The Great Salt Pond Archeological District is a historic district in

New Shoreham, Rhode Island New Shoreham is a town in Washington County, Rhode Island that is coextensive with Block Island. The town was named for Shoreham, Kent, in England. According to the Census Bureau, it has a total area of , of which is land and (91.11%) is water ...

. The district was added to 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 ...

in 1990. The Great Salt Pond is a round and almost entirely enclosed body of water separating the north and south regions of Block Island. The pond has a small channel on its north west shore connecting it with

Block Island Sound Block Island Sound is a strait in the open Atlantic Ocean, approximately wide, separating Block Island from the coast of mainland Rhode Island. On the west, it extends to Montauk Point on the eastern tip of Long Island, as well as Plum Is ...

. The opening is artificial and was dug out in 1895 to make a harbor in the south part of the pond. The shores of the pond have a long history of human use, as the area was one of the primary areas of residence by Native Americans both before and after contact with Europeans. Evidence of occupation dates as far back as the

Middle Woodland Period In the classification of archaeological cultures of North America, the Woodland period of North American pre-Columbian cultures spanned a period from roughly 1000 BCE to European contact in the eastern part of North America, with some archaeolog ...

, and includes the site of a palisaded fortification.

References

New Shoreham, Rhode Island Historic districts in Washington County, Rhode Island Archaeological sites on the National Register of Historic Places in Rhode Island Historic districts on the National Register of Historic Places in Rhode Island National Register of Historic Places in Washington County, Rhode Island {{WashingtonCountyRI-NRHP-stub

See also

References