Theakston de Coppet was a successful stockbroker from New York whose family had a summer home in Narragansett in the late 1800s. De Coppet in 1911 bought the remains of an abandoned Civil War-era mill village known as Hillsdale in the town of Richmond. He built a lodge and began acquiring surrounding property until he had amassed more than 2,000 contiguous acres. The Beaver River meanders three-quarters of a mile through the property. De Coppet immersed himself in rural Richmond life and became a member of the Town Council, serving as its president. Upon his death in 1937, his estate was placed in trust and his will provided that several heirs would have life estate privileges there, but that after the last of them had passed away, the property would go to the state as a forest preserve with no hunting allowed. He also left a modest endowment to care for the property.
The last of those lifetime occupants was a widow who passed away in 2010, and she is buried on the property alongside her husband, who died in 1987. The state formally took possession of the property in 2014 and is now considering how to manage it. But passive uses such as hiking – and geocaching – are allowed. A fabulous series of caches with a phobia theme was hidden on the east side of Hillsdale Road a short time before this cache was placed. This cache is on the west side of Hillsdale Road, along a well-worn path lined on both sides by stone walls. There are walls, dams, foundations and cellar holes to explore.
On the day I hid this cache, I had not been on the land long when I heard a noise that at first sounded like a catbird. But the noise grew louder and stronger. I turned around to see a tiny fawn trotting right for me, bleating all the way. It stopped three feet from me, and when I began talking to it, it reared and tumbled backwards awkwardly on its haunches. It must have realized I was not its mother, which I am sure was nearby. I have never experienced anything like this on any of my hikes, and it was an amazing greeting to this part of the preserve.
This is a plain hide. It is one of three I hid along this path. It is old school and named in honor of the man who had the foresight to preserve his estate for all of us to enjoy, making him one of the state’s earliest conservationists. Here’s to you, Theakston “Teddy” de Coppet!
FTF prize is an unactivated 2010 Little Rhody fluke geocoin.