Description
“Dawley Memorial Park [is] a 200-acre tract of woodland [in Rhode Island] that was given to the State in 1933 by Mrs. Mary W. Dawley of the village of Wyoming. It is a memorial to her husband, Amos J. Dawley, a descendant of one of the early Colonial families. The area left of State 3 has suffered heavily from fire. Nothing was done to develop the park until 1936 when members of the C.C.C. camp at Beach Pond cleared the burned area and planted about 70,000 seedling trees. Truck trails and water holes have been constructed to aid the control of forest fires. The Picnic Grove (R), covering 59 acres, is one of the largest in the State (32 fireplace sites, tables, benches, water supply, firewood, foot trails, and parking area).”
Source notes
https://www.archive.org/stream/rhodeislandguide00federich/rhodeislandguide00federich_djvu.txt
Project originally submitted by Evan Kalish on December 15, 2013.
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Recent five visits to Dawley resulted in a find of a dozen plus fireplaces to the south of the now,sadly, delappadated shelter and park headquarters. Three or four water fountains are also preserved. Shelter was once a gateway to an extensive set of picnic sites. Located west of state highway 3, abuts interstate 95 to the west. At approximately the town boundaries of Exeter/Richmond. Abandoned site/state owned.
Find at Dawley part of a state -wide review by me as a seasonal RI Parks Ranger of surviving CCC/WPA
improvements. Survey included state parks (CCC) and roadside picnic groves (WPA)