What lies beneath Barrington's Sowams Woods? Why this nature preserve is a sacred spot.
BARRINGTON – The footpaths through Sowams Woods run under red maple, white oak and black cherry trees and trace a low ridgeline just above Echo Lake. The well-marked, mostly flat network of trails offers an easy, quiet, colorful walk, especially in the fall when the leaves turn red, yellow and gold.
When I hiked there recently though, I also was interested in what is buried deep under the preserve.
For thousands of years, the Pokanoket lived, fished, farmed and hunted in Sowams, a small part of their extensive ancestral lands, which covered the East Bay and some of Seekonk, Swansea and Rehoboth, Massachusetts. In the Pokanoket language, the word “Sowams” refers to the southern section of their homeland.
More recently, archeologists uncovered the remains of their civilization, including areas considered sacred to the Pokanoket. Their findings give us a better understanding of the Pokanoket’s culture, their history and their respect for the land.
All of that gave me plenty to ponder early one morning while walking alone through the 12.3-acre Sowams Woods preserve owned and managed by the Barrington Land Conservation Trust. The private nonprofit organization acquired Sowams Woods in 2006 after a four-year, $2 million campaign that was supported by local, state and federal funding and several philanthropists.
I set out from a dirt turnout at the junction of North Lake Drive and South Lake Drive. To get a glimpse of nearby Echo Lake, I took a side path that led to the edge of the 23.5-acre body of water that locals say is a good fishing spot. I spotted a stream to the right that feeds the lake, which runs through a reed-filled lowland. Across the water, there were a few houses to the right of the wooded preserve where I was headed.
The path ended at a swampy, heavily vegetated area, so I returned to where I'd started. I walked south by a metal gate with a “Closed to Vehicular Traffic” sign and followed the cracked, hot top road for about half a mile, with the lake on my right.
Nature sounds, and the 'thwack' of golf balls
As I walked, I heard the “thwack” of a driver striking a golf ball on the adjacent Rhode Island Country Club. I passed two dog walkers and a trail runner.
The road, lined in places with low boards that serve as curbs, curved to the right and passed a metal grate above a fish ladder for herring. The rushing water drained from the pond and formed a stream that flowed into the golf course. I stopped and looked through the tall grasses and small trees to observe a raft of ducks swimming across Echo Lake.
Continuing on the road, I passed a trail on the right marked with a “No Bikes” sign and then entered the woods at the next trailhead, which included a sign for the preserve and a wooden bike rack. The wide, red-blazed Jenckes Trail, named for a family that once farmed there, winds through a mixed forest, including sassafras, paper birch, black cherry and mockernut hickory trees before passing through a thicket of greenbriar that has been cut far back off the trail.
Just ahead, I went left at a junction and walked on a log-lined path and up a wooden, 10-step stairway. It was a nice feature.
The path bends south and then west to a short side-loop trail that leads to the end of the property and offers views of golfers putting on a green. Below the trail is a vernal pool, a shallow depression that can dry up in the summer but holds water in the spring and becomes a breeding ground for wood frogs, salamanders and fairy shrimp.
What are vernal pools and why are they important to the ecosystem?
Frogs and salamanders need at least 1,000 feet around a vernal pool for shelter and food. In many places in Rhode Island, nearby development and runoff have damaged the habitat and endangered the survival of the tiny critters.
Back on the blue-blazed trail, I walked through a grove of small, bright-green pine trees and could hear cars on Washington Road, which parallels the trail. I passed another trailhead with a kiosk built by Boy Scouts that included paper maps and a tribute to Larry Rumpler, the land trust’s volunteer of the year in 2020-21. Several of his photographs of Sowams Woods are displayed there.
Walking RI: Middletown's Hanging Rock offers great ocean views, with prime bird-watching along the way
Continuing on the Walnut Grove Trail, named for the walnut trees that flourished there a century ago, I walked under red maples, Northern red oaks and towering white pines, which had dropped some needles to create a soft path. Red pines once dominated the area but were devastated by red pine scale caused by an insect infestation.
The path turned east on a green-blazed trail. I took the orange-blazed Eagle Trail on the left and found a grove of holly trees with bright green leaves mixed with oaks. The path ended at Washington Road, so I retraced my steps to the green trail and headed east to the Jenckes Trail.
I spotted two squirrels chasing each other across the path.
I walked northeast along a path that ended at a wooden fence and the backyards of several houses. I turned and picked up the rooted, purple-blazed Ridge Trail that follows the bank of Echo Lake. The water is visible through openings in the trees, and in different seasons, hikers report seeing geese and ospreys diving for fish. Birders have identified more than 100 species.
Colonial-era relics found beneath Sowams Woods
At a quiet, shaded spot above the lake, I stopped, sat on a log, drank some water, watched a bluebird on a branch in the brush and thought about the history of where I walked.
The Pokanoket were the headship tribe of the seven tribes of the Wampanoag Nation. They lived here for thousands of years before the land was taken over by Colonial farmers and property owners, including the Brown family, who grazed cattle nearby, and Nicholas Cooke, the first governor of the state of Rhode Island. Later, the Jenckes family sold the land to the Rhode Island Country Club.
The inhabitants left a rich history.
More: Looking to get in the fall spirit? These 14 things to do in RI will put you in the mood
Archaeologists in the 1920s identified several burial sites under what is now part of the golf course. Later, in the 1990s, a group of amateur archeologists found more artifacts in the Sowams Woods area, prompting a more extensive exploration.
In the first layer of undersoil, they found relics from the Colonial period and the first contacts the settlers made with the Indigenous people, including broken clay pipes, glass, knives and buttons. Deeper in the soil, arrowheads and stone tools, some dating back about 5,000 years, were found.
What happened to the sacred Pokanoket hearths found in the woods?
But perhaps the most significant discovery was the uncovering of crescent-shaped stone hearths that dated back centuries.
The hearths were found in an area that the Pokanoket had set aside as a peaceful place for women and childbirth.
Historians, conservationists and preservationists took note of the find. Because of the ceremonial and sacred nature of the hearths, the site was covered and designated as a protected site to remain perpetually undisturbed.
Representatives of the Pokonoket and other groups assisted in the preservation effort of the land that remains protected by the land trust and others.
After a long pause, I returned to the trail, headed south and passed the Peeper Trail that led downhill to another vernal pool visible through the trees. I followed the path along the ridge, with the lake on my left, back to the trailhead. I had some more time, so I walked back into the woods and took several of the connector trails before returning to where I'd started.
In all, I walked about 2.5 miles for an hour and a half on seven separate, color-coded paths. In honor of Sowams Woods and Pokanoket history, each trail is blazed with the colors of the rainbow shield of the Pokanoket Nation.
The Pokanoket people valued their connection to the land, respected the creations of the earth and have long been considered environmental stewards. A walk in Sowams Woods reminds us of the importance of that history and culture.
John Kostrzewa’s column runs every other Sunday in the Rhode Islander section of The Providence Sunday Journal. He welcomes email at johnekostrzewa@gmail.com.
If you go…
Access: From Washington Road, take North Lake Drive to the junction with South Lake Drive and a dirt turnout on the right.
Parking: Available for several cars.
Dogs: Allowed but must be leashed.
Distance: 2.5 miles
Difficulty: Easy on flat, well-marked trails.
GPS Coordinates: 41.73811, 71.33220
Lectures and signings for 'Walking Rhode Island' book
John Kostrzewa’s new book, “Walking Rhode Island: 40 Hikes for Nature and History Lovers with Pictures, GPS Coordinates and Trail Maps,” is available at local booksellers and at Amazon.com. He’ll sell and sign books after these presentations and slideshows about his hikes:
Wednesday, Oct. 18: Narragansett Library, 6 p.m.
Saturday, Oct. 21: Journal Hike, Maxwell Mays Wildlife Refuge, Coventry, 10 a.m. to noon. Registration required at tinyurl.com/mr3wps8r.
Saturday, Oct. 28: REI store in Cranston, noon to 2 p.m. Registration required at tinyurl.com/33mvdnxn.
Thursday, Nov. 2: Kingston Free Library, 6 p.m.
Tuesday, Nov. 7: Harmony Library, Glocester, 6 p.m.
Thursday, Nov. 9: Willett Free Library, North Kingstown, 4 p.m.
Monday, Nov. 13: Louttit Library, West Greenwich, 6:30 p.m.
This article originally appeared on The Providence Journal: Why Sowams Woods in Barrington is both beautiful and sacred
