NARRAGANSETT – The Hurricane of 1938, with whipping winds and thunderous waves, blew and washed away the top of a lighthouse here, killing Walter B. Eberle , an assistant keeper.
His body was never found, and the lighthouse, on an island called Whale Rock , was never rebuilt.
I had spotted the tiny island from the tip of Beavertail State Park in Jamestown during an earlier hike and wanted a closer look. I found a short trail on the opposite side of the West Passage from Beavertail and walked to an isolated, rocky shoreline. Whale Rock, which looks a bit like the top deck of a submarine with a truncated turret just above the ocean’s surface, is visible less than a half mile offshore.
But I was also blown away by the view – a 180-degree panorama of Narragansett Bay, the West Passage and the landmarks around them. It’s a breathtaking sight from one of the special places on Rhode Island’s coastline – and in an area that also has a rich history.
For thousands of years, the Indigenous people inhabited the land they called “Namcock,” or “place where fish are taken,” which is north of the mouth of the Narrow River and in the southeast corner of Boston Neck.
In the 1600s, they were pushed off the land by Maj. Gen. Humphrey Atherton, of Massachusetts, an early Colonist who organized a syndicate of investors from Boston and Hartford and purchased more than 700 acres along the coast.
In turn, investors, farmers, landowners, such as the Whale Rock Land Company, and the U.S. Army occupied the land.
In 2011, The Nature Conservancy , a nonprofit environmental group, established the Whale Rock Preserve and added land in 2013 and 2019 to create the 112-acre sanctuary.
The U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service owns another 30 acres at Whale Rock, as part of the nearby John H. Chafee National Wildlife Refuge . The Nature Conservancy and Fish & Wildlife manage the preserve cooperatively and opened a trail in 2013 to give the public access to the beach used by anglers, hikers, birders, sightseers and families searching for sea life in the tidal pools.
Beautiful foliage, and a WWII-era fort
I set out on the Whale Rock Trail from a small lot after driving past the entrance to private Cormorant Point Road, which leads to Camp Varnum , an active Rhode Island Army National Guard training facility.
Just left of the road to Camp Varnum is a short dirt road, and the trail starts out on that road lined with boulders and a field to the right.
Not far ahead, a driveway opens on the right to private property, where new house construction was underway. I respected the homeowner’s land and stayed left, passed by a wooden gate and followed a grassy trail that went by two fields on the right that were dotted with birdhouses. The Nature Conservancy mows the fields annually, primarily to control invasive plants, such as black swallowwort.
As I walked along, the path ran slightly downhill and through a corridor of tall foliage, including parasol leaf trees.
Continuing on, the footpath crossed several sections of a long, shaded wooden boardwalk that meandered under small trees and through honeysuckle and jewelweed. I also spotted goldenrod, cardinal flower and coastal sweet pepperbush.
The boardwalk came to an opening and ran along the base of a 7-foot chain-link fence with three strands of barbed wire on top that marks the Camp Varnum property.
I peeked through the fence and scanned the neat buildings, which were painted blue, green, gray and red. But I saw only one person walking on the grounds.
I learned later that the U.S. Army acquired the property in February 1942 to modernize U.S. coastal and harbor defenses and protect the West Passage of Narragansett Bay. The buildings at Fort Varnum were disguised to resemble a New England seacoast village.
The fort was named for James Mitchell Varnum , a general in the Continental Army during the Revolutionary War.
After the war, Fort Varnum's guns were scrapped, and the property was turned over to the Rhode Island National Guard.
Continuing on, I followed the path along the fence line and passed by dense shrubbery and wetlands, which birders report are a good place to look for sparrows .
Panoramic ocean views and coastal mansions
In about 100 yards, I heard the crash of ocean waves and found a path that ran through some bushes and down to a rocky beach. I walked down to the water, sat on a boulder in the sun and surveyed the panorama.
To my left, huge mansions stood on the shore, with manicured lawns that sloped down to the ocean. Each had an American flag flapping in the onshore breeze.
To the right of that was the West Passage, which merges with Narragansett Bay. On the horizon, I could make out two spires of the Pell Bridge. Across the channel, I could see Beavertail Lighthouse and its revolving beacon. It’s the third one that was built on that point of land. The original wooden lighthouse, built in 1749, burned and was replaced by a rubble tower until 1856, when the current granite lighthouse was erected.
Fishing trawlers, sailboats, lobster boats, motorboats and a ferry crossed the Bay. A huge tanker looked like it was barely moving far off in the ocean.
Overhead, the drone of a single-engine aircraft and the “whup whup” of a helicopter almost drowned out the caws of seagulls. In some places, the surf lapped the shore. In others, the waves pounded the rocks, creating sprays of saltwater mist that I could smell and feel on my face.
A magnet for migrating birds. Here's what you might see.
Birders report that the rocky shoreline attracts shorebirds such as ruddy turnstones and sanderlings . But the coastal shrubbery is the more important habitat, when migrating songbirds returning from the tropics seek food, water and shelter. Whale Rock has all three.
During the fall migration southbound, birds such as white-eyed vireos , yellow warblers , common yellowthroats , gray catbirds , rose-breasted grosbeaks and orchard orioles stop at the preserve to rest and refuel on berries as they prepare for the next leg of their journey.
More: Fall bird migration is in full swing in Rhode Island. Here's the best birding spots.
After a rest, I walked along the rocky beach and noted the orange, yellow and white colorations of the rocks that are bleached by the sun and saltwater and the darker-colored ones marked by the incoming tide. Sea roses and wild carrot, a flowering plant, dotted the bushes above the beach.
What happened to Whale Rock Light?
Just ahead, I spotted what I had come for – Whale Rock – which was named because some say it looks like the back of a whale. A dozen cormorants perched on the rocks and dried their wings in the sun.
I noted that the lower base of the old lighthouse is still there, sticking up from the flat rocks.
Whale Rock Light was built in 1882 to help mariners navigate a treacherous reef at the entrance to the West Passage after dozens of seamen died in shipwrecks.
A ring cut into the rock served as a base for a cast iron caisson, filled with cement. On top of the cylinder was a four-story lighthouse with a fog bell. Three of the levels were living quarters for the keepers. Being a keeper was tough and lonely work, and 16 men tried the job from 1882 to 1909.
In the 1920s and 1930s, the keepers were assigned helpers, and Eberle, a U.S. Navy veteran, a former worker at the Wrigley chewing gum factory in Newport and a father of six, signed on in 1937.
On Sept. 21, 1938, Whale Rock's keeper, Daniel Sullivan, was ashore buying supplies while Eberle, an assistant, manned the lighthouse alone. With little warning, the hurricane struck.
Waves battered the lighthouse and swept the upper level of the structure, where Eberle was hunkered down, off its pedestal and into the ocean. The hurricane devastated the coast, killing hundreds, and it was several days before the seas calmed and volunteers could man a boat to inspect Whale Rock.
The 40-year-old Eberle and the top sections of the lighthouse were gone.
The lighthouse was never rebuilt. The remains of the structure were removed in 1939, and an automatic light on a steel tower was put up, but that was later removed. A buoy now marks the spot.
In 2008, a plaque was dedicated to Walter Barge Eberle, and it's on display in the Beavertail Lighthouse Museum .
I spent some time thinking about Eberle and all the history before hiking a little further along the rocks and then walking up the bank to the base of the fence for Camp Varnum. In a short distance, the fence line broke inland toward the entrance to the camp, and I remembered the “No Trespassing” signs, so I turned and headed back.
In all, I walked 2.1 miles over 90 minutes. There’s plenty to remember about my hike, including the bog bridges, rocky beach, spectacular panorama and, of course, Whale Rock. But I’ll mostly recall Eberle and the chaotic storm that took his life in a place that, on the morning I visited, was so beautiful, calm and peaceful.
If you go …
Access: Off Old Boston Neck Road, at a bend, look for a dirt road to the left of the private entrance to Camp Varnum.
Parking: A few spaces at a small lot. Parking is not allowed along the road or by a gate.
Dogs: Not allowed.
Difficulty: Easy, with a rocky beach.
GPS coordinates: 41.45921, -71.44198
Lectures and signings for 'Walking Rhode Island' book
John Kostrzewa’s 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 the following presentations:
Monday, Oct. 28: Pawtucket Public Library, 6 p.m.
Saturday, Dec. 7: Rhode Island Authors Expo, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., Crowne Plaza Ballroom, Warwick.
Monday, Dec. 9: West Warwick Public Library, 6:30 p.m.
The Walking Rhode Island column runs every other week in the Providence Sunday Journal. John Kostrzewa, a former assistant managing editor/business at The Journal, welcomes email at johnekostrzewa@gmail.com .
This article originally appeared on The Providence Journal: Whale Rock Preserve has a tragic tie to 1938 hurricane. Now it's a spectacular coastal hike
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