Rhode Island Trivia & Tidbits - Page 13

Looking for Rhode Island trivia? Try our list Rhode Island little know facts, tidbits and trivia.

Providence, long noted for being a center of jewelry and silverware design, is home to the Gorham Manufacturing Co., founded in 1831, one of the world’s largest makers of silverware.

first appeared: 7/28/2002

Jamestown (pop. 5,622) on Conanicut Island is the site of a windmill built in 1787, which replaced an earlier windmill destroyed during the Revolutionary War.

first appeared: 7/21/2002

Jerimoth Hill, elevation 812 feet, is Rhode Island’s highest point and is visited by hundreds of “highpointers” (people who aspire to climb to the highest point in each state) annually. To respect property owners’ privacy, access to the top is limited to five designated days a year.

first appeared: 7/14/2002

During reconstruction of the Beavertail lighthouse on Conanicut Island in 1753—after the original wooden one burned—keeper Abel Franklin manned his post, warning ships with a hand-held lantern.

first appeared: 7/7/2002

Along the continental shelf off Point Judith, well-traveled blue sharks make an annual stop in a migratory journey that takes them on a 4,000-mile trip around the Atlantic.

first appeared: 6/30/2002

The towns of Jerusalem and Galilee look at each other across a waterway that is the entrance to Snug Harbor.

first appeared: 6/23/2002

The Culinary Archives and Museum at Johnson & Wales University in Providence features more than 30,000 culinary items from ancient times to the present—including food-related letters signed by kings, emperors, and presidents.

first appeared: 6/16/2002

One of the tasks Roger Williams undertook in the land granted to him by two Narragansett Sachems was to publish A Key into the Language of America (1643), the first written work on American Indian languages.

first appeared: 6/9/2002

Prudence Island in upper Narragansett Bay supports the most dense white-tailed deer herd in New England. The island, reachable only by boat, harbors seals during the winter months. Raccoons, red foxes, and mink are also plentiful.

first appeared: 6/2/2002

The United States has only two Woonsockets. Rhode Island’s was first, established in 1888. The other—Woonsocket, S.D.—was named by a settler who came from Rhode Island.

first appeared: 5/26/2002

Ambrose Burnside (1824-1881), a Civil War general and three-term governor of the state, popularized the men’s fashion of wearing sideburns, originally known as “burnsides.”

first appeared: 5/19/2002

The first combined effort between Americans and their new French allies in the Revolutionary War was August 1778 in the Battle of Rhode Island—an effort to expel the British from Newport.

first appeared: 5/12/2002

Block Island was named for Dutch explorer Adriaen Block who visited the island in 1614. He also mapped the shore of Manhattan and sailed up the Connecticut River.

first appeared: 5/5/2002

As the only New England state without a covered bridge, residents of Foster (pop. 4,274) decided to build one in 1992 over Hemlock Brook. When it burned a year later, they rebuilt it, dedicating the 36-foot span in 1994.

first appeared: 4/28/2002

Providence’s Dancing Cop, Tony Lepore, now retired, entertained drivers and pedestrians for years with his “traffic dance.” His whistling, leaps, twists, and spins while directing traffic brought him worldwide media attention.

first appeared: 4/21/2002

The octagonal brick lighthouse at Point Judith was erected in 1816, replacing the original wooden lighthouse built in 1806, which was destroyed in the Great Gale of September 1815.

first appeared: 4/14/2002

Although boats with torpedoes fixed to poles extending from their bow were used in the Civil War, the first torpedo boat designed to launch a torpedo from its deck, the Stiletto, was built in Bristol in 1887.

first appeared: 4/7/2002

Wickford (pop. 1,900) holds an annual festival in honor of the quahog, a tasty, hard-shell clam found just below the sand or mud surface between high and low tide in sheltered waters.

first appeared: 3/31/2002

Perhaps reflecting the state’s religious history, Narragansett Bay has islands named Hope, Patience, and Prudence. The northernmost point of the latter is Point Providence.

first appeared: 3/24/2002

Woonsocket-born Napoleon “Nap” Lajoie (1874-1959) was the first American League player inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame, in 1937, largely for his hitting—nine seasons batting over .350 for a lifetime average of .338.

first appeared: 3/17/2002

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