Every Lake
Rhode Island
The smallest state, and almost half of it is Narragansett Bay.
Rhode Island in relief
The land itself, cut in six steps of birch from the lowlands to the high ground — the cities starred, the summit and rise on the title block. No counties, no roads: just the shape of Rhode Island.
About Rhode Island
Rhode Island is 48 miles top to bottom and the bay takes a third of it. Narragansett Bay pushes deep inland, breaking the state into a mainland, a scatter of islands — Aquidneck, Conanicut, Prudence — and the East Bay shore, with Block Island sitting alone twelve miles out to sea. The land is low and glacially smoothed, rising only to Jerimoth Hill at 812 feet in the northwest woods. Five counties divide the board, though Rhode Island runs no county governments at all; its 39 cities and towns do the governing.
Rhode Island ratified on May 29, 1790, last of the thirteen and more than a year after Washington took office — it had held out for a Bill of Rights and against a central government it distrusted. Providence, founded by Roger Williams in 1636 as a refuge for religious dissenters, became the sole capital in 1900, ending the old circuit that also sat at Newport. The map shows a small state built entirely around deep water: Newport's harbor, the Pell Bridge, and I-95 running the mainland.
- Six layers of birch — the land in elevation steps
- The summit and total rise on the title block
- The major cities, starred and named
- Title block with the admission date and capital
- A double rule engraved around the edge
- Every county line and the state border
- The interstates with their shields — 3 on this board
- The major cities, starred and named
- Title block with the admission date and capital
- A mile ruler engraved around the frame
