Fort Ninigret

Fort Ninigret in Charlestown, Rhode Island, is a fort and trading post site where Native and colonial histories intersect. People lived on Fort Neck long before Europeans arrived, and around 1620 Niantic people allied with the Narragansetts settled there, farming, making wampum, and trading with Dutch and English colonists. By the 1630s, Ninigret led the Niantics. Most historians believe Europeans built the fort before 1637. After King Philip’s War, the area became a refuge as colonial control expanded, and Native people continued living there into the 18th century. Later reshaped as a monument, the site remains an archaeological record of centuries of Native, colonial, and state history.

Charlestown, Rhode Island · United States