Perhaps known by many as a throughway connecting Newport and Narragansett, Jamestown and Conanicut Island are filled with amazing sites.  The Newport Bridge brings you into Jamestown from the east and the Jamestown Verrazzano Bridge takes you to Narragansett to the west, but anybody who decides to visit either of those two incredible destinations needs to stop and give Jamestown a longer look.

The island was home for hundreds of years to the Narragansett tribe of Native Americans, at least during the warmer months.  Conanicut Island is named for the Narragansett ‘sachem,’ or chief, Canonicus, who gave the English settlers permission to let their sheep graze on the island in 1638.  The oldest Native American artifacts found on the island an in the surrounding waters date back to 3,000 B.C.  It is here on Conanicut Island that the largest number of Native American burying ground in New England exists. 

When it comes to the most historic towns in New England there are many that would come to mind right away.  It might take a while to name the beautiful coastal town of Bristol, Rhode Island as one of those towns.  However after taking a drive down the east coast of Rhode Island and walking the amazing downtown area of Bristol any visitor will find out just why this town ranks up near the top of historic places in this region.

For the first trip outside of Massachusetts I chose Bristol because of the fact that it was an underrated historical town; its history goes back as far as 1675.  It was here that the first battle of King Philip’s War took place; this was the battle between the European settlers and Native American sachem, or chief, Metacom.  Founded in 1680 originally as a part of Plymouth County and named for a town in England, Bristol’s main settlers were the DeWolf family.