This story was originally published in July 2012, and is maintained here for archival purposes. Learn more about the closure of operations on the W. Alton Jones Campus.
A campus with stories to tell
It’s a facility like none other in New England – a research forest, an environmental camp, and a conference center all in one. The 2,300-acre W. Alton Jones Campus in West Greenwich, celebrating its 50th anniversary this year, is an unexpected place with a remarkable history rooted in Americana, celebrity and politics, and some very interesting tales that seem stranger than fiction.
For the 20,000 people who visit the W. Alton Jones campus every year, it’s a magical place full of big moments in the woods.
It’s namesake, W. Alton Jones, was an oil executive who died in a plane crash. His wife donated the property to the University. President Dwight Eisenhower (left, in the photo above) made several visits to hunt and fish with Jones, and the king of Nepal stayed there at the end of a tour of the United States. The campus was used by the Rhode Island State Police as a temporary hideout for an organized crime informant, and as the set for a 2005 Hollywood movie starring Cybill Shepherd as a serial killer. Hundreds of thousands of pheasants and other game birds were raised there in the 1940s and 50s for sale to hunting clubs and New York City restaurants. And in 1976, a helicopter carrying Rhode Island Governor Phillip Noel crashed on the campus, an event that caused him to reconsider pursuing higher office.
As a research site, the W. Alton Jones campus is a pristine natural laboratory that has provided hundreds of faculty and students with a place to conduct scientific studies on any number of topics – from salamander migration and fish population dynamics to soil moisture and caddisfly larva. A 24-hour survey of the property by nearly 100 scientists revealed that more than 1,000 species live there, including several rare plants and a population of bats that have survived a deadly disease that has nearly wiped out bats elsewhere.
The Whispering Pines Conference Center at the campus hosts 350 conferences and 50 weddings each year in a historic estate that provides a unique refuge from distractions and serves up scrumptious meals of local culinary legend. And the Environmental Education Center offers a wide range of award-winning, accredited camps for kids that have repeatedly been rated tops in Rhode Island and one of the 15 best in New England.
For the 20,000 people who visit the W. Alton Jones campus every year, it’s a magical place full of big moments in the woods.