On the morning of June 20, 1675, Pokanoket warriors attacked English homes along the banks of the Kickemuit River in what is now Warren, Rhode Island. They looted and burned the houses of English settlers, including the home of Hugh Cole. Three days later, on June 23, more houses were ransacked and destroyed. These attacks, along the river that gives the area its name, triggered King Philip's War — the 14-month conflict between the Pokanoket-led alliance and English colonists that became the bloodiest per-capita war in American history.
The war spread from this Rhode Island river valley into Connecticut, Massachusetts, and Maine. Before it ended in August 1676 with the death of Metacom — known to the English as King Philip — the conflict had killed thousands on both sides and destroyed dozens of English towns.
Schoolhouse Road runs along the Kickemuit's shore, connecting to the bridge at Route 136 where the river crosses into the Barrington area. The Kickemuit Cemetery, situated between Child Street and Schoolhouse Road, is one of the oldest in Warren, predating the formal town structure and reflecting the depth of settlement in this part of Narragansett Bay.
The area's status as the geographic origin point of King Philip's War has made it a site of ongoing historical interest. The Sowams Heritage Area organization maintains interpretation of the region's pre-colonial and colonial history.
Sources
- https://www.theyankeexpress.com/2021/10/07/371207/the-ghostly-heads-of-the-kickemuit-river
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/King_Philip%27s_War
- https://sowamsheritagearea.org/wp/kickemuit-cemetery/
- https://sowamsearlyhistory.org/king-philip-war-broke-out-in-todays-warren/
ApparitionsPhantom voicesResidual haunting
The Kickemuit River haunting is among the more historically specific in the Rhode Island paranormal tradition. The legend doesn't require much elaboration — the historical events provide the frame, and the reported phenomena fit within it with uncomfortable precision.
Accounts collected by The Yankee Express in October 2021 describe several times a year when observers claim to witness eight floating heads above the shore of the Kickemuit, sometimes seen on poles in the ground at the edge of the river near the bridge at Route 136. The heads are not described as monstrous or distorted. They are described as what they appear to be: heads, mounted, as a warning.
The original Shadowlands report describes seven heads. The Yankee Express accounts describe eight. This discrepancy is not explained in available sources and may reflect different observational moments or different witnesses.
The historical basis for the image is documented: during King Philip's War, the practice of displaying enemy heads on poles as a military warning was used by both sides. The English displayed Metacom's own head on a pole in Plymouth after his death in 1676, where it remained for more than two decades. Whether specific heads were displayed on Schoolhouse Road during the conflict has not been established in available historical records — but the practice was consistent with the period.
Travelers along Schoolhouse Road have also reported disembodied voices and an overwhelming sense of unease that they describe as distinct from normal nighttime anxiety. The Kickemuit Cemetery, the oldest in the town, sits directly adjacent to the road.
