Weekapaug () is a census-designated place in southern

Washington County, Rhode Island Washington County, known locally as South County, is a county located in the U.S. state of Rhode Island. As of the 2020 census, the population was 129,839. Rhode Island counties have no governmental functions other than as court administrativ ...

, part of the town of

Westerly, Rhode Island Westerly is a town on the southwestern shoreline of Washington County, Rhode Island, first settled by English colonists in 1661 and incorporated as a municipality in 1669. It is a beachfront community on the south shore of the state with a popula ...

. The population was 425 at the 2010 census.

History

"Weekapaug" is a Narragansett word meaning "at the end of the pond". The area is not as well known as neighboring

Watch Hill, Rhode Island Watch Hill is an affluent coastal neighborhood and census-designated place in the town of Westerly, Rhode Island. The population was 154 at the 2010 census. It sits at the most-southwestern point in all of Rhode Island. It came to prominence in t ...

, even though it has had summer cottages since 1877. It was known as "Noyes Beach" from 1701 to 1899, named after Reverend James Noyes who purchased .

Geography

According to the

United States Census Bureau The United States Census Bureau (USCB), officially the Bureau of the Census, is a principal agency of the U.S. Federal Statistical System, responsible for producing data about the American people and economy. The Census Bureau is part of t ...

, the CDP has a total area of 1.20 mi (3.1 km). 1.16 mi (3.0 km) of it is land and 0.036 mi (0.09 km) of it (3.00%) is water. The Winnapaug and Quonochontaug salt ponds dominate the area. Each pond is open to the Atlantic Ocean via a breachway lined with rock

jetties A jetty is a structure that projects from land out into water. A jetty may serve as a breakwater, as a walkway, or both; or, in pairs, as a means of constricting a channel. The term derives from the French word ', "thrown", signifying somet ...

. Most of the rock is

granite Granite () is a coarse-grained ( phaneritic) intrusive igneous rock composed mostly of quartz, alkali feldspar, and plagioclase. It forms from magma with a high content of silica and alkali metal oxides that slowly cools and solidifies under ...

which is readily available in the Westerly area and used to be its primary industry.

Demographics

In popular culture

Al Harrington -- a rapid-talking

recurring character A recurring character is a fictional character, usually in a prime time TV series, who frequently appears from time to time during the series' run. Recurring characters often play major roles in more than one episode, sometimes being the main f ...

on '' Family Guy'' -- is president and CEO of Al Harrington's Wacky Waving Inflatable Arm-Flailing Tube Man Emporium and Warehouse on Route 2 in Weekapaug. (The southern terminus of Route 2 is actually about 9 miles or 14.5 km northeast of Weekapaug.) In Season 18 episode 3 of the series, Babs and Peter visit Weekapaug, which is revealed as her hometown. Phish's song "Weekapaug Groove" is named after the town.

References

* Aubin, George Francis. (1975). A Proto-Algonquian Dictionary. Ottawa : National Museums of Canada. * Huden, John C. (1962). ''Indian Place Names of New England'', Museum of the American Indian Heye Foundation.

External links

Weekapaug Foundation

Phish History
{{authority control Census-designated places in Washington County, Rhode Island Westerly, Rhode Island Providence metropolitan area Census-designated places in Rhode Island Populated coastal places in Rhode Island