- [Announcer] "Our Town: Cumberland" is made possible by the following benefactor sponsors.

Navigant Credit Union, proud sponsors of Rhode Island PBS and "Our Town: Cumberland."

Our customers are our owners.

Navigantcu.org.

Blackstone River Theatre is proud to be Cumberland's cultural arts center.

For 20 years, we have presented music from around the world, art classes, our Summer Solstice Festival and more.

Riverfolk.org, and patron sponsor, Cadillac Mills.

(mellow acoustic music) - Charlestown, today, you would say, "Gee, it hasn't changed much."

(mellow acoustic music) - She remembers my uncle.

(mellow acoustic music) - Overlooking Moswansicut Pond.

(mellow acoustic music) - [Narrator] Located in the northeastern corner of Rhode Island, settled in 1635 and incorporated in 1746, Cumberland is the fastest growing town in the state.

You will find some of the richest natural resources around, including hundreds of acres of preserved land that can be explored through hiking trails and boat tours.

Did you know Cumberland is also home to a rock that can't be found anywhere else in the world?

The Blackstone River is also the site of mills that led to the American Industrial Revolution.

Over the next hour, our volunteer filmmakers tell these stories of Cumberland past and present.

These are their stories.

This is "Our Town: Cumberland."

(slow piano music) - The monastery's very important.

The people there love it, especially the grounds.

There's over 500 acres there with a lot of trails.

People use them every day.

(calm music) This plaque shows the history of the monastery property, from when the monks moved here until it was dedicated as a library for the town of Cumberland.

The monks came there from Nova Scotia around 1900 and got permission to start a Cistercian monastery there.

It's the first monastery of that type in the United States.

(birds chirp) This is the porter's lodge.

While the monks who lived here were mostly a silent order, they did have to interact with the public.

They sold Trappist jams and they sold fresh breads.

The porter was the person who would speak to the members of the public, and he stayed here.

Also, guests who came to visit would also come to the porter's lodge.

In March of 1950, there was a devastating fire at the monastery.

It started in the guesthouse and leapt to the roof of the church and other parts of the monastery.

These two images are from the front pages of "The Woonsocket Call," a local newspaper.

Oh, estimates were $2 million of damage worth, but no lives were lost.

There has never been discovered how the fire was started.

This aerial view of the monastery shows all of the completed buildings, including the guesthouse and the church.

The guesthouse is where the fire started.

All of the granite for, to create these buildings was quarried right here on the monastery property.

(calm music) It was interesting to start working there before we added on, because a monastery, a former monastery, with 24-inch walls in some places is not conducive to technology.

You had to run the, you know, like, data cables miles, it seemed like miles, to get even a couple of computers set up.

So that's why the original monastery part is mostly meeting rooms, it's administrative offices, restrooms, those kinds of things, and then all of the other, the public spaces are in the new, we call it the new section, because, but it's over 20 years old now.

(laughs) The staff has put together, like, a monastery history, which is on our website.

We also have a book that we keep up at the reference desk, a binder with photos and information, 'cause people keep asking about it.

(calm music) Today, the second floor hallway of the library was once the cloisters that the monks used.

The statues of the cross are gone, but we still retained the terrazzo floor, the doors at the end of the hall once led to the church, and up above us are the vaulted ceiling with the plaster decorations that are all original.

(calm music) The monks' chapter and reading room is now the library's largest meeting room, the community room.

While much of it has changed, the original vaulted ceiling with its plaster decorations are still here.

The stained glass windows were not here when the monks were here.

They were added by the Grey Friars, who rented the property after the monks left for Spencer.

This is a photo of the monks' chapter room.

They would use it for study and monthly meetings to discuss goings-on in the monastery and air any complaints.

They were mostly a silent order, and this is one of the few places where the monks were allowed to speak.

When the monks came here from Nova Scotia, they brought with them a statue of Bernard de Saint Clairvaux, and the plinth that it was sitting on.

When they left here after the fire to go rebuild in Spencer, Massachusetts, they took the statue with them, but left the plinth.

This is the original plinth that once held the statue of St. Bernard de Clairvaux.

When the monastery became a library in 1976, they were gifted with this statue of a hand holding a book.

It's one of the prettier libraries in the, (laughs) in Rhode Island, and one of the largest.

It's, I think it's the second largest, space-wise.

Maybe not the largest town, but the, our, you know, we have seven meeting rooms.

That's a lot of meeting rooms, and sometimes, pre-pandemic, they were all full.

(calm music) - I have spent my entire life in Cumberland.

I grew up, actually, right next door to where I live now.

My grandparents owned Ski Valley Ski Area, and I grew up in the house next door.

Ski Valley was opened in the early 1960s by Fred and Mary Egan.

Fred used to ski at the state-run Diamond Hill Ski Area, and dreamed of making a go at running his own.

Fred and Mary purchased 40 acres in the northwest corner of Cumberland.

I was able to go back and find the original deed to purchasing the land and see what they paid for land back then, and it was very interesting to see that it was purchased for $5,400 back then, and what that would mean now.

The original Ski Area consisted of an aptly named Small Hill and Big Hill, both serviced by a rope tow.

Over the years, they grew to add more trails, eventually purchasing the first chairlift in the state of Rhode Island.

Ski Valley became a hub for school ski clubs, a place for parents to drop off kids for some physical activity during the winter months, and a hill for people to hone their skills before jumping to the larger hills in New England.

There was a ski school staffed by a variety of people, including the first female ski school director in Rhode Island, as well as many locals who grew up skiing there.

It was a place where everyone knew each other, and you could find your friends and family throughout the winter.

As you go through Cumberland, almost everyone knows someone who worked at Ski Valley, learned to ski there, or sat in the lodge, watching their kids.

After the Ski Area closed, when I was in high school, I actually worked at Klein Innsbruck, which is in nearby Massachusetts, and worked for them until they closed, experiencing, kind of, our families had been knit together there, and I take my kids skiing and tubing at Yawgoo to kinda keep up the only ski area that's left.

My uncle who ran Ski Valley with the family still works in the ski industry in New Hampshire, so it's still with the family and will be forever.

I want people to know that Ski Valley was a work of love, and a place my grandparents loved getting to see everybody from the community and interact with everyone, and being that hub for kids to get out and enjoy winter sports, and then take those skills on into other places, and how a local family that didn't come from much was able to establish such a great community treasure for people to go to, and that that was something possible, where, now, you have those big ski conglomerates that, you can't do that today.

(slow rock music) - My name is Bill Gardner.

I would like to tell you how my family is connected to the town of Cumberland.

Also, some history of which I believe few residents are aware.

I will be discussing how my grandfather came to live in Cumberland, and his connection to the Diamond Hill Hotel, and some world boxing champions of the late 1890s and early 1900s that trained at the Diamond Hill Hotel.

Well, I was born in Cumberland.

I lived there up until two years ago.

Actually, I spent my whole life there.

I've been working on this for a number of years.

I'm working on a book about my grandfather and his brothers.

They were world champion boxers in the turn of the century, turn of the last century.

The Gardner family lived in Ireland.

In August, 1890, the brothers, George, age 14, Billy, age 12, and Jimmy, age eight, with their parents and siblings, immigrated to the United States.

All three brothers went on to become nationally well-known boxers.

It was reported that when George Gardner fought Bob Fitzsimmons in San Francisco, over 2,000 people stood outside "The Lowell Sun" newspaper office in Lowell, Massachusetts, to hear the wire accounts of the fight.

They boxed everywhere in the country, and this was right when Wyatt Earp and all of those people, and, actually, Wyatt Earp was a referee in boxing, back in those days, so it's like the Old West coming (chuckles) to life.

(slow rock music) I know that Billy and Jimmy had boxing matches in the area, they would stay at the Diamond Hill Hotel.

Their brother, George, had boxing matches with many of the world boxing champions during this time, some of whom would later be training at Diamond Hill.

I had learned from my father that his Pa, as he called him, had run a training camp at the Diamond Hill Hotel.

The Diamond Hill Hotel was located on a parcel of land on the easterly side of Diamond Hill Road, what is now 3587 Diamond Hill Road.

This site is now the location of St. John Vianney's Church.

People drive by over in Diamond Hill and they don't even realize, I don't think, that the hotel was there, and that some of the world-famous boxers of that time, like Jack Johnson, he supposedly, my grandfather supposedly had trained him in Diamond Hill.

The training school at the Hotel trained boxers until it burned to the ground.

Several years ago, while doing research for a book about my grandfather and his brothers, I discovered that the hotel had burned to the ground on August 8th, 1912.

The article stated that the building was over 200 years old at the time of the fire.

My father, Jimmy Gardner, was born a century ago in 1908 across the road from the Diamond Hill Hotel.

After my grandfather announced in 1906 that he would make his residence in town, he lived the rest of his life in Cumberland until his death on February 25th, 1950.

"The Pawtucket Times" headline of his obituary read, "'Billy' Gardner, Trained Champ, "Old-Time Boxer, Fatally Stricken, "Worked with Jack Johnson."

(calm piano music) (birds chirp) - I think the most interesting thing about the building and the family is it's a microcosm of the American story.

My great-grandfather emigrated from Poland to the United States in 1896 or 1897.

He didn't come here penniless.

I don't think he came here with a large pile of money, either.

He worked in a mill in Paterson, New Jersey, for awhile.

He eventually started a mill in Paterson, and when Paterson was on the decline as a manufacturing center, the businesses moved here in 1933.

We're still here.

We're fourth-generation in the family business.

David Schwartz emigrated from Lodz, Poland, a textile manufacturing center, in 1896 or 1897.

He was a weaver.

He immigrated to Paterson, New Jersey, at the turn of the 20th century.

Paterson was a major textile center at the time.

It was founded by Alexander Hamilton, who saw the potential of the Great Falls of the Passaic River to be harnessed for industry.

By 1900, Paterson was the center of the silk-weaving industry in the United States, and it was referred to as the Silk City.

In January of 1921, David Schwartz and his two sons, Harry and Samuel, started Cadillac Silk Mills in Paterson, New Jersey.

This is the original minute book.

David had a heart attack in 1923 and was bedridden until his death in 1944, so Harry and Sam ran the business.

By the 1930s, Paterson was in decline as an industrial center.

The area from Northern Rhode Island to Fall River, Massachusetts, was now the industry hub.

The early 1930s was the depth of the Great Depression.

Mill buildings could be had just for the taxes owed, but Harry found a mill he liked on the Blackstone River, about 100,000 square feet, and bought it in 1933 for $10,000.

He managed the mill from 1933 to 1969.

The buildings were expanded several times through 1974, and now total 210,000 square feet.

By the end of 1933, silk production had ceased, and we were producing rayon and acetate fabrics, some of the earliest synthetic fibers.

In its heyday, this mill had 400 employees working three shifts making over 20 million yards of fabric of a year.

One of the things about my Uncle Harry, my, he's actually my great-uncle, he cared about the employees.

For example, there was no third shift run on Saturdays, and the reason was, Uncle Harry said, "People should be able to go home "after the first shift on Saturday "and take a shower and go out "and have a Saturday night with their families."

They weren't just workers.

In 1986, unfortunately, the Chinese started making the same fabrics we were making in huge quantities, and put us out of business.

In 1986, we went out of the weaving business, sold our machinery.

There were 20 empty mills in this valley in 1986 and you really couldn't sell them, and my cousin Tom said, "Let's just change the building into a rental facility "for warehousing and manufacturing," which, he did, and by 1990, he had a going as that kind of business and he wanted to do something else, and I took over.

I've been managing the building since 1990.

And again, this year, the company, we're a successor company, Cadillac Mills, it was originally called Cadillac Silk Company, we've been around for 100 years now.

We currently have 12 businesses.

There's over 100 people who work in the building.

(slow piano music) In the summer of 2020, we had to repaint this building, and at a point, the block work and so on.

It just needed it.

And when it was done, I thought, the building looks so good, it kinda cries out for a mural.

So through a tenant, a tenant of ours said he found a mural in Cranston of sandhill cranes in flight, and the artist was Amy Bartlett Wright.

I contacted her, and this is how we ended up, this is a view of the Valley Falls Marsh, which is right behind the building, kind of looking north on the Blackstone River, and that's pretty much how it looks, and she mostly designed it.

The only thing I did was I said, "The one thing I definitely want as a focal point "is an osprey that's just plucked a fish "out of the Blackstone."

(slow piano music) - And it's an incredibly beautiful spot behind the building.

I've often taken people back there and you stand with the building behind you, and you could be, like, in Oxford, England, or someplace in Vermont.

It's just this gorgeous view.

(slow piano music) (calm acoustic music) - The River Tour is important because the river is important, and the Explorer was actually the first boat on the water, and is actually the only boat on the Blackstone that tells the history of the river and the towns it flows through, Cumberland being one of those towns, and for the past 20-odd years, I've been a tour guide on the boat, and we've probably educated over 400,000 students, and the boat was launched in 1993.

We also have a canal boat, an Old English, British canal boat, which serves as a bed-and-breakfast, which has also been a way of getting people out on the river.

So I think it's important for people to understand how the river, you know, it was one of the most polluted rivers in the country because of the Industrial Revolution, but to learn how they can have an impact on, help to get it cleaner.

You know, we also work with, you know, other groups that do cleanups along the river, like the Watershed Council and, you know, our Keep Blackstone Valley Beautiful program in other places, you know, and it's important because what flows in the river ends up in the bay, which, ultimately, ends up in the ocean.

So, you know, we try to educate, as well as tell the story, and we need to really add more to that story, because the history didn't start with William Blackstone.

There have been people living on the river, the Wampanoags and the Nipmucs up in the northern section of the river, you know, utilizing the river for fishing and hunting, and, you know, Wampanoags, originally the Pocassets.

(slow acoustic music) The river, it kinda connects the communities.

It's what weaves all the stories and the history in the Blackstone Valley, including Cumberland, with Ann & Hope, William Blackstone, the mills, the Lonsdale Manufacturing Company, which was what became Ann & Hope, and we tell those stories, but also, because the river's making a comeback, we also get to share the wonders of wildlife along the river.

(calm acoustic music) (water rushing) - My name's John Marsland, and I'm a lifelong resident of Cumberland, Rhode Island, and President of the Blackstone River Watershed Council, Friends of the Blackstone.

(water rushes) (calm acoustic music) This is an important story 'cause it was part of my life.

I grew up in Valley Falls, and I played in the Valley Falls Marsh and along the Blackstone, and back in my childhood, there was a lot of junk and toxic puddles, and, that we would, you know, frogs and fish, but there was a lot of debris down there that we knew shouldn't be there.

So as I grew older, I formed, in 1990, I formed Friends of the Blackstone to get the community involved with cleaning up some of this trash, (water rushes) and we merged with the Blackstone River Watershed Council in '97 and formed the current group, Blackstone River Watershed Council, Friends of the Blackstone.

Our main purpose is the stewardship on the Blackstone River.

We organize community cleanups, and work with other government agencies to get things done for the Blackstone River, and to highlight the recreational resources and improve the recreational resources on the Blackstone River.

(upbeat acoustic music) At one time, the Blackstone River was one of the most polluted rivers in the country.

The passage of the Clean Water Act in the '70s and the Zap the Blackstone in 1972 led the way for the communities to get involved to clean up the Blackstone River.

In 1990, when the Friends of the Blackstone was formed, we pushed to get fish ladders installed on the river and to clean up areas like the Fanning Wilderness Area, where the Valley Boys cleaned an estimated 25,000 tires over a three to five-year period.

One of the better examples of what we do is to clean the Pratt Dam of tree debris that clog the tubes.

We've been doing it over the last 20 years on a volunteer basis with a group called the Valley Boys, and the reason why we clean the tubes is the danger it poses on the community, whether they're canoeing, kayaking, or the flooding it could create upriver.

(upbeat acoustic music) We just don't do cleanups.

We also offer recreational resources on the Blackstone River, like our Connecting With Canoes program at Sycamore Landing where you can canoe down to Albion through one of the prettiest vistas in the Blackstone Valley overlooking the Blackstone River, then clean back to Manville, about a two-hour trip.

I just enjoy being out in Mother Nature and the soothing effect being around water has on your mind.

We're starting a new program called Blue Mind, where we're trying to get people to hike around the river, be on the river, and use that to soothe our stress and anxiety of today's world.

(slow acoustic music) - Hello, I'm Randy Tuomisto.

I'm the President of the Cumberland Land Trust.

We're in beautiful Cumberland, Rhode Island, located right now at the Mercy Woods Preserve.

(calm acoustic music) The Sisters of Mercy, which were a very important part of the Cumberland community, they settled in 1913 in the northeast corner of Cumberland, purchasing a 243-acre plot of land.

When they elected to sell the property, they looked towards the town and Cumberland Land Trust to preserve that property.

(calm acoustic music) This 212-acre property consists of three major trails, totaling 5.7 miles.

The trails are maintained and well-marked.

The majority of the trails are moderate.

Mercy Woods offers incredible, a multi-season landscape to explore.

The intersection of the Grape Trail and the Yellow Trail, we have one of numerous postings by the Sisters of Mercy.

These are meditations that are very inspirational, and a lot of people enjoy stopping and reading them.

We own over 667 acres, and we manage another 213 acres for the town of Cumberland.

(mumbles) The opportunity to engage with nature, see animal wildlife, and there's some tremendous views of meadows and historic sites.

(slow acoustic music) - [Old Woman] Franklin Farm, over the years, has really become sort of a fixture in our community.

Those of us who know the farm well just love it.

It's a gorgeous piece of property.

(slow acoustic music) - [Young Woman] It is the only piece of, the only historical property that the town of Cumberland owns where people would be able to come and take a tour and learn about our history, where they can stretch out and walk across the fields that farmers used to have their cows on.

So it's very important for the heritage and the cultural history for Cumberland.

- So when we were applying to the National Register, we did a lot of history of this farm, and we learned that the original farmer and the one responsible for forming the entity that we now know as Franklin Farm was Liberty Metcalf, and he was born in 1776.

The Metcalfs and their descendants farmed this property 'til about the, around 1850, and at that point, it was sold to the Franklin family.

The Franklins farmed the property up until 2005, when the last member of the Franklin family passed away and the land became the property of the town of Cumberland.

Of course, another very important factor, item that we have going on the farm, is that of the community garden.

So we are into our 15th year of growing, and, to date, we have raised 410,000 pounds of vegetables, much of which goes to the Rhode Island Community Food Bank, although there are about five local soup kitchens and soup pantries in the Cumberland area that we deliver directly to, and that kinda saves the Food Bank the transportation cost.

- But we also have an allotment garden, which is where people in our community can come and, for a donation of time and a small donation, they can grow their own vegetables.

One of the neatest things that I've seen by having both those gardens is people who come out, who have not done gardening before, and having that first experience of, how do you pick a cucumber, and how do you pick a zucchini?

Getting dirty, seeing bugs, children and bugs are very fun to watch.

(slow acoustic music) Educational program has just kind of grown in leaps and bounds as people come to appreciate that outdoor learning.

They want their children to be outside more, to experience those days where you're running across the field, or you're finding that really cool bug or that plant or that leaf, or seeing that bird, whatever it is.

It's been a really great experience to see that growth, and see children go from, "I'm not going to touch that," to "Let me hold it."

So, it's been very good.

- We have what we call farm experiences for the kids, either a pond camp, where we actually have the kids up at our, the pond that's on the property, and a farm camp, where the kids learn about planting vegetables and about farm animals.

- Do you want to see?

Hi, I'm Lynn Dubeau, and I am here at Franklin Farm.

I grew up as a child in Cumberland overlooking this farm when the cows used to be here.

It's really special for me to be able to be here as part of our education program.

(chick chirps) This'll be the 13th summer that I'm doing farm science, and it's for kids ages five to 12, and then I have, some of my campers have grown up to be some of my junior counselors and counselors.

But I make it my goal to bring animals to the farm for kids to know about where animals come from, how to care for them, how they fit into agriculture, and have hands-on experiences.

(chicks chirp) (slow acoustic music) - [Denise] And I think one of the things that is really wonderful are the people that the farm brings together.

We have a very diverse group of people who come from all different backgrounds, all different ages.

We're not, it's not all retired, and it's not all young kids, and it's not all, it's a nice mix.

So to see that multi-generation of people working together for a really cool goal of, whether it be preservation, education, or the community garden.

- [Pam] So, I did come to the farm when I retired.

I have made so many new friends.

It's really wonderful, and it really has become like a family.

(slow acoustic music) - Holding government officials accountable, telling the stories of your neighbors.

I live there, and so the things that matter to me, matter to my neighbors.

And so, if I can report on those things, I feel like it makes the community a stronger place, which is the mission statement that we try to abide by.

So with these news deserts is, the studies, from what I've read, have shown that there is higher corruption, higher taxes, just a lower quality of life, in general, and when you can highlight a problem in a town park or in town government, show the voter who the candidate is before they elect them, then I think that makes the community a stronger place.

So, 25 years ago, as other publications were kinda cutting back, we said, hey, let's fill this gap that's being left as some of the daily papers cut back.

And so, they started covering some of those really happy stories.

And then over time, as the harder news went away, we started covering some of that, as well.

We try to do investigative work.

(mellow acoustic music) - I think the citizens in Cumberland, Lincoln, the readers of "The Observer" publications, are probably the best-informed citizens in this entire state.

We know what's going on with our local government.

We know what's going on in our community.

We know what's going on in the businesses in our community.

Good news is always a part of the agenda.

People are interested in what their children are doing, sports teams, everything and anything that we could want as citizens, "The Breeze" gives to us.

- [Ethan] I think our readership is probably higher than anybody else in the country for a free weekly, and we're pretty proud of that, and the fact that we actually do real journalism in a free newspaper.

I delivered the paper, so, on Thursday mornings, so I get to see people scramble for the rack.

And, but, and people call it "Breeze" Day in Cumberland, Thursdays.

- In this day and age, you know, when there's so much outsourcing and things like that, and your news organization can be several states away, and it's always nice, to me, that I might pass Ethan Shorey walking in Dave's Market, or I might see Dan Yorke at CHOPs, and it just, it brings it all local, and it makes it that more important to me that, you know, we know "The Valley Breeze," 'cause they know us.

- It's a community-based newspaper.

You can find anything from what's happening in the neighborhood to political events, sports, school, anything that you can imagine, you can find that in "The Valley Breeze," and it's amazing because it's a free newspaper for our residents, and we're so lucky to have that.

(mellow acoustic music) - It's really a little bit of everything.

I have to be covering a sock drive one minute, and then a city council president getting removed from office.

(mellow acoustic music) If there's no quality journalists covering local news, I don't think our country can survive.

And it might sound alarmist, but if we lose that sense of connection and that sense of a neighbor feeling like they know what's happening on their street and who their neighbors are, and what's happening around them, and everybody's just sort of living by rumor and conjecture and angry at each other, people really need to realize how important it is to support your local newspaper, and support any quality local news source.

It doesn't have to be a newspaper, but people who have a commitment to finding the real story, don't have ulterior motives, really are committed to the truth.

(slow music) - Hi, I'm Dave Brown.

I own a shop called A Rock 4 U. I live in Cumberland, and I'm gonna tell you a little bit about my story.

As you may know, Cumberlandite is the official state rock of Rhode Island.

Established by the state legislature in 1966 as the official state rock, Cumberlandite is so rare and unique, it's only found in Rhode Island.

Think about that for a minute.

A rock that can only be found in one place on the entire planet, and it's found right here in Cumberland.

(calm music) It was a very obscure thing that I stumbled upon after living in the town for 15 years.

I finally bought a home that was blessed with a plethora of Cumberlandite strewn about its backyard, and I began to explore what this rock was and ask some questions.

But prior to my finding it, I had not even heard about it, having lived in town for a number of years.

(leaves rustle) Scale of the size of these rocks, (leaves rustle) probably two feet high, (leaves rustle) three feet long.

Magnet.

(magnet thuds) Sticks to the magnet.

Here are a few smaller pieces of Cumberlandite.

(calm music) In fact, that small piece on the right looks perfect to take to my saw and carve up.

(leaves rustle) Give you an idea of what it looks like on the inside.

(calm music) All right, we're ready to go.

Block your ears, this might get loud.

(calm music) (machine hums) (blade hisses) So I'm gonna put this rock on one of these, actually, all three of these tools, and we're gonna continue to work the rock into a nice form that we can then turn into a pendant, string with a leather rope, but as I do this, you begin to see very different, unique characteristics of the stone.

(calm music) Normally, the rock will tell you whether it wants to be cut in a certain location or not.

(tool hisses) Sometimes I need to take a guide wire and stick it through first.

(calm music) And then, we set it up in a light box to get it ready to be photographed to be posted for sale.

(calm music) So I interviewed a gentlemen named Ernie Zielinski, as you'll see in the footage, who is a member of the board of directors of the Rhode Island Mineral Hunters Club, of all things, and he educated me a little bit as to where this rock originated from.

What makes Cumberlandite so unique and special to this area?

- This is the only place in the world it's found.

It is a, it was a very unique plume of lava.

Geologists are hazy on when it actually erupted.

It came out of a volcano that poked its head out of the ocean anywhere from four to 600 million years ago, much in the same way that Hawaii is formed.

It was on a hot plume, and the plume just burst up, and you, it happened to be Cumberlandite, which is a very unique mixture of titanium, several ores of iron, and a bunch of other stuff thrown in.

But, you can say Rhode Island started life as an island.

Iron Mine Hill in Cumberland is the original source, is the mother lode of Cumberlandite.

That's where the volcano was.

- [Dave] If you keep your eyes open and you really look around, you'll find a lot of remarkable things that maybe people just overlook on a daily basis.

(mellow acoustic music) - I first went into Phantom Farms, I was a Dunkin' Donuts girl, (chuckles) and I would go to Dunkin' Donuts every morning, and we were running late for soccer practice with my boys, and my husband said, "Just, we'll just stop at Phantom.

"You can get a coffee."

And I was like, "No."

And he said, "Just try it."

And so we pulled in, I got my milk chocolate almond iced coffee, and I've been going back ever since.

Phantom Farms is not just an apple orchard.

It is so much more.

It is a beautiful 13-acre farm located on Diamond Hill Road in Cumberland.

If you live in Cumberland, you have probably driven by it.

It's currently owned by Kerri Stenovitch and her husband, David Joseph, but there is definitely some history hidden amongst the apple trees.

John Butler and his wife, Catherine, bought the property and built the farmhouse in the early 1930s, and legend has it that he wasn't just harvesting apples on the farm.

(guests murmur) (mellow acoustic music) - But he was using it as a drinking, gambling spot, a little drinking, gambling spot, and that's kind of where the name came, Phantom Farms.

It wasn't really a working farm.

It was kind of, like, a made-up business type of thing.

- [Michelle] In 1950, the Roberts family bought the farm and built the farm stand.

Mr. Roberts sold the farm to John Hunt in 1989.

He added the bakery, and hired David at the age of 14, and Kerri at age 16, and they bought it about 10 years ago.

- [Michelle] So you met here at the farm?

- We didn't meet here at the farm.

(upbeat acoustic music) - [Michelle] It's so much more than an apple orchard.

Besides coffee and treats, pumpkins and Christmas trees, flowers and plants, you never know what Kerri has up her sleeve.

(upbeat acoustic music) - Actually, in a way, spend too much time here, but I'm retired.

I can't get into too much trouble in here, and it's, watching Kerri work is exhausting.

(laughs) Watching it.

I mean, the woman just doesn't stop.

She knows how to run all that equipment, the tractor and the loader and the, you know, (chuckles) and one minute, she's loading some material into a dump truck, the next minute, she's over somewhere else on the property and doing something else.

- This has always been some, you know, place where a lot of, you know, local kids and all that stuff have come and gotten jobs, and we've seen a lot of people, you know, come through here.

(upbeat acoustic music) - I feel really lucky to work here.

You know, it's a couple of us that do work here.

We're family-like, and we get along, we talk, we laugh, but, you know, it's hard work, and it's just a good combination.

It's a great job.

- [Woman] They have the beautiful sitting room on the side.

The sun comes in with the plants, and it's just very comfortable.

- [Michelle] How long you been coming here?

- Well, since I moved to Cumberland in 2008, and I used to work here, as a matter of fact.

- [Michelle] Oh, yeah?

- Yes, I did.

- [Michelle] I think we tend to be nostalgic when something is no longer here, but we need to appreciate what we have when we have it, and we have a gem here in Cumberland.

There is something unique and special about Phantom Farms.

(mellow acoustic music) - My name is Sam Thorpe.

I'm the founder and director of Equi Evolution.

We are an equine-facilitated learning and wellness program, (mellow acoustic music) (notification beeps) an equine-facilitated learning and wellness program.

(chuckles) Stop it!

(notification beeps) My name is Sam Thorpe, and I'm the founder and director of Equi Evolution.

We are an equine-facilitated learning and wellness program that incorporates meaningful interaction with horses to improve mental health in our community.

(mellow acoustic music) In my adolescence, I struggled with my own mental health, and I like to say I self-medicated with horses.

I would go to the farm and spend that time there when I was really at my lowest points, and I just knew there was something special about it.

So our program is an experiential learning program, and it incorporates meaningful interaction with horses to address mental health concerns.

So, working with the horses, it's really unique because, for one, you don't have to sit face-to-face with a stranger and share your deepest, darkest secrets, so there's sort of that release of pressure, in that way.

It's also a sematic experience, meaning that it's hands-on, it's interactive, and the brain actually processes information very differently when you're doing something physical.

So engaging with the horses in a physical way really allows people to process information differently, to learn things differently, and we practice a lot of different coping mechanisms and tools that are really helpful for managing symptoms of mental illness.

(birds chirp) - My experience here has been transformative.

I have, I've built bonds with all the animals.

I have enjoyed building a relationship with Sam, and just being in the atmosphere of the farm is very relaxing and rejuvenating, and I feel that I can be myself, and the energy that the horses give off makes me feel less anxious, and just, I can be myself.

(mellow acoustic music) - It's my happy place, and, like, I'm usually only happy when I'm with the horses, and I've gained a very close friendship with all of them.

So it's like, I have friends here now, and I can escape here whenever I feel anxious or sad.

(mellow acoustic music) - I usually come thinking there's gonna be an agenda, like, oh, today I should probably learn how to lead the horse, Jackie, or I need to do this, and then I get there and Sam and the herd have no agenda.

It's not like I have to progress, week to week, because it's not about an end goal.

It's about being present, and being who you are in the moment.

- Well, my favorite part is, mainly is just all the above.

It's working with the horses, it's talking to Sam, it's just enjoying the scenery, the beautiful nature, and, well, my personal favorite part is also just getting to know the horses, and more about my life coach, Sam.

(mellow acoustic music) - Very often, when people are in talk therapy, they tend to be very secret about it.

There's certainly a stigma that we're working as a society to shift past, but it still exists.

And so, I'm always very cautious about what I share, as far as my clients' information, but when I told them about this opportunity, so many people were just so excited to share that they're involved in this, how much it's helped them, all of the different, unique aspects of it that they love so much, and there's no shame in it.

They were just excited to help other people and just get the information out there, so that was just so exciting to see.

Like, I just loved that they were open to sharing it, as well.

So I think Equi Evolution sort of has a connection to both the history and the future of Cumberland.

It's my understanding that Cumberland used to be a really agricultural center, and there were a lot more horses.

Actually, the land that we're on right now used to be cow pastures, we were told.

So there, historically, was a lot more agriculture in Cumberland.

So bringing that back by having the horses there is really, really great, but it's in a different and a unique way, because this program is completely unique.

It's completely different.

So we're both growing with the times, but also maintaining that sort of old tradition of what Cumberland has been about.

(wails) Come on!

(slow acoustic music) - My name is Bernadette Geddes Andrews, and this is the story of the Geddes Farm.

Well, when we were younger, we spent a lot of time down at our grandparents' house, on the farm, and it was a wonderful time with cousins and aunts and uncles.

They did a lot of farming and whatnot.

We learned how to do gardening.

We heard a lot of stories about what had happened in the past with them, and it was just a wonderful place to spend, you know, a lot of time with our family.

Tradition, you know, is something very valuable to us.

My grandparents, William Patrick Geddes and Bridget Rosella Britt, were Irish immigrants that came to Cumberland in the late 1800s.

He worked in the Ashton Mill as a loom repair person.

They met and married in 1905.

A few years later, they bought the old Follett/Carpenter Farm.

In 1921, at the age of 40, my grandfather died, leaving behind his pregnant wife and eight children.

The oldest was May.

At age 16, she had to drop out of school and go to work in the mill.

William Jr., at age 15, had to take over his father's responsibility of running the farm.

Winifred Britt, my grandmother's older sister, moved in and helped raise and support the young Geddes family.

She worked in the mill 50 hours a week, earning only $5.50 per week.

George Geddes, my great-uncle, and Timothy Keith, the local grocery store owner, secured the mortgage for my grandmother because during those times, women could not own property.

In the late 1930s, Hesiodis, a young Greek worker, came to help out on the farm, and purchased his first cow.

This was the beginning of a new dairy business for them, and the business became known as Cumberland Farms.

It grew to over 500 stores.

(calm music) Many relatives today still live on Angell Road.

(calm music) - Hi, I'm Bob Geddes, the current owner of Geddes Farm.

I think my sister's done all this great research and uncovered a lot of great details that we've been able to share, and had many laughs about them, and now I'm sharing with my kids and my grandkids so that the legacy continues in town where they are, they'll know that, you know, that we were part of the fabric of the town of Cumberland's growth.

(calm music) These are two of the original stairs from the old house.

As you can see, we've meticulously restored the fences, the arbor, and the gardens, too.

We've also restored some of the old gas lantern, and we've electrified 'em.

As you can see in the background is the old millstone grinding stone that we utilized as a landscape feature.

This is the toolshed my father Frank Geddes built on the property, probably in the 1930s.

It's one of the many outbuildings we've been able to preserve on the property.

This is another distinctly different style of outbuilding that we've restored over the years.

It's a stone shed with a gable roof, most likely used for hay or equipment storage, and, as best I can tell, was built in the mid-1800s.

- [Bernadette] This self-portrait is a picture of William Patrick, which we found up in the attic and had it restored.

It's now hanging at the front door of the farmhouse, where he sits pleasantly looking over all the generations that enter into the house.

We are sure William Patrick and Bridget Rosella Geddes are probably watching over the generations that have followed them on their old Cumberland Farm.

(slow patriotic music) - My name is Tom Shannahan.

(birds chirp) We're here at the family site, the family gravestone of the Waugh family, and on it is a tribute to Lieutenant Robert Turner Waugh.

(slow patriotic music) The history of the Medal of Honor is that it was originally created by President Lincoln during the Civil War, but just before the outbreak of World War I, a special commission was formed, and the criteria for receiving the medal was greatly enhanced.

It had to be at great peril to your own life, and above and beyond the call of duty.

Lieutenant Waugh was born in Ashton Village, Cumberland, graduated from Cumberland High School in 1936, and shortly after that, entered the United States Army.

He single-handedly was the Gustav Line, and his platoon was pinned down.

But what he did is he had them drag cover fire, and then he ran to the first pillbox and actually threw phosphorus hand grenades into the pillbox, and as they emerged, if they didn't surrender, he shot them, and he single-handedly killed 25 and captured 30 Germans.

So, unfortunately, he never realized the result of his actions.

He was killed at a further engagement, and is buried in Itri, Italy.

(calm piano music) Birthplace of Lieutenant Robert Turner Waugh.

January 16th, 1919.

May 19th, 1944.

Almost 77 years.

Of the 339th Infantry, 85th Division, US Army, awarded Congressional Medal of Honor posthumously for his gallantry in action, May 11th, 14th, through the 14th, 1944, during World War II.

He is buried in the Sicily-Rome American Cemetery and Memorial, Nettuno, Italy.

Presented by VFW Post 10213, Lincoln, Rhode Island.

Dedicated, 9/6/99.

I'm a veteran, and just to hold the medal, it gave me goosebumps.

I mean, you know, it's the highest military award this country can give.

I mean, it just doesn't seem to have the significance.

You know, my era had the draft, and it's a whole different ball game now.

Now it's all volunteer, and I just, you know, he gave his life for his country.

You know, he should be remembered.

(slow piano music) (upbeat orchestral music) - My name is Amy Farrell, and I am a member of the Arnold Mills Parade Committee, (upbeat orchestral music) and I grew up going to it, and when I got older, I thought about, well, what if it wasn't here?

Like, what does it take to put on the parade?

And that's why I got involved in the organization.

The first recorded parade was July 4th, 1927.

The Reverend Horatio H. Crawford, of the Arnold Mills Methodist Church, was the one to have first started one.

In 1931, the Reverend left, and the North Cumberland Fire Department took over leadership of the parade as a means to finance the department.

In 1964, a separate group formed, a citizen committee, to take over leadership of the parade.

The Road Races began in 1969, and that included 27 participants.

The Road Race now, depending on the weather, can get 300, like, plus, runners.

It's a really nice, family fun event, and the Road Race, for those that are athletic, it's a nice four-mile run through the local area, the local community.

It's a low-cost race.

A lot of local, younger athletes will come back, you know, from college and get together and participate, as well.

Good community spirit with the parade, trying to get those organizations within town and youth groups to participate, and it just gives you that sense of getting to see everybody that you might not have seen in a bit, families, neighbors, friends.

You get together and you kinda say, "Hey!"

And it just, like I said, multigenerational, families, grandparents, young kids getting together and spending a nice day, relaxing activity, in celebration of our nation.

(upbeat orchestral music) (mellow acoustic music) - [Announcer] "Our Town: Cumberland" is made possible by the following benefactor sponsors.

Navigant Credit Union, proud sponsors of Rhode Island PBS and "Our Town: Cumberland."

Our customers are our owners.

Navigantcu.org.

Blackstone River Theatre is proud to be Cumberland's cultural arts center.

For 20 years, we have presented music from around the world, art classes, our Summer Solstice Festival and more.

Riverfolk.org, and patron sponsor, Cadillac Mills.

(mellow acoustic music)