Coastal artillery gun at Fort Columbia State Park

Odiorne Point State Park is a public recreation area located on the Atlantic seacoast in the town of Rye near

Portsmouth Portsmouth ( ) is a port and city in the ceremonial county of Hampshire in southern England. The city of Portsmouth has been a unitary authority since 1 April 1997 and is administered by Portsmouth City Council. Portsmouth is the most d ...

New Hampshire New Hampshire is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States. It is bordered by Massachusetts to the south, Vermont to the west, Maine and the Gulf of Maine to the east, and the Canadian province of Quebec to the n ...

. Among the park's features are the Seacoast Science Center and the remains of the World War II Fort Dearborn. The park offers opportunities for hiking, cycling, picnicking, fishing, and boating.Odiorne Point State Park
(official website)Seacoast Science Center
(official website)

History

Odiorne Point is the site of one of the Sunken Forests of New Hampshire. The point got its name from the Odiorne family, who settled on the land in the mid-1660s. The park is the site of the former Pannaway Plantation, the location of the first European settlement in New Hampshire, and is commemorated by a memorial in the park. The park was the site of Fort Dearborn from 1942 to 1947. In 1961, the Federal government transferred 137 acres of the fort to the State for $91,000 with the restriction that the land be used for public recreation. Although little maintenance or improvement was done in the next ten years, once picnic areas and restroom facilities were constructed, the park opened in July 1972.

Seacoast Science Center

The Seacoast Science Center is the primary facility in Odiorne Point State Park. Exhibits include aquariums, touch tanks, and whale skeletons/ There is also a marine mammal rescue center. Indoor and outdoor programs on marine life and conservation are offered for school groups, families, adults, children, and other groups. The center also has environmental day camps up to 8th grade.

Fort Dearborn

Prior to 1942, the site of the park was private, expensive oceanfront land. In 1942, during World War II, the site was condemned and purchased by the United States government for the construction of Fort Dearborn as part of an across-the-board modernization of US coast defenses. In 1961 the site was ceded to the state of New Hampshire; the previous owners were not given the opportunity to re-purchase the land. The fort was named for

Henry Dearborn Henry Dearborn (February 23, 1751 – June 6, 1829) was an American military officer and politician. In the American Revolutionary War, Revolutionary War, he served under Benedict Arnold in his Benedict Arnold's expedition to Quebec, exped ...

, a major-general in the Revolutionary War and later

Commanding General of the United States Army The Commanding General of the United States Army was the title given to the service chief and highest-ranking officer of the United States Army (and its predecessor the Continental Army), prior to the establishment of the Chief of Staff of the ...

and

Secretary of War The secretary of war was a member of the U.S. president's Cabinet, beginning with George Washington's administration. A similar position, called either "Secretary at War" or "Secretary of War", had been appointed to serve the Congress of th ...

.Fort Dearborn at FortWiki.com
/ref> The fort was part of the Harbor Defenses of Portsmouth, New Hampshire, along with

Fort Stark Fort Stark is a former military fortification in New Castle, New Hampshire, United States. Located at Jerry's Point (also called Jaffrey's Point) on the southeastern tip of New Castle Island, most of the surviving fort was developed in the e ...

Fort Constitution Fort William and Mary was a colonial fortification in Britain's worldwide system of defenses, defended by soldiers of the Province of New Hampshire who reported directly to the royal governor. The fort, originally known as "The Castle," was sit ...

, and

Fort Foster Fort Foster (now known as Fort Foster Historic Site) is a Second Seminole War era fort in central Florida, located south of current-day Zephyrhills in Pasco County. Fort Foster was originally built in December 1836 under the direction of Lieu ...

. In 1940-1944 the Harbor Defenses of Portsmouth were garrisoned by the 22nd Coast Artillery Regiment. The first battery at Fort Dearborn was called Battery Dearborn, and consisted of four 155 mm towed guns on "

Panama mount Panama ( , ; es, link=no, Panamá ), officially the Republic of Panama ( es, República de Panamá), is a transcontinental country spanning the southern part of North America and the northern part of South America. It is bordered by Cost ...

s", which were circular concrete platforms. The platforms remain today.Fort Dearborn at NorthAmericanForts.com
/ref>Berhow, p. 205 Fort Dearborn was primarily acquired to build a battery of two 16-inch (406 mm) Mark IIMI ex-Navy guns, heavily protected by concrete and earth

casemate A casemate is a fortified gun emplacement or armored structure from which guns are fired, in a fortification, warship, or armoured fighting vehicle.Webster's New Collegiate Dictionary When referring to antiquity, the term "casemate wall" mean ...

s. This was completed and test-fired in June 1944, and eventually superseded all other heavy guns in the Harbor Defenses of Portsmouth. It was initially called Battery 103 and later named Battery Seaman in honor of Colonel Claudius M. Seaman. The battery remains today. A Plotting, Switchboard, and Radio (PSR) bunker housing a

plotting room A plotting room was the co-ordination centre of a fire-control system, fire control system for guns used against enemy ships or aircraft, whether naval guns or coastal artillery. The plotting room received data on ship or aircraft position and ...

as part of the

Coast Artillery fire control system In the U.S. Army Coast Artillery Corps, the term fire control system was used to refer to the personnel, facilities, technology and procedures that were used to observe designated targets, estimate their positions, calculate firing data for guns ...

is to the west of Battery 103. A companion battery, Battery 204, consisted of two 6-inch (152 mm) M1 guns in shielded

barbette Barbettes are several types of gun emplacement in terrestrial fortifications or on naval ships. In recent naval usage, a barbette is a protective circular armour support for a heavy gun turret. This evolved from earlier forms of gun protectio ...

mounts with a large bunker between them containing magazines and

fire control Fire control is the practice of reducing the heat output of a fire, reducing the area over which the fire exists, or suppressing or extinguishing the fire by depriving it of fuel, oxygen, or heat (see fire triangle). Fire prevention and contr ...

facilities. This was also completed and test-fired in June 1944. The battery is near the Seacoast Science Center, and today has several 16-inch shells displayed. A similar 6-inch battery (Battery 205) was built at Fort Foster but not armed. Near Fort Dearborn at Pulpit Rock, short-range defense was provided by Anti- Motor Torpedo Boat Battery (AMTB) 951, consisting of four 90 mm guns, two on fixed mounts and two on towed mounts. A similar 90 mm battery, AMTB 952, was built at Fort Foster, and AMTB 953 was planned for Fort Stark but never built.Fort Stark at NorthAmericanForts.com
/ref> In 1948 Fort Dearborn was deactivated and all guns were scrapped. The Pulpit Rock Base-End Station (N. 142), just outside of the park's southern boundary, is on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic ...

, no. 10000188.

Rye Air Force Station

Part of Fort Dearborn was used as a radar station by the

United States Air Force The United States Air Force (USAF) is the air service branch of the United States Armed Forces, and is one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. Originally created on 1 August 1907, as a part of the United States Army Sign ...

beginning in 1949, and in 1955 this became the Rye Air Force Station. This was an

Air Defense Command Aerospace Defense Command was a major command of the United States Air Force, responsible for continental air defense. It was activated in 1968 and disbanded in 1980. Its predecessor, Air Defense Command, was established in 1946, briefly inac ...

radar site that also supported the nearby

Pease Air Force Base Pease, in Middle English, was a noun referring to the vegetable pea; see that article for its etymology. The word survives into modern English in pease pudding. Pease may also refer to: People * Pease family (Darlington), a prominent family in Da ...

of the

Strategic Air Command Strategic Air Command (SAC) was both a United States Department of Defense Specified Command and a United States Air Force (USAF) Major Command responsible for command and control of the strategic bomber and intercontinental ballistic missile c ...

. In 1957-59 Rye AFS was deactivated, but an unmanned "gap filler" radar remained active until 1968. Nothing remains of the Air Force installations.

Gallery

File:SeaSciCtrWhaleSkel01.jpg, Juvenile

humpback whale The humpback whale (''Megaptera novaeangliae'') is a species of baleen whale. It is a rorqual (a member of the family Balaenopteridae) and is the only species in the genus ''Megaptera''. Adults range in length from and weigh up to . The hu ...

skeleton, inside the Seacoast Science Center File:EDALHAB01.jpg, EDALHAB, an underwater habitat used for

saturation diving Saturation diving is diving for periods long enough to bring all tissues into wikt:equilibrium, equilibrium with the partial pressures of the inert components of the breathing gas used. It is a diving mode that reduces the number of decompressio ...

experiments in

Lake Winnipesaukee Lake Winnipesaukee () is the largest lake in the U.S. state of New Hampshire, located in the Lakes Region at the foothills of the White Mountains. It is approximately long (northwest-southeast) and from wide (northeast-southwest), covering & ...

in the late 1960s, now located outside the Seacoast Science Center.Evaluation of EDALHAB and similar habitats
/ref> Battery 204, a former 6-inch gun battery, is in the background. File:FortDearLandingMem01.jpg, Memorial to the landing of the first English settlers at Odiorne Point File:FortDear16shells01.jpg, 16-inch shells at a 6-inch gun emplacement, Battery 204, Fort Dearborn, near the Seacoast Science Center File:FortDear16Emp01.jpg, 16-inch gun emplacement, Battery Seaman, Fort Dearborn File:Odiorne tidal pool.jpg, Tidal pools along the coast

References

* *

External links

Odiorne Point State Park
New Hampshire Department of Natural and Cultural Resources
Odiorne Point State Park Trail Map
New Hampshire Department of Natural and Cultural Resources
Seacoast Science Center
(official website)
List of all US coastal forts and batteries
at the Coast Defense Study Group, Inc. website
FortWiki, lists most CONUS and Canadian forts
{{authority control State parks of New Hampshire Parks in Rockingham County, New Hampshire Dearborn Rye, New Hampshire Protected areas established in 1961 1961 establishments in New Hampshire