Gaia: Track Miles: 5.2mi Duration: 1:58 Rating: 9/10

A group of adventurous hikers met at Ryan Park at 7:00a in the rain to complete a planned 5 mile hike. After two days of a rain and summer made up of just as many rainy days as non-rainy days, the group knew they would be in for a wet hike with wet brush and flooded trails. Upon arrival, the troop parked at one of the baseball fields and walked about 500 feet to pick up the trail on the south side of the Belleville Pond. Although this was the second time the group has hiked the trails in Ryan park, hiking the same trail more than once always gives you a different experience. You may hear things you haven’t heard before or see things that you missed the previous times walking the trails. Even the smells can be different based if you are hiking a trail in the winter versus in the spring. As we hiked past a cemetery and later passed a structure made from railroad ties and cement, we wondered what the area was like hundreds of years ago.

Today, Ryan Park is 400 acres and sits between RI Route 4, Tower Hill Road, and RI Route 1 with a network of trails that surround the Belleville Pond. In addition to the pond and trails, there is also a boat ramp, a playground, and ball fields. However, if you could go back just 150 years ago, you would have a completely different experience.

In the early 1800s, the Rhode Island shoreline began to attract wealthy summer visitors. Many would travel by train to New Bedford or Providence where they would continue their journey by steamships to Newport. Others would travel to Kingston followed by a horse-drawn coach to Narragansett, where they would take a ferry to Jamestown and another ferry to Newport.  A more efficient route was proposed that would connect the train station in Wickford Station to the port of Wickford where passengers could board a steamboat directly to Newport. This route would significantly shorten the trip to Newport. Cornelius Vanderbilt II and his brother Frederick, formed a company called the Newport and Wickford Railroad and Steamboat Company (referred to as the N&W) and it would provide this railway and steamboat service. The railway cut through the northern part of what is Ryan Park today and the group hiked along where railroad tracks once sat and also came across remnants of a trestle to a bridge where the train once crossed. The N&W was in operation from 1871 to 1925.

Also along the way, the group came across a historic cemetery that was approximately 50 feet by 70 feet, outlined by stacked rocks. Within the cemetery appeared pillars for what looked like the outline of a family plot. The historic cemetery was overgrown and many of the headstones had been broken, there were a couple that were still legible and dated back to 1825 and 1865.

Some of the major trails are easily visible and easy to travel, however they are not well marked. There are several opportunities to hike along the water and also go over bridges to cross the water at various points and also see a waterfall.