other structures nearby.  Perhaps the Indians saw these sites as the earth's expression of spirit or energy.  In any case, this was a wonderful walk on a beautiful afternoon.