Rhode Island
#4 Jerimoth Hill, elevation 812 ft.
Abandoned observatories. Cranky music teachers. Pine needles.
Jerimoth Hill was long considered one of the most inaccessible highpoints by virtue of attitude, not latitude.
The site is named after Jerimoth Brown, who in the late 1800s owned much of the surrounding land. According to local historian Viola Ulm, "Jerimoth" is biblical in origin, perhaps meaning “fat belly,” and should be pronounced “Jer-EYE-muth.” The summit clearing was long owned by Brown University, but until 2011 the path to reach it from Route 101 passed through the property of Henry Richardson, a music teacher who by most accounts was not a highpointing enthusiast. Whether that characterization is fair or not, Richardson was rumored to be hostile to visitors, especially highpointers, owing to the frequent traffic to the site and encounters with less courteous questers. Stories range from Richardson and his allies allegedly letting air out of tires and threats with guns to more benign confrontations. The Highpointers’ Club was instrumental in addressing those concerns and negotiating limited days of access to the site.
After Richardson died, in 2001, the land, including the summit clearing, was sold to a couple more amenable to visitors. They built the current path through the pines to reach the summit rock.
Survey markers can be found along the path and around the summit area. A cairn sometimes crowns the true highpoint, which is just inside the woods adjacent to the clearing.
Long ago Brown built a small observatory on the summit. When I last visited, one of the telescope mounts was a nursery for wild ferns, and the machinery shed was home to a brood of buzzing insects.
In December 2011, the entire property was sold to the State of Rhode Island, guaranteeing in perpetuity open access to Jerimoth Hill. Across the street from the former Richardson property (and still there as of 2012) was an old FM radio-station tower, which sits beside a ruined building that once housed a greasy-spoon called Goodies.
Both times I visited Jerimoth I was on my way to Cape Cod for summer vacation. One on of those trips I brought my daughter. Some climbers are more enthusiastic than others…
