A section of a turf farm irrigation system on Switch Road.

Wood River Junction in Richmond is actually surrounded by two rivers, the Wood River and the Pawcatuck, and is located near a pond with two names, Meadowbrook Pond and Wood River Pond.

It is also home to the Chariho public schools, a set of regional schools on Switch Road that takes its name from the three towns it serves: Charlestown, Richmond and Hopkinton.

But little is left to mark the history of this tiny village created in 1872 around a train station linking the Wood River Branch Railroad to the main line of the New York, Providence and Boston Railroad.

According to Patricia A. Millar, the archivist for the Richmond Historical Society, it is not known exactly where the original train stop was located. Amtrak lines still wind through the area, fenced off near a cluster of historic houses on Church Street and King’s Factory Road.

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Wood River Junction, in Richmond

But Millar said the historic record includes a noted train disaster known as the Richmond Switch accident of April 19, 1873, caused by a bridge washout.

The accident occurred just beyond the place where the train switched direction to head to Hope Valley. Millar said the train’s engineer was killed, and a number of passengers were injured.

The New Haven Railroad took over operations in 1892 and the railroad was abandoned in 1947.

Millar said even in its heyday, Wood River Junction was not a thriving commercial center; there was “a little store” and “a few dwellings,” she said.

Still, “there is an identity,” Millar said.

Today, Wood River Junction still has its own post office, led by Postmaster Maureen Black, assisted by one carrier. Black said the office serves all of Wood River Junction, which is mostly in Richmond but includes “just a tiny part” of Hopkinton.

The Narragansett Indians own 1,020 acres in the neighborhood, in the area of Indian Cedar Swamp, according to Dinalyn Spears, director of the Tribe’s Department of Natural Resources and Tribal Planning.

The land is largely undeveloped and is kept as open space, she said. Spears said the Tribe is planning a project this spring to restore native plants to the land and remove invasive phragmites.

Just three houses were listed for sale in Wood River Junction last week: a three-bedroom 1930 Colonial at 324 Church St., priced at $219,900; a three-bedroom 1965 ranch at 486 Switch Rd., priced at $269,900; and a three-bedroom 2003 Colonial at 56 Woodville Alton Rd., with an asking price of $729,000.

POPULATION:

(Hopkinton, 2000) 7,836

(Richmond, 2000) 7,222

MEDIAN HOUSE PRICE:

(Hopkinton, 2007) $302,000

(Richmond, 2007) $276,625

INTERESTING FACT:

According to Dinalyn Spears, the historic red barn on King’s Factory Road that is posted with a

Narragansett Indian Watershed Area sign is known as the “onion barn,” because it was built to store onions that were once grown in the

surrounding fields.

cdunn@projo.com