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Geographic coordinates: 41° 43' 01" N 71° 20' 42" W
Nearest city: Warwick. Located on Conimicut Shoal at the entrance to the Providence River.
Established: 1868. Present lighthouse built: 1883. Automated: 1963.
Height of tower: 58 feet. Height of focal plane: 55 feet.
Previous optic: Fourth-order Fresnel lens. Present optic: 250 mm.
Characteristic: White flash every 2.6 seconds.
Fog signal: Two blasts every 30 seconds.
The lighthouse established in 1828 at Nayatt Point, on the east side of the entrance to the Providence River, proved insufficient to warn navigators of the dangerous shoal extending out from Conimicut Point across at the west side. An unlighted granite tower was built on the shoal in 1866, and two years later it was converted into a lighted aid to navigation. The early keepers had to make a dangerous one-mile rowboat trip to tend the light. In 1874, a five-room dwelling was built at the light.
Horace W. Arnold was named keeper in 1874. He saved at least five lives during his twelve-year stay. In early March 1875, Arnold was at the dwelling with his young son when drifting ice, driven by strong northeast winds, smashed into the structure. The Arnolds escaped as the house broke apart. They were rescued several hours later by a tugboat captain.
In 1882, the old granite tower was torn down and a new cast-iron sparkplug-style light was built. The keepers’ families lived with them at the offshore station. The stress of the isolated location might have proven too much for the thirty-year-old wife of keeper Ellsworth Smith in 1922. Nellie Smith, after about a year of living at the lighthouse, poisoned herself and her two sons. She and one son died, but the other survived.
The lighthouse was a stag station with male keepers only during the Coast Guard era. Coast Guardsman Fred Mikkelsen’s scariest experience in his three years at the lighthouse was a 1960 hurricane. At the height of the storm, the surging sea blocked all sunlight through the galley windows on the first level. When he went to the lantern to check the light, Mikkelsen became aware that the lighthouse was moving in the storm. “It would bang you against the wall,” he said, “and you had to hang on to the handrail of the ladder.”
In 2004, ownership was transferred to the City of Warwick under the provisions of the National Historic Lighthouse Preservation Act of 2000. In early 2005, a new organization, the Conimicut Lighthouse Foundation, was formed. The foundation is responsible for the preservation and operation of the lighthouse. When restoration is completed, there are plans to add furnishings inside the lighthouse to recreate its appearance in the days of resident keepers.
You can get a good view of the lighthouse from Conimicut Point Park in Warwick. From I-95 north or south, take exit 13 to the Airport Access Road. Follow the road onto Route 117 (West Shore Road). The road eventually becomes Bush Avenue. Turn left at Symonds Avenue, then right at Point Avenue and follow to the park. There is a parking fee for the park from July to Labor Day. It is open all year, sunrise to sunset. For more information, call Warwick Parks and Recreation at 401-468-4104.
Fascinating Fact 
This was one of the nation’s last lighthouses to be converted from kerosene operation to electricity, which occurred in 1960.
