Beach Erosion in Westerly, Rhode Island: Napatree Point's Real Storm History

Napatree Point: A Spit Shaped by Storms Since 1614

Napatree Point extends west from Watch Hill, sheltering Little Narragansett Bay, and today is entirely open to the public for walking, birdwatching, and surfcasting -- there are no roads or houses on it. Per the Watch Hill Conservancy's own history of the site, Dutch trader Adriaen Block explored the area in 1614 and reportedly named the landform "Nap of Trees" for its dense forest cover, a name that evolved into "Napatree." That original forest cover did not survive intact: it was destroyed by the Great Gale of 1815, one of the more severe storms in the region's colonial and early-republic history.

In 1898 the U.S. government acquired 60 acres at the point's western end and built Fort Mansfield, a coastal-defense installation with three gun batteries, garrisoned by up to 100 soldiers to guard the entrance to Little Narragansett Bay. The fort was decommissioned in 1907 after engineers found a design flaw; three concrete gun-emplacement ruins remain visible on Napatree today. After the fort's sale to private developers, a summer-cottage community grew up along Napatree's dune crest, reaching 39 cottages by 1938 -- a built, inhabited community on a barrier spit, set up for what came next.

September 21, 1938: The Hurricane That Redrew Napatree's Map

The Great New England Hurricane of September 21, 1938 destroyed Napatree's entire built environment in a single day. Per Wikipedia's Watch Hill entry and the Watch Hill Conservancy's own history, all 39 cottages, Fort Road, the Yacht and Beach Clubs, and a bathing pavilion were wiped out. Fifteen Watch Hill-area residents died; some survivors reportedly clung to floating wreckage that was swept clear across Little Narragansett Bay into Connecticut. This is a documented, dated, human-scale disaster, not an abstraction.

The same storm permanently altered Napatree's physical geography. It breached the spit in multiple places and separated what is now called Sandy Point from Napatree's western tip -- and Sandy Point subsequently drifted north across Little Narragansett Bay. That is a real, named example of storm-driven coastal erosion reshaping a specific landform, not a slow, gradual retreat measured in feet per year but a single-event, geography-altering breach. It is one of the more dramatic documented instances of hurricane-driven barrier-spit erosion in this site's Rhode Island coverage, and it is worth understanding on its own terms rather than folding into a generic "beaches erode" statement.

1945: The Fire District Bought Napatree to Preserve It, Not Rebuild It

The response to that 1938 devastation is itself a real, historical piece of erosion-related decision-making worth stating plainly. In 1945, the Watch Hill Fire District bought most of Napatree Point specifically to preserve it as public conservation land rather than allow the cottage community to be rebuilt on a spit that had just shown how vulnerable it was to storm damage. That 1945 purchase is the origin of the Fire District's present-day ownership and stewardship role on Napatree.

In 2013, the Fire District granted a conservation easement to the newly organized Watch Hill Conservancy, which has since managed stewardship and educational programming there in partnership with the district. Napatree Point Conservation Area today is managed jointly by the two organizations and remains a genuinely popular, sometimes crowded public destination in summer -- ecoRI News has described it as "wild, scenic, and jammed" in the warm months. Current visitor rules (dog policies, seasonal shorebird-nesting closures, parking) change and should be confirmed directly on the Watch Hill Conservancy's own "Planning Your Visit" page before any trip.

What This Page Cannot Tell You: No Confirmed Current Erosion Rate

Here is the honest gap in this research, stated directly: no specific feet-per-year (or any other unit) erosion rate for Napatree Point, Watch Hill, or any other Westerly beach was independently confirmed. The 1938 hurricane and the 1815 Great Gale are well-documented, dated, single-event storm disasters -- they are not the same thing as a confirmed, ongoing annual erosion rate, and this page will not manufacture one to sound more precise than the underlying research supports.

Rhode Island's Coastal Resources Management Council (CRMC) is the state body responsible for shoreline-change data, setback rules, and permitting along the state's coast, including Westerly's beaches -- and it is a far better source for parcel- or beach-specific erosion information than any general overview page, including this one. Anyone evaluating a specific property near Napatree Point, Watch Hill, or elsewhere along Westerly's shoreline for erosion exposure should go to CRMC directly rather than relying on an unsourced number found elsewhere.

Separately, Misquamicut is worth naming here without exhausting it: it is a lower-lying, separate barrier beach area within the town of Westerly, along its southern Atlantic-facing shore, with its own distinct beach-strip identity apart from Watch Hill's. Misquamicut has its own dedicated coverage planned elsewhere on this site -- this page is about Napatree Point and Watch Hill specifically, not a survey of every beach in Westerly.

What This Means If You're Evaluating Property Near Napatree or Watch Hill

Put plainly: Napatree Point has a real, dramatic, well-documented history of storm-driven geography change -- the 1815 Great Gale that destroyed its original forest cover, and especially the September 21, 1938 hurricane that destroyed its entire cottage community, killed 15 people locally, and permanently breached the spit, separating and relocating what is now Sandy Point. The 1945 purchase by the Watch Hill Fire District to preserve rather than rebuild on Napatree is a real, historical acknowledgment of that vulnerability. None of that, however, amounts to a confirmed present-day feet-per-year erosion rate, and this page will not invent one.

Before buying, insuring, or building on any property near Napatree Point, Watch Hill, or elsewhere along Westerly's shoreline, confirm current shoreline-change and erosion conditions directly with the Rhode Island Coastal Resources Management Council, check FEMA's Flood Map Service Center for an address-specific flood-zone determination, and consult a licensed surveyor or qualified coastal engineer for any property-specific risk assessment. This page is independent research, not an engineering or real estate assessment, and it is not a substitute for CRMC, FEMA, a licensed surveyor, or a qualified coastal engineer.