Queen's Cairns

Newly-opened conservation lands in Southern Rhode Island continue to yield treasures. These cairns were found in Exeter, RI on a knoll of conifers that sits to the northwest of what was once a large swamp. Today, beavers have done their work to turn the swamp into a large pond full of dead and dying trees.

This site is a little over 3-1/2 miles from Queen's Fort, made famous by the book Manitou from authors James Mavor and Byron Dix. The waters here feed the Queen's River, the most pristine in all of Rhode Island, and this site is also home to one of the largest known concentrations of fresh-water mussels in the state.

Only a small handful of people have ever seen these rock piles. I guess that has all changed now. I have named them the Queen's Cairns. It seemed a fitting descriptive title. So I introduce to the world -- The Queen's Cairns.

There are colonial and modern features not far from these cairns. There are two cellar-holes, a small cemetery, and huge slash piles from a sawmill that operated here for 40 years. I don't think that necessarily means anything, but I thought it pertinent to disclose nonetheless. Sites in Rhode Island like Parker Woodland, for example, also feature colonial cellar holes and sawmill ruins.