2024 in Review: Butts Hill Fort Restoration Committee Completes “Extreme Makeover”
Paul Murphy, BHFRC Chairman and BoRIA Board member, Recaps “The BHF 2024 Campaign Plan.”
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For 2024, The BHFRC set the ambitious goal of clearing, improving and stabilizing the entire multi-acre southern hemisphere of Butts Hill Fort, essentially accomplishing an “extreme makeover”, transforming the thickly-tangled brush and invasives-ridden site into a truly open historic campus with complete access and visibility of the 250-year-old earthworks. The goals included connecting level pathways and unobstructed view corridors to Quaker, Turkey and Durfee hills to the South, and East to Howland’s Ferry and Tiverton.
Our overarching primary mission at BHFRC has always been saving the historic Butts Hill earthwork complex from the ravages of invasives and overgrowth threatening to destroy them. Since late 2021 we have been steadily accomplishing this goal in a methodical way. We have selectively cleared and stabilized many key areas. In 2022 the main volunteer-clearings were aimed at clearing and expanding the relatively small “donut hole” of the inner Fort parade field. We then followed up with last year’s 2023 Campaign Plan (see map below), fully coordinated with Town DPW and approved by Town Council, which was designed to “go outside” the outside perimeter of the fort and focus all work to clear inwards towards the earthworks from the footpaths. This allowed clearing areas inside and adjacent to the earthworks and their surrounding 3-6 foot exterior ditches out to newly widened public walkways.
Moreover, it unlocked sight lines of the physical earthworks and made them actually viewable and more understandable to the public for the first time in 50 years. Further, Our 2023 Campaign accomplished a lot more than we set out to do, because we were doing dynamic planning, meaning we changed the plans for our subsequent muscle-movements based on our previous results. This approach helped us to gain a better understanding of the lay of the land and what could be done to enhance the area. For example we completed clearing and improvement of two “new” town greens. The first was ”the Butts Hill Fort Green” (lot 71, Area “D” hashed in green) adjacent to the fort main gate area between Butts and Dyer streets. This heavily invasive-choked rectangular lot, ringed entirely by cement posts and rail fencing, and it’s adjacent “Earl Street”, a dirt road connecting Dyer to Butts, were both painstakingly cleared in order to completely open up the Fort’s Main Gate area to full public view and direct access.
The second was an unexpected green space directly in front of the Southern Battery (see areas “A”) behind a 100-yard long stone wall (areas “B”) which we also have brought back to life as it had been entirely neglected and overgrown for decades. The area inside the wall, from its length to the earthworks is now cleared with a pedestrian path running through it. This “Southern Battery Green”, as we call it, also offers an unobstructed view south across the wide valley from Butts Hill Fort to Quaker, Turkey and Durfee hills. This makes it the best vantage point to visualize the British, German and American forces arrayed against each other on 29 August 1778.
These carefully adjusted efforts to date have ensured the landscape plan flows as naturally as possible.
Our work has also built a lot of trust and welcome support from town officials, the forts’s surrounding neighbors, visitors, business stakeholders, and the Portsmouth High School community.
For Campaign 2024 we finally went after the actual historic Earthworks themselves. We undertook at least as much of them as would be affordable inside our slice of the BoRIA 501(c)(3) umbrella budget from which we operate.
Therefore, to make the earthwork improvement project “scalable”—we sectioned the entire fort up for identification purposes. This allowed exact sections to be differentiated, as not all fort segments are in identical shape. If you look at the Project Proposal map, we catalogued the fort’s many main sections into 14 discrete work segments in order to go forth with requests for proposals to estimate the cost and scope of work required by a numbered segment. The final proposal for a “Phase 1” shows Southern Half segments, colored and numbered 1-7. (Earthwork Segments 8-14 are the Northern Half, “Phase 2”).
The BHF 2024 Campaign Approvals pathway. Historically sensitive earthworks do require many levels of approval. We started engagements in early Spring, vetting plans with the Portsmouth tree commissioner, the tree warden, public works leadership, and then bringing in our own organic arborist and professional tree removal expert Eric Whipple of Whippletree. We made several walk throughs of the Fort. We eventually worked out an agreement on the disposition of literally every single tree in the fort’s Southern hemisphere—numbering about 200 total–to select the best and most viable “keepers”, and to agree to remove only the undesirables. Those trees that were clearly damaging the earthworks, dead or superfluous, were marked along with the invasive underbrush targeted by the project.
With these town pre-requisites completed, we were then able to gain the full support and approval from the Town Administrator and Portsmouth Town Council. We concurrently gained State-level permissions from the head of the Rhode Island Historical Preservation & Heritage Commission to proceed on the sensitive earthworks.
Work stated in July 2024, and was executed in conjunction with our ongoing BHFRC volunteer efforts. Whippletree worked at scheduled intervals to maximize efficiency, while we were also able to augment the contracted work team with BHFRC team-work to maximize the efficiency of the project and our limited 501(c)(3) dollars. We made the most of those exact days when the heavy removal equipment was on hand. Leading the way, Eric Whipple moved his equipment and teams around to work methodically on selected sequential mapped out areas. We were able to consult directly, cooperate and resolve any questions or concerns in real time by being alongside and part of one unified clearing team. As a result the full seven segments of the Southern earthworks, from ditch to inside crown slope and extending to the paths were mowed down, raked off, and cleared. We finished the major project muscle movements in late October with our Burt Quist USMC memorial/Daughters of the American Revolution large public clearing which brought out 24 of our wonderful volunteers for one final push.
The Phase 1 project then culminated in November with a separate bid contract awarded to Brettscape of Westport MA, to apply hydroseed throughout the cleared project areas. Special emphasis and extra application was made to the all-important earthworks themselves. This work was accomplished in early November over two days. The results, we think, are self-evident. The entire Southern Half of the fort is now cleared and appropriately seeded. The full contours of the fort’s triple-pointed Southern face and defensive ditches on all sides are now clearly visible for the first time in over 50 years. This includes level pathways from the main gate area all the way around to the Southern Battery Green. We hope to see good results in Spring when growing season starts.
Before & After Progress Example: Southern Battery Area
Outlook for 2025
We definitely want to continue to enhance the new southern “Fort Campus” with upgraded appropriate permanent signage to support navigation, education, and visitor safety. In 2023-24 we produced and installed our own organic educational, navigation and tour signs, which were a non-permanent beta test to see where permanent versions might best be located. Our current temporary (very inexpensive) real estate-style signs have been effective, but it’s time for the next level. However, actual permanent models will require funding resources.
Our major 2024 earthworks improvement project was limited to the Southern Half of the fort only, which was consistent with the size of available and allocated 501(c)(3) funds. BHFRC was looking to repeat roughly the same funding-levels for 2025, but that has been eclipsed to date by decisions to fund other lanes. However, we will continue working on new organic grant avenues, and continue to welcome any/all contributions to help move the ball forward. Therefore, pending any developments of the 2024 BoRIA grant and funding situation, it looks like our 2025 focus will be confined to maintain the Fort’s cleared and improved spaces, keeping our hard-worked southern gains locked in with volunteer time.
Along the way we will provide daily support to the Archeology field school (as we did last year), provide educational and school-organized tours, and look forward to planning a full schedule of events such as a Colonial Era encampment weekend in April or early May, and our Sunset Musket Salute in August on the Anniversary of the Battle of RI, August 29th. Of course, our popular volunteer clearings will be on tap in Spring. Dates TBD. More to follow.
Members of BHFRC and our 501(c)(3) BoRIA appreciate and truly value the continued tangible assistance and full support from our State Senator Linda Ujifusa, and our Representatives Michelle McGaw and Terry Cortvriend, as well as the Portsmouth Town Council writ large (including outgoing Dr Marc Ryan) and the Town Administrator, Mr Rich Rainer who was instrumental over the Summer in approvals for our main improvement project execution. As always Brian Woodhead and DPW team’s support to BHFRC efforts is appreciated. We would like to thank Tree Warden John Fitzgerald, and the Tree Commission and Commissioner Scott Wheeler for all the coordinated advice and support.
