The Papitto Opportunity Connection (POC) provides grants, scholarships, and microloans to unique and narrative changing programs that are designed to create success stories for Rhode Island’s Black, Indigenous and People of Color (BIPOC) communities.  On April 5, 2023, POC awarded the Sowams Heritage Area Project a $25,000 grant. Papitto regularly has conversations, small and large, […]

Sowams Heritage Area Coordinator Dr. David Weed met with Town Historian Mary Ann McDonald, Historical Society Past President John Larsen, and his wife, Marybeth Rua-Larsen who is Head of Reference at the Somerset Public Library, on February 25, 2023. In the meeting, Ms. McDonald reviewed much of the pre-colonial and early colonial history of the […]

Not far from Margaret’s Rock sits another massive outcropping in the woods in North Swansea. Rising to 66 feet at its top, it provides great views of the area when the leaves are off the trees. Click here for a 70-second video from a 2017 visit to the Rock. (Above) Devil’s Rock contains several indentations […]

At its January 12, 2023 virtual meeting the Taunton River Stewardship Council (TRSC), voted to award the Sowams Heritage Area Project a $15,000.00 grant to help with costs related to its current feasibility study. The purpose of the Council is to promote the long-term protection of the Taunton River by 1) bringing together on a […]

James Deetz was an archaeologist who was a pioneer on several fronts. He was one of the first to recognize the need to hear the voices of Native Americans and African Americans in archaeology and in historical interpretations. Click here for an 8 1/2-minute video tribute posted on December 9, 2022 by Giovanna Fregni. This […]

Sara E. Corben is the voice, researcher, writer, and producer of “Weird Island,” a podcast that takes listeners behind the scenes of Rhode Island’s quirkiest tales. On November 22, 2022, she wrote: “This week, as many get ready to celebrate Thanksgiving, I wanted to revisit the story of the Pilgrims and the first Thanksgiving that […]

The laboriously inscribed, ink-stained title deeds tell the story the colonists wanted them to tell: the legal acquisition of thousands of acres of land, defensible in British law and their own ideas of legality. Deed expert Dr. Jeremy Bangs, author of numerous works on land sales, offers us his unparalleled knowledge of early New England, […]

To Indigenous people, the November full moon is known as the Beaver Moon. This was the time to set traps before the swamps froze to ensure a good supply of furs for the winter. That same moon this year was a beaver blood moon accompanied by a total lunar eclipse!  Traditionally, each full moon name was applied […]