King’s Rock, spanning 200 ft. along today’s Warren-Swansea border, was a significant place along the route and an important gathering site under Wamsutta, Metacom’s older brother. Tribes from across New England gathered there at Sachem’s Knoll to celebrate victories in tribal wars and discuss peace treaties, and a groove in the rock is identified as a place where Native women ground corn for feasts. When King Philip’s War broke out nearby in Swansea in June 1675, English militia passed one of their first points there while traveling from the Myles Garrison on the Palmer River to Mt. Hope in search of King Philip’s warriors. Large rocks in the area held special significance to Indigenous people, and the balanced rock across Market Street from King’s Rock may have served as a calendar rock to mark celestial events and the position of the stars. About half a mile east, Margaret’s Rock is associated with Roger Williams, who after his expulsion from Salem, MA, in the winter of 1636 was thought to have been nursed back to health there by Massasoit Ousamequin and members of his tribe before going on to Omega Pond in East Providence and eventually the east bank of the Moshassuck River, where he founded Providence. The wider Sowams Heritage Area, meaning “Southern Area,” was the home of the Pokanokets, later renamed Wampanoags by colonial rulers, and their leader Massasoit Osamequin first met the Pilgrims in 1621 and ensured their survival.
