As a current resident of RI, it often feels like RI gets overlooked as a state because of how small it is. So it's incredible to see such you, an incredibly talented film maker, researcher, explorer, historian, etc, focus your efforts on subject matter thats of particular interest to a relatively smaller audience. These videos feel like we have our own, local Johnny Harris. RI is lucky to have you. I love the content and look forward to learning a little bit more about this state with each video you put out. I hope you keep up the excellent work and start seeing some much deserved recognition.
I grew up in Smithfield. My Grandfathers name is Kenneth Brown Sr. And was the author of the book “Images of America: Smithfield”. He supplied many historic pictures of our town and its really interesting to take a look at if you get the chance. Our ancestors date back to Moses Brown and my Grandfather has been quite good at finding the history of Rhode Island. Thanks for sharing!
A lifetime resident of Rhode Island and never heard of Hanton City. I will have to include this in my hiking destinations in the state. I find old colonies all the time while hiking in Rhode Island. The forests are littered with old foundations and abandoned towns. Rhode Island is so rich in history. People just need to get out and explore. Glad I came across this video. Thanks for my next hiking adventure.
Wow Jason, as always your research and presentation are impeccable! The scenery was just beautiful and the stone walls and foundations are really nice. I only wish that history in school was this much interesting and fun! Thanks.
Early settlers of Hanton originated a sweet, unheated coffee drink that they mixed with milk from local cows and sweetened with molasses or maple syrup. They brought jugs of this flavoring to Providence to sell at markets, along with the shoes they made by hand.
@@anthonyr2319 It was told to me by a fellow in Olneyville while we dined together at the NY System restaurant - he seemed to be credible - he claimed to be a professor at Brown - the name was "Cranberry", "Carberry" - something like that.
Oh yes, the famous Josiah Carberry, professor of psycho ceramics at Brown. So the true story of Autocrat coffee milk was divulged over NY system weiners in Olneyville….perfect!
I love the Dunkin donuts comment as only a Rhode islander could understand. There had been 4 DD on mineral spring avenue between rte 7 and rte 146, think that was a mile and a half total .
I purchased a new home in 1988, the address was 3 Hanton City Trail 02917! This video is so awesome and answers the questions I've had for many years! Thanks so much Jason!!
There's another abandoned town. I was shown the remnants, back in the mid-1980s, by a friend who knew the area from skiing near West Greenwich fire tower.
Jason! Wow! Brilliant stuff and blows my mind that as a native Rhode Islander and a history junkie, how on earth did I never hear of this fascinating story? I also enjoyed the Smithfield references since it basically was a huge portion of Northern Rhode Island from which came North Smithfield and Woonsocket.
WOW that was Great I never knew about this place called Hanton City in Smithfield RI well i know now Thanks to Mr Jason your the best of the best another Billion Thumbs up from me
Great video Jason...so much detective work ,reading and boring searching through records of old newspapers at the library and online to make such a cool video! I highly recommend you get a compass and learn land navigation from one of the Books they have out there like be an expert with a map and compass or the Ranger compass course, or any of the videos out on land nav by Corporal Kelly on tube you... he's a good instructor on the subject ... Thanks again for a Wicked Awesome video on the history of R I...CHEERS and till the next one, happy Hunting !
Great video Jason! Two thoughts, I would definitely recommend making a video on George E. Matteson. He is the fella that drew up that very cool map you showed. Very cool life, as a cartographer and forest ranger, and would travel the forests of RI, mapping things out and talking to residents in the area. Secondly, if you stumbled upon a more recent article about Hanton City, it might be featuring yours truly. Very cool experience having a journalist go find things out about a ghost town for you, then to go hunt it down. As such Hanton City holds a special piece of me, and thank you for giving it some thoughtful coverage
I just stumbled onto this video, (not even sure how I got here). Stone ruins of New England fascinate me. I'm in rural Maine. Thanks for all your work on this informative video, beautiful and entertaining! I'm looking forward to exploring your other work!
I lived in Smithfield and we still hike through there and check out the area there's a rumor that there's a boulder with a bowl carved in the middle Indians used to bring their corn and grind it to make bread
Where I grew up in western coventry there were those walls all over the woods we had 32 acres of land and were surrounded by thousands of acres of woods. I remembered these two pools of water that were made with cement and it had weird drill holes in it. The moss was thick I never figured out what it was
Thank You Jason for doing this piece! This place is very specia,, intriguing and historical to me. Well done man! Props to all who helped! Especially Momma dukes! Appreciate all your work!
This is so crazy, my grandma used to live off Mann School Road and had a couple of these half stone homes in her backyard. I have a lot of memory’s playing in them with my sister and cousins🤣 Nice to learn the history behind them now
Lived in Smithfield for a while. Not sure how close I got to that site but used to regularly ride mountain bikes in the woods and dirt bikes through those powerlines shown near the end. Also my first job the was in the Arcade mentioned with reference to the quarry. Cool seeing these references.
Very well done video, the editing is awesome and research is throurough, thank you for taking the time to make this! My friend and I go on explores like this, we watch your videos for inspiration :) cheers from Massachusetts!
The trail you were walking down was, at one point, on Google maps as a navigable road. It was actually included in directions I got from the site. So, I drove it. At night. In a Ford Explorer. Yes it was stupid. Yes it took a while and yes I breathed a sigh of relief when I got out the other side. They have since placed a couple of boulders at the trailhead to prevent any further shenanigans…
You may consider doing a piece on the King Phillip War. I don’t think it’s history is general RI knowledge and there are several remaining landmarks to film. One recommended reference is Bourne’s “Red King’s Rebellion”.
I used to go in there to pick mushrooms with my Grandparents in the 70's. I remember the big rock and the scattered stones. There was an area that had tall pine trees, and we would pick mushrooms my grandmother would call lady fingers. I'm not sure what the real name of them is, but I remember they tasted really good fried up in a steak and cheese sandwich. I also remember another spot in there where water came out of the rocks, grandma would cup her hands and drink it. There's another place like it in the woods in back of the houses on Reservoir Ave in Johnston. As kids we were lost in there for about 3 hours. On google maps it looks like the whole area is an Amazon fulfillment center now.
holy hell i had zero clue about this place and i was born and raised in providence, youd think theyd include it in history class to some degree..shits so cool now i wanna go exploring
Hello Jason as per your video do you have a map/coordinates of all the ruins? I explored the area hiking and with mountain bike for about a year before I found what I think was almost all of them on my own but it has interested me and I still go here fairly frequently as I enjoy the fire trails on my MTB. Would love to compare notes. Specifically did you manage to find Smithfield Historical Cemetery 97, the Brown Lot and the foundation where there is a collection of artifacts right next to it? It's further north to the Southeast or at the 4 o clock position of Fidelity's Vernal Pool Loop. If it wasn't for another mountain biker and youbuter who posted videos on how to find it I would have never come across it, I spent many months looking for it as the historic cemetery database has incorrect GPS coordinates for it. If you're into MTB I will be there next Wed 11-2 at 5pm with a friend to show him the area and riding the trails. It's fine at night just bring good lighting of course thanks to modern LED's you can see the trails pretty well but bring pepper spray. There are bears, deer sized coyotes and mountain lions in those woods! Seen a bear twice once near Rocky Hill rd where that puddle is on the power lines the other times on the gas line. Bears are terrified of you will run like rabbits only bigger and more dramatic. The BIG coyotes aren't afraid of you though they're scary.
Ayo awesome video brothaaa!!!! I live in south county RI this is great bro I thoroughly enjoy your vids on local history like this. How do you get to Hanton this is my first time hearing about it (which I’m a little upset I haven’t heard of it in the past 😂) but I would love to know where it’s at so I can take a nice hike out to see this this amazing landmark!! Thanks again for sharing your incredible knowledge keep up the awesome work!!!!
A couple years back I had to reach some archaic maps to find this place, I think it’s technically on private property or something though so we were kind of worried about being trespassed while we were walking it.
Awesome 👏. If you have a mountain bike. Go up rocky hill rd and go into the fire road at the corner.. really cool site.. couple more cemeteries with a pretty big cemetery on the other side of the reservoir…. Cellar holes everywhere
I worked at a civil service/military motor pool in Smithfield decades ago, we couldn't have a paint shed area because we were located to close to the wet-lands. Of course that didn't stop us lol, there was money left over from gov't funding for OIF deployments so they wanted to repaint as many camo Hmmwv's as they could to the desert camo. Although karma may still show it's hand since we were using cancer causing calk paint. I do not miss going thru the pot hole ridden Johnston roads. You didn't even need the road signs, soon as you started wishing you had a 4X4 beefed suspension or a Lunar Rover, you just entered Johnston lol. Smithfield is a beautiful area though.
Very interesting video, Jason. I’m just wondering where exactly Hanton City was . By the map in the video it looks like it could have been in the Georgiaville Pond area.
This is great. There are some significant Native sites in the same area, including the sites of 2 major battles from King Phillips War.....would love to see a video on those
As a current resident of RI, it often feels like RI gets overlooked as a state because of how small it is. So it's incredible to see such you, an incredibly talented film maker, researcher, explorer, historian, etc, focus your efforts on subject matter thats of particular interest to a relatively smaller audience. These videos feel like we have our own, local Johnny Harris. RI is lucky to have you. I love the content and look forward to learning a little bit more about this state with each video you put out. I hope you keep up the excellent work and start seeing some much deserved recognition.
We got the Farrelly Bros and Michael Corrente.
Remember a saying "RI , 2 beers long 1 beer wide ".. Moved away in "75 and still cry about RPP closing..
cept ours isn't secretly an agent of the *.*.*. ;)
@@lukequigley121 What was RPP?
@@lciummo1 Rocky Point Park
I grew up in Smithfield. My Grandfathers name is Kenneth Brown Sr. And was the author of the book “Images of America: Smithfield”. He supplied many historic pictures of our town and its really interesting to take a look at if you get the chance. Our ancestors date back to Moses Brown and my Grandfather has been quite good at finding the history of Rhode Island. Thanks for sharing!
No. Thank YOU for sharing!
Id like to read that book 😊
A lifetime resident of Rhode Island and never heard of Hanton City. I will have to include this in my hiking destinations in the state. I find old colonies all the time while hiking in Rhode Island. The forests are littered with old foundations and abandoned towns. Rhode Island is so rich in history. People just need to get out and explore. Glad I came across this video. Thanks for my next hiking adventure.
46 years old born & lived here my entire life Idk how I've never heard of Hanton. Pretty cool 2c.
It's really close to Highland Orchards.
these videos are too good, rhode island is so rich in history
Wow Jason, as always your research and presentation are impeccable! The scenery was just beautiful and the stone walls and foundations are really nice. I only wish that history in school was this much interesting and fun! Thanks.
Early settlers of Hanton originated a sweet, unheated coffee drink that they mixed with milk from local cows and sweetened with molasses or maple syrup. They brought jugs of this flavoring to Providence to sell at markets, along with the shoes they made by hand.
Thats where your coffee milk comes from? Huh.
Perhaps - I believe they called it "autocrus".
How do you know?
@@anthonyr2319 It was told to me by a fellow in Olneyville while we dined together at the NY System restaurant - he seemed to be credible - he claimed to be a professor at Brown - the name was "Cranberry", "Carberry" - something like that.
Oh yes, the famous Josiah Carberry, professor of psycho ceramics at Brown.
So the true story of Autocrat coffee milk was divulged over NY system weiners in Olneyville….perfect!
I love the Dunkin donuts comment as only a Rhode islander could understand. There had been 4 DD on mineral spring avenue between rte 7 and rte 146, think that was a mile and a half total .
I purchased a new home in 1988, the address was 3 Hanton City Trail 02917! This video is so awesome and answers the questions I've had for many years! Thanks so much Jason!!
There’s no other channel I look forward to seeing as much, Jason. Everything is so well done. From concept to story to execution. Just excellent.
There's another abandoned town. I was shown the remnants, back in the mid-1980s, by a friend who knew the area from skiing near West Greenwich fire tower.
oh shit i live in west greenwich, wonder if i could just bike there
This reminds me of Dogtown in Gloucester Ma. I’ve lived near there for years and has lots of history behind it
Finally found it a few years back after itching to see it. I love New England.
I want to check it out. How long did it take you to find it?
I knew where it was for a while, but someone suggested I take the Reservoir Road exit from 146 and that made it easier.
I'm heading to Hanton city with a friend in 2 weeks. Been planning this trip for a few months now. Can't wait!!!
Good luck!
Jason! Wow! Brilliant stuff and blows my mind that as a native Rhode Islander and a history junkie, how on earth did I never hear of this fascinating story? I also enjoyed the Smithfield references since it basically was a huge portion of Northern Rhode Island from which came North Smithfield and Woonsocket.
I've read about the british loyalists. Awesome job, that is a neat place. You've certainly inspired me to go back and keep searching.
WOW that was Great I never knew about this place called Hanton City in Smithfield RI well i know now Thanks to Mr Jason your the best of the best another Billion Thumbs up from me
always a Good watch ! I'm looking forward to the next adventure . cool find
Great video Jason...so much detective work ,reading and boring searching through records of old newspapers at the library and online to make such a cool video! I highly recommend you get a compass and learn land navigation from one of the Books they have out there like be an expert with a map and compass or the Ranger compass course, or any of the videos out on land nav by Corporal Kelly on tube you... he's a good instructor on the subject ... Thanks again for a Wicked Awesome video on the history of R I...CHEERS and till the next one, happy Hunting !
Thank you for taking us here. Always an interesting subject.
Great video Brother! I lived in Smithield in the 90s. used to walk through there all the time!!
I grew up in RI. Your videos are a taste of home. Please, keep them coming.
And, thanks Mom.
Great video Jason!
Two thoughts,
I would definitely recommend making a video on George E. Matteson. He is the fella that drew up that very cool map you showed. Very cool life, as a cartographer and forest ranger, and would travel the forests of RI, mapping things out and talking to residents in the area.
Secondly, if you stumbled upon a more recent article about Hanton City, it might be featuring yours truly. Very cool experience having a journalist go find things out about a ghost town for you, then to go hunt it down. As such Hanton City holds a special piece of me, and thank you for giving it some thoughtful coverage
But how would the history of Mr. Matteson fit in with the theme of "Abandoned Places"?
I just stumbled onto this video, (not even sure how I got here). Stone ruins of New England fascinate me. I'm in rural Maine. Thanks for all your work on this informative video, beautiful and entertaining! I'm looking forward to exploring your other work!
Awesome vid. Similar structures can be found at the Monastery in Cumberland. Lots of history there.
I lived in Smithfield and we still hike through there and check out the area there's a rumor that there's a boulder with a bowl carved in the middle Indians used to bring their corn and grind it to make bread
The natives would have mortars in large boulders along their trail routes for a quick meal when hunting or traveling.
You should do Hillsdale, Rhode Island down here in Richmond. I live right next to the trail head and it's a great ghost town.
Been all through these woods. There is alot to be found
Grew up on James trail
as an avid explorer and resident of RI i love these videos man, great job
Excellent! Oh, and hi mom!!!
Where I grew up in western coventry there were those walls all over the woods we had 32 acres of land and were surrounded by thousands of acres of woods. I remembered these two pools of water that were made with cement and it had weird drill holes in it. The moss was thick I never figured out what it was
Great video dude! Always nice to see some local stuff 👌!
what a wonderful video. thank you for making and sharing!
Thank You Jason for doing this piece! This place is very specia,, intriguing and historical to me. Well done man! Props to all who helped! Especially Momma dukes! Appreciate all your work!
Now I know where I'll be going for my next hike 🖤💪
Kudos. Excellent video as usual. Impeccable research and narration. The Discovery Channel needs you!
This is so crazy, my grandma used to live off Mann School Road and had a couple of these half stone homes in her backyard. I have a lot of memory’s playing in them with my sister and cousins🤣 Nice to learn the history behind them now
Amazing. Fantastic job uncovering the history.
I just started…going to watch the rest ❤. But the comment “calm down it’s just Smithfield” has me rolling lol 😂😂
Big River Management also has a few old abandoned ruins! I see them every time I go hiking there!
I love local history (I grew up in Boston, can’t help this) and I wonder why I only learn about this channel today! Subscribed!
i enjoy watching these videos! So much history of RI that I never knew about.
Greta video. there's few things quite as mystic as finding something so historic and raw off a beaten trail
Love the story telling and clever visuals
Man this was soooo cool.....You do a great job! Subbed
Lived in Smithfield for a while. Not sure how close I got to that site but used to regularly ride mountain bikes in the woods and dirt bikes through those powerlines shown near the end. Also my first job the was in the Arcade mentioned with reference to the quarry. Cool seeing these references.
Very well done video, the editing is awesome and research is throurough, thank you for taking the time to make this! My friend and I go on explores like this, we watch your videos for inspiration :) cheers from Massachusetts!
Always excited to see new material from you. Thank you again!
Great job investigating and finding facts. 😊
Very, very interesting. Thanks to you and your mom for this entertaining and informative video.
The trail you were walking down was, at one point, on Google maps as a navigable road. It was actually included in directions I got from the site. So, I drove it. At night. In a Ford Explorer. Yes it was stupid. Yes it took a while and yes I breathed a sigh of relief when I got out the other side. They have since placed a couple of boulders at the trailhead to prevent any further shenanigans…
Been there many times, never gets old.
Great video, I've explored that place so many times and never saw that well, awesome. I'm also from good ole Woonie. keep up the good work man.
I would love to see that
Thank you so much for your work. Your videos are very well done.
So many treasures in Rhode Island!!
You may consider doing a piece on the King Phillip War. I don’t think it’s history is general RI knowledge and there are several remaining landmarks to film. One recommended reference is Bourne’s “Red King’s Rebellion”.
Sounds more like a Ken Burnes thing - the theme is Abandoned Places.
Thank you for the reference, adding to my KPW library.
Amazing as always!
A BIG Thank you for this video
Wish your series could be a history course for high school!
AWESOME JOB ON THIS
I used to go in there to pick mushrooms with my Grandparents in the 70's. I remember the big rock and the scattered stones. There was an area that had tall pine trees, and we would pick mushrooms my grandmother would call lady fingers. I'm not sure what the real name of them is, but I remember they tasted really good fried up in a steak and cheese sandwich. I also remember another spot in there where water came out of the rocks, grandma would cup her hands and drink it. There's another place like it in the woods in back of the houses on Reservoir Ave in Johnston. As kids we were lost in there for about 3 hours. On google maps it looks like the whole area is an Amazon fulfillment center now.
Awesome video as always!
I love all you work. this was cool as I had no idea such a place existed.
Thank you! I had no idea about this! I live in North Smithfield!
holy hell i had zero clue about this place and i was born and raised in providence, youd think theyd include it in history class to some degree..shits so cool now i wanna go exploring
Awesome video great work ! Thanks Mom!
Hello Jason as per your video do you have a map/coordinates of all the ruins? I explored the area hiking and with mountain bike for about a year before I found what I think was almost all of them on my own but it has interested me and I still go here fairly frequently as I enjoy the fire trails on my MTB. Would love to compare notes.
Specifically did you manage to find Smithfield Historical Cemetery 97, the Brown Lot and the foundation where there is a collection of artifacts right next to it? It's further north to the Southeast or at the 4 o clock position of Fidelity's Vernal Pool Loop. If it wasn't for another mountain biker and youbuter who posted videos on how to find it I would have never come across it, I spent many months looking for it as the historic cemetery database has incorrect GPS coordinates for it.
If you're into MTB I will be there next Wed 11-2 at 5pm with a friend to show him the area and riding the trails. It's fine at night just bring good lighting of course thanks to modern LED's you can see the trails pretty well but bring pepper spray. There are bears, deer sized coyotes and mountain lions in those woods! Seen a bear twice once near Rocky Hill rd where that puddle is on the power lines the other times on the gas line. Bears are terrified of you will run like rabbits only bigger and more dramatic. The BIG coyotes aren't afraid of you though they're scary.
Been there, it was a cool find.... Kinda eerie too
I've lived here in Rhode island my whole life and never heard of this city.....
Great job on the video
Great video jason! As someone who lives in Smithfield I've never heard of it would def love to check it out
This is awesome!
Love your content. BTW love how you inserted the Plimoth/Patuxet museum image into the intro. Is there anything to explore on Block Island?
I grew up in Smithfield. When I was a teenager we would have keg party’s at Hanton City.
Wrecked a few cars driving in and out. But lots of fun.
Ayo awesome video brothaaa!!!! I live in south county RI this is great bro I thoroughly enjoy your vids on local history like this. How do you get to Hanton this is my first time hearing about it (which I’m a little upset I haven’t heard of it in the past 😂) but I would love to know where it’s at so I can take a nice hike out to see this this amazing landmark!! Thanks again for sharing your incredible knowledge keep up the awesome work!!!!
I went through Rhode Island once. Trouble is, I blinked, and missed it!😂
Love the channel!
Born and brought up in Burrillville till 75".. Remember a Dead Horse Swamp off Gazza rd Mapleville where i lived .. Whole horse teams lost in it..
Funny were the smallest state, I've been here 42 years and I'm still learning about it
A couple years back I had to reach some archaic maps to find this place, I think it’s technically on private property or something though so we were kind of worried about being trespassed while we were walking it.
Awesome 👏. If you have a mountain bike. Go up rocky hill rd and go into the fire road at the corner.. really cool site.. couple more cemeteries with a pretty big cemetery on the other side of the reservoir…. Cellar holes everywhere
Good to know , thanks for sharing 👍 you can explore alot with a MTN. Bike and map and compass and some time !
my friend and i explored that site in about 1976 and other wooded areas ..that place hasnt changed lol im 63 now
Great video.
Nice work ! You should invest in an electric mountainbike . 😁😁
Dunkin Pops when I’m eating dunkin lol 😂
I planned that 🍩
i live in smithfield, whole life, ive heard dozens of theories... lepre colony is a big one tooo
This is amazing freaking history man! Kudos from nyc I love this channel.
Just imagine in 300 years there will be one of your descendants exploring our generations of abandoned ruins.
pretty rad dude!
Great story, thanks!!
I worked at a civil service/military motor pool in Smithfield decades ago, we couldn't have a paint shed area because we were located to close to the wet-lands. Of course that didn't stop us lol, there was money left over from gov't funding for OIF deployments so they wanted to repaint as many camo Hmmwv's as they could to the desert camo. Although karma may still show it's hand since we were using cancer causing calk paint. I do not miss going thru the pot hole ridden Johnston roads. You didn't even need the road signs, soon as you started wishing you had a 4X4 beefed suspension or a Lunar Rover, you just entered Johnston lol. Smithfield is a beautiful area though.
Very interesting video, Jason. I’m just wondering where exactly Hanton City was . By the map in the video it looks like it could have been in the Georgiaville Pond area.
Hey! I saw the ruins of that former Kmart!
Good Job very interesting
I would love to explore too
Your content is great. Insta-watch. 👍
Your right in my back yard literally LOL
This is great. There are some significant Native sites in the same area, including the sites of 2 major battles from King Phillips War.....would love to see a video on those
Great video I would love to visit Rhode Island sometime my descendants come from their my last name is Bucklin.
Jason - Have you done abandoned ski areas of RI - Pinetop, Ski Valley, and Diamond Hill? Might not be dramatic enough.
Very interesting 🤔