Butts Hill Fort Restoration Committee Volunteer Spring Cleanup No. 2

The Butts Hill Fort Restoration Committee is seeking volunteers for our second Spring Cleanup on Saturday April 15th (rain date is April 16th). It starts at 9 AM and goes throughout the day. Come anytime. Meeting point is the Fort gate on Butts Hill Road off Sprague Street.  Google “26 Butts Street” for directions to the Main Gate. Parking and unloading will be available inside the gate on Fort grounds but participants are asked to park along Dyer Street. No parking is allowed on Butts Street itself.

The focus during this session will be removing invasive vegetation and clearing debris from the area outside the Fort gate and to the East of the earthworks. Every participant will need to sign a town liability form upon arrival. Butts Hill Fort Committee officials will be on hand throughout the day, so if you join in progress, please sign in with a team member for accountability. Participants are also asked to bring gloves, protective eye gear, loppers, shears, chainsaws, and rakes.  Anyone can volunteer, please RSVP to publicrelations@battleofrhodeisland.org

The largest Revolutionary War earthwork still standing in southern New England, Butts Hill Fort, is in Portsmouth, Rhode Island. It was started by Patriot militia in 1776, enlarged and completed by British troops occupying Aquidneck Island. It served as the headquarters for General John Sullivan during the Rhode Island Campaign in 1778 and was occupied and enlarged by allied French troops under Comte de Rochambeau during 1780-1781. It is on the National Register of Historic Places and on the National Park Service’s Washington Rochambeau Revolutionary Route (NPS WARO). The Fort has for years been inaccessible to the public and largely forgotten. The goal of the Restoration Committee is to return it to public use as an historical, educational, and recreational asset.