Stonehenge and a Tower in Rhode Island

Abstract

In Touro Park near the highest point in the city of Newport, Rhode Island, stands a small stone tower. I first saw it as a child, and I was told at the time that no one knew when and by whom it was built or for what purpose. The local people contended that it was built in early colonial times to serve as a mill, but belief in a much earlier Scandinavian origin had never completely disappeared. The means now appear to be at hand to settle this perplexing controversy, and the result may reshape our ideas of the early settlement of this continent by people of the North. In the course of the study, the nascent science of archaeo-astronomy will again demonstrate its power to date ancient structures and, at times, alter history. At issue may be the question of the oldest European structure in America.