Quonochontaug, Rhode Island

Quonochontaug is composed of three small beach communities in Charlestown, Rhode Island, United States.

Overview

Located between two salt ponds, Ninigret Pond and Quonochontaug Pond, and their respective barrier beaches, the communities of West Beach, Central Beach, and East Beach house several hundred mostly summer residents. Today, many houses are available as summer rentals. Quonochontaug was a busy and fashionable resort of small hotels and boarding houses in the 19th Century, continuing up until the Great Hurricane of 1938. Blue Shutters Beach is town-owned, and is located at the end of East Beach Road in Quonochontaug. To the east of Blue Shutters an unpaved road leads to the entrance of the Ninigret National Wildlife Refuge. The areas was listed as a census-designated place in the 2010 census.^[1]

History

Quonochontaug was the site of an iron mining operation financed by Thomas A. Edison in the 1880s. Iron particles existed in the form of black sand on the beach and they could be separated out with magnets and melted to produce iron. The venture failed after cheaper iron was later discovered.^{[2] [3]}

Historic Places

• Babcock House

In popular culture

• In the X-Files there are several references to Quonochontaug. Mulder spent some of his childhood's vacations in a house that his parents owned there. In season 3 finale (Talitha Cumi), Mulder gets a call from AD Skinner, who tells him that his mother has been admitted to a hospital in Quonochontaug. In a season four episode called Demons, Mulder visits Quonochontaug in an attempt to find answers to his past.

References

External links

• Quonochontaug East Beach Association

Coordinates: 41°20′08″N 71°42′30″W / 41.33556°N 71.70833°W / 41.33556; -71.70833