Loved ones honor the life of Donald Kennedy, former Stanford president who helped transform university stanford.edu - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from stanford.edu Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
LITTLE COMPTON Benjamin Simmons dammed Cold Brook in the mid-1700s to create a pond and raceways to harness the waterpower to run his gristmill.
The mill is long gone, but the pond became the center of a natural sanctuary for birds and wildlife.
In the 1960s, Bill Chace and his family built five more ponds connected with a network of trails.The Chace family sold the land in 1995 to the Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management, which maintains the family-friendly public preserve.
Today, the 433-acre refuge, named the Simmons Mill Pond Management Area, is unique because of the wide, easy-to-walk trails and dozens of hand-lettered signs identifying trees, wildlife, rock formations and the land s rich history.