Walking RI: Visit A Civil War grave and remnants of a bygone RI railroad in Hopkinton

• Access: Off Route 95, take Exit 2 and drive south on Woodville-Alton Road to a parking lot on the left.
• Parking: Available at a small lot.
• Dogs: Allowed, but must be leashed.
• Difficulty: Easy.

HOPKINTON — Charles Collins joined the Union Army during the Civil War and died at age 16 on the Mississippi River in 1863. He’s buried next to his parents in a cemetery on farmland here where he grew up.

I paused at Collins’ grave and thought about the tragic loss of life during a recent walk through the Black Farm Management Area. If you like history, there’s a lot more to learn in the preserve, as well as several natural features to study.

The trails cross two bridges over Canonchet Book, half-circle a kettle pond, pass a curious stone foundation and follow an abandoned railroad bed to the Wood River, where stone abutments that once supported the tracks still stand.

Walking RI:5 great hikes with ocean views

Walking RI:Family-friendly hiking at a former Girl Scout camp in Westerly

Step-by-step guide to beautiful Stepstone Falls

Black Farm is only 245 acres, much smaller than other state management areas such as Arcadia and Buck Hill. But sometimes, smaller is better. It encourages you to stop more often and focus on what you see and hear. And there’s a lot to think about at Black Farm.

From the trailhead, a friend and I set out on a section of the yellow-blazed Narragansett Trail, which runs for 22 miles through southern Rhode Island and Connecticut.

A rickety bridge over a rushing brook

The footpath runs up a small rise and along a ridgeline with a shallow hollow below. At a fork, we walked left down the hillside and heard the fast-rushing Canonchet Brook running through the valley well before we saw it.

Looking for a great birdwatching spot?: Try this former Navy site in North Kingstown

Walking RI:Immigrant war hero's legacy lives on at Glocester preserve

The 15-foot-wide brook is crossed by a rickety bridge built of wooden slats nailed to thick tree branches. White water tumbled over mini-waterfalls upstream. We studied the safety of the crossing, noted that somebody had replaced some of the boards to cover holes in the bridge and then walked across without incident.

On the other side, we hiked up a rise and through the trees got a first glimpse of Plain Pond, a circle-shaped body of water called a kettle pond. The basin was formed during the Ice Age when a large chunk of stagnant ice detached from a glacier and became partially buried in sediment. The slowly melting ice left behind the depression.

Plain Pond has no feeder streams and fills from groundwater and runoff. Its green tint is caused by reflections from the tall pines lining the banks.

Somber reflection at a Civil War grave

From there, we took a left and hiked along an unremarkable trail through the woods until it ran off the property. We turned around and walked by the pond on the left and continued until we saw a neat, rectangular-shaped, stone slab-lined cemetery, with a huge pine tree in the middle. It had been recently raked and cleared of brush.

Vest place to hike and osprey spotting?: Try the Great Swamp in South Kingstown

Walking RI:Exploring trail-blazer 'Vin' Gormley's playground in Charlestown

We walked through an old iron gate and counted about 20 slate, granite and marble headstones. One was marked for Thankful Collins Kenyon (1795-1890). The other side of the plot had other stones for more members of the Collins family, including one with an American flag and marked Charles L. Collins (1847-1863). After enlisting at age 15, Charles served in the Navy during the Civil War as a signal quartermaster and died suddenly of diphtheria a year later, far from home on board the steamer USS Eastport on the Mississippi River. 

His stone is inscribed:

“Dear Friends, my country calls me and I must go

With leaden wings to face the foe

And should I die on southern shore

I hope we’ll meet to part no more.”

The two graves next to Charles' are marked for his father, Charles Willet Collins (1813-1888) and his mother, Mary N. Hoxie Collins (1827-1908).

The Collins family owned and farmed the land for centuries, starting in 1710 when John Collins, a Quaker from Westerly, acquired 450 acres along the Wood River, part of 3,000 acres purchased by Collins and six others at the same time.

Walking RI:Trestle Trail in Coventry is a great spot for fitness training

Walking RI:Seal-watching and scenic splendor at Rome Point in North Kingstown

The land was passed down from fathers to sons, grandsons and other relatives. At various periods over 200 years, the land was used for dairy, sheep and poultry farming and planted with orchards. For a time, lumber was harvested there.

The property was once called the Isaac Collins farm, named for a doctor who practiced in Richmond. He, his wife, Mary, and their children are buried in the cemetery.

After a series of land transfers, Margaret McCormack Black acquired the property in 1964. The Black family sold the land to the state in 1991 to be used as open space.

We stood quietly and respectfully by the graves for a few minutes before returning to the trail, heading back to the pond and walking along the banks through the woods.

Walking RI:Stunning views of two states on Exeter's Hemlock Ledges Trail

Walking RI:Retracing Thoreau's 1854 hike through Providence

What was the origin of an unusual stone foundation?

The path broke right and descended a long slope before reaching an unusual stone foundation. The granite block walls were about 5 feet high with three openings and two stone pillars at the far end in front of another chamber. But what caught my interest was the rounded corners of the walls. Most of the old farm foundations for houses, cellar holes, barns and storage sheds that I’ve seen on my hikes have squared-off corners.

Walking RI:Time-traveling along the Queen River in Exeter

Walking RI:Take in the fragile beauty of Warren's Touisset Marsh during a coastal hike

Some hikers think the structure may have been an old mill, but there was no stream or millrace nearby. Others said it was a depot or storage barn for a nearby railroad line.

But I learned later that it was probably an ice house used to store blocks cut from Plain Pond. The ice may have been shipped on the freight line.

After inspecting the site, we picked up the trail that ran along a raised, straight-as-an arrow railroad bed that passed through a tunnel of pine trees. We followed it north through a gate and then all the way to Old Depot Road. Side trails on the right lead to the Wood River.

Walking RI:Rediscover Providence's Roger Williams Park on a serene hike around its ponds

Walking RI:A green getaway in the thick of Providence

Turning around, we retraced our steps by the stone foundation, skirted two fields and followed a path over a bridge made from a flat, low-bed trailer — with tires still attached — on stone pilings over a stream. We pondered how it was dropped into place, and then continued on to the Wood River. 

Stone pillars in the water once supported tracks for the Wood River Branch Railroad, which started running in 1874 and carried freight and passengers from a depot in Hope Valley to the Richmond Switch. A grain mill operator in Hope Valley bought the railroad in 1937. But it was abandoned after a grain elevator burned down 1947. The tracks are gone now.

Historical photos: All aboard the Wood River Branch Railroad in southern RI

We stood on a high, stone abutment on the river’s edge and watched a beaver swim upstream. 

After our break, we walked back over the trailer bridge and then took a left across a wooden bridge over Canonchet Brook. The stream was much wider here and running more slowly than it was at the section we crossed on the rickety bridge when we started. Several turtles sunned themselves on branches in the brook and plopped into the water as we passed.

The trail rimmed a field, with farm buildings and a barn on the left, before crossing a stone wall and entering the woods. We climbed a small hill and followed the path back to where we'd started.

Walking RI:Coastal views and prime bird-watching at Tiverton's Emilie Ruecker preserve

Walking RI:A birder's paradise by the shore in Middletown

Walking RI:Hollywood wow factor on Hopkinton trail

In all, we walked 5 miles over 2½ hours.

Sometimes, hikes can be lively and a chance to swap stories with hiking buddies. 

Sometimes, the pace is fast to cover a lot of ground in a big preserve.

And sometimes, walks are quiet and a time to reflect. Our hike through Black Farm was mostly like that, and I think visiting young Charles’ grave had something to do with it.

Trail Tip

The Rhode Island Historical Cemetery Commission offers information about historic graves at rihistoriccemeteries.org.

John Kostrzewa, a former assistant managing editor/business at The Providence Journal, welcomes email at johnekostrzewa@gmail.com.