Situated on a low bluff overlooking Charlestown Pond and Block Island Sound, Fort Ninigret encompasses about 0.75 acres featuring low square earthwork embankments and bastions. At Fort Ninigret, tribal members lived in wigwams into the 18th century. Nearby stood the European-style house of the sachems, who sold off tribal property to the Colonists to pay their debts. By the 19th century, Fort Neck was the last piece of land held in common by the Narragansett tribe which had access to salt water. Click here to hear Quonochontaug Historical Society presents authors Dr. David Silverman and Julie Fisher discuss their book “Ninigret, Sachem of the Niantics and Narragansetts.” Click here for a 12-minute fly-over drone video by Ocean State Drone. Click here for a short clip of Fort Ninigret, a historic site overlooking Ninigret Pond in Charlestown, Rhode Island RI near South Kingstown and Matunuck.

The Dutch and Native Americans ran a trading post on the side in the early 1600s. In 1921−22, a European sword and cannon were found at an Indian cemetery near the site, along with many other goods which demonstrate that this was a European fort. The artifacts are now in the possession of the Rhode Island Historical Society.

Believed by many historians to be a 17th-century Dutch trading post or contact site active between 1620 and 1680, supported by artifacts like old cannons and pottery found over the centuries.

In 1883, the state abolished relations with the tribe, instead conferring upon its members the rights and duties of US citizenship. As part of this process, the state transformed the remains of Fort Ninigret into a monument to the 250 years of positive relations between the Narragansett Indians (and their modern descendants) with their non-Indian neighbors. The state reshaped the earthen banks of the fort, under the direction of the commissioners of the Narragansett Indian Tribe, planted evergreens, and erected an iron fence along the outlines of the old fort. A boulder was moved from the nearby hills and inscribed with these words:

Fort Ninigret
Memorial of the Narragansett and Niantic Indians
Unwavering Friends and Allies of Our Fathers
Erected by the State of Rhode Island
Dwight R. Adams, William P. Sheffield, Jr., George Carmichael, Jr.: Comrs
1883