Quonochontaug, Rhode Island
Quonochontaug, Rhode Island | |
|---|---|
Village | |
 Babcock House | |
  Quonochontaug, Rhode Island | |
| Coordinates: 41°20′08″N 71°42′30″W / 41.33556°N 71.70833°W | |
| Country | United States |
| State | Rhode Island |
| County | Washington |
| Town | Charlestown |
| Elevation | 322 ft (98 m) |
| Time zone | UTC-5 (Eastern (EST)) |
| • Summer (DST) | UTC-4 (EDT) |
| Zip code | 02813 |
| Area code | 401 |
| GNIS feature ID | 1217618[1] |
Quonochontaug is a village in Washington County, Rhode Island, United States.[1] It is composed of three small beach communities, and is part of Charlestown.
Geography
Quonochontaug is located between the Ninigret Pond and Quonochontaug Pond and their respective barrier beaches, both of which are salt ponds. The communities of West Beach, Central Beach, and East Beach house several hundred residents, mostly in the summers, and many houses are available as summer rentals.
Quonochontaug was a busy and fashionable resort of small hotels and boarding houses in the 19th Century, continuing up until the Great Hurricane of 1938.[citation needed]
Blue Shutters Beach is town-owned and is located at the end of East Beach Road in Quonochontaug. To the east of Blue Shutters, an unpaved road leads to the entrance of the Ninigret National Wildlife Refuge. The area was listed as a census-designated place in the 2010 census.[2]
History
Quonochontaug was the site of an iron mining operation financed by Thomas A. Edison in the 1880s. Iron particles existed in the form of black sand on the beach and they could be separated out with magnets and melted to produce iron. The venture failed after cheaper iron was later discovered.[3][4]
Historic Places
In popular culture
- In The X-Files there are several references to Quonochontaug. Mulder spent some of his childhood's vacations in a house that his parents owned there. In season 3 finale (Talitha Cumi), Mulder gets a call from AD Skinner, who tells him that his mother has been admitted to a hospital in Quonochontaug. In a season four episode called Demons, Mulder visits Quonochontaug in an attempt to find answers to his past.
References
- ^ a b "Quonochontaug, Rhode Island". Geographic Names Information System. United States Geological Survey, United States Department of the Interior.
- ^ U.S. Geological Survey Geographic Names Information System: Quonochontaug, Rhode Island
- ^ Info at edison.rutgers.edu (1)
- ^ Info at edison.rutgers.edu (2)
External links
Municipalities and communities of Washington County, Rhode Island, United States | ||
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| Other villages | ||
| Indian reservation | ||