Georgiaville Pond Beach is the Town of Smithfield's public swimming beach, run by the Smithfield Recreation Department on the east shore of Georgiaville Pond. The pond is a 92-acre impoundment of the Woonasquatucket River held back by an earthen dam in the old mill village of Georgiaville, in the southeast part of Smithfield, Rhode Island. The beach itself is a short strip of sand just south of the dam, looking out at a few small pine-covered islands. The town rebuilt the beach area in 1991 with state open space and recreation bond money.

The beach sits off Stillwater Road (the state tourism listing gives 18 Stillwater Road), a short drive from Farnum Pike (Route 104). There is a small town lot next to the sand, but Smithfield's code requires every vehicle parked there to display a Georgiaville Beach parking sticker. The sticker costs $10 for Smithfield residents and $20 for non-residents and stays valid for up to two years. You need your vehicle registration and a driver's license to buy one, and cars without a sticker can be fined $25 and towed. Stickers and passes are sold at the beach during its business hours.

This is not a free beach, but it is open to anyone. The town states plainly that Georgiaville Pond is open to the general public, unlike Smithfield's Greenlake Beach, which is for residents only. Every swimmer needs either a walk-on day pass ($2 for residents, $4 for non-residents) or a season pass ($10 resident or $20 non-resident per adult, $2 or $4 for children 12 and under). Seniors 62 and older, people with disabilities and honorably discharged veterans get their passes and stickers free with proper ID. The season usually opens around the end of June. Daily hours are set by the Town Manager and posted by the town, so confirm them before a long drive.

Treat this pond with respect. A swimmer has drowned off this beach after hours, when the beach was posted closed and no staff were on duty. Swim only while the beach is staffed and keep children close to shore. Water quality also changes during the summer. The Rhode Island Department of Health closes the swimming area when bacteria counts run high, and the health department and the Department of Environmental Management have told people to stay out of the pond entirely during late-summer blue-green algae blooms. DEM samples Georgiaville Pond every two weeks from May into October because of its bloom history. Check the RIDOH beach line (401-222-2751) and the DEM cyanobacteria page before you go, and skip the water if it looks bright green or scummy.

Beyond swimming, the park has a boat ramp (motor boats and trailers need their own $10 or $20 town stickers), shore fishing, picnic tables, benches and restrooms that open in summer. Paddlers can launch a canoe or kayak and poke around the islands. The best walk here runs along the top of the dam, first built around 1850, to the spillway and the narrow rocky gorge below it, which roars after heavy rain or snowmelt. The surrounding mill village, with its 1850s mill and rows of worker housing, is on the National Register of Historic Places as the Georgiaville Historic District.