Quonset Point
| Quonset Point | ||
| Geographical location | ||
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| Coordinates | 41 ° 35 '42 " N , 71 ° 24' 54" W | |
| Waters 1 | Narragansett Bay | |
Quonset Point is a small peninsula in Narragansett Bay in the US state of Rhode Island . It belongs entirely to the area of the city of North Kingstown .
Quonset Point was from 1941 to 1974 the site of the naval airport Quonset Point, a major naval base of the US Navy . Numerous US warships were stationed here between 1950 and 1970, including the USS Tarawa (CV-40) , the USS Essex (CV-9) , the USS Wasp (CV-18) and the USS Intrepid (CV-11) . The future President of the United States Richard Nixon received his basic officer training here in 1942 .
history
The name Quonset comes from the language of the Narraganset Indians, who inhabited the area before the arrival of the first European settlers and gave the land to the settlers in 1709 under pressure from the British Crown. The first white settlement was founded in 1671, and in 1717 the land given by the Indians was divided among the settlers. Quonset Point was originally a narrow headland protruding into Narragansett Bay . In 1911, 205 houses were built here as holiday homes for the Shore Acres settlement and the Camp Happyland children's holiday colony .
Due to the strategically favorable location at the exit of the bay on the Rhode Island Sound and the Atlantic Ocean , the American Navy acquired the area and completely redesigned the peninsula from 1939, so that it received its current, roughly triangular shape by 1941. Many of the base's buildings were designed by the American architect Albert Kahn .
The Quonset hut , a variation of the Nissen hut from World War I , was developed on the military base in 1941. It was manufactured more than 150,000 times and used around the globe .
On June 28, 1974, the naval base was shut down. Today the former military base is mainly used for civilian purposes, with only a small military service from the Quonset Point Air National Guard Station still on site. Despite the dismantling of numerous facilities, many of the original installations have been preserved.
The military airfield is now the Quonset State Airport . The peninsula is also used for industrial and commercial purposes with the Quonset Business Park . The Rhode Iceland National Guard finally organizes every year a air show at the airfield, the Rhode Iceland Air Show .
Web links
Individual evidence
- ^ Quonset Point Naval Air Station. ( Memento of the original from June 13, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. The Navy and Rhode Island History Page
- ^ Quonset Point Naval Air Station: History.
