Quonset Point

Geographical location

Quonset Point is a small peninsula in Narragansett Bay in the U.S. state of Rhode Iceland. She belongs completely to the City, North Kingstown.

Quonset Point was from 1941 to 1974 the site of the Marine Airport Quonset Point, a major naval base of the United States Navy. Here 1950 and 1970, many U.S. warships were stationed between, including the USS Tarawa (CV -40), USS Essex (CV -9), USS Wasp (CV -18) and the USS Intrepid (CV -11). The future president of the United States Richard Nixon went through here in 1942 his basic officer training.

History

The name comes from the language of the Quonset Narragansett Indians who inhabited the area before the arrival of the first European settlers and the land charges in 1709 under pressure from the British Crown to the settlers. 1671 the first white settlement was founded in 1717, the ceded by the Indians land was divided among the settlers. Quonset Point was originally a narrow, projecting into the Narragansett Bay headland. 1911 205 houses were built as holiday homes of the settlement Shore Acres and the Children's Holiday Camp Camp Happyland here.

Due to its strategic location at the exit of the bay on the Rhode Iceland Sound and the Atlantic Ocean, the U.S. Navy, the area and created from 1939 to the peninsula acquired completely, so that they received today, approximately triangular shape until 1941. Numerous buildings of the base were designed by the American architect Albert Kahn.

On the military base, the Quonset hut was built in 1941, a variation of the Nissen huts of World War I, developed, which was more than 150,000 times produced and used around the globe.

On June 28, 1974, the naval base was decommissioned. Today, the former military base is essentially subject to a civil use, only a small military service of the Quonset Point Air National Guard station is located on site. Despite the dismantling of numerous institutions, many of the original installations are still preserved.

The military airfield is now the Quonset State Airport. The peninsula is also used with the Quonset Business Park for industrial and commercial purposes. The Rhode Iceland National Guard finally organizes every year a flight show at the airfield, the Rhode Iceland Air Show.