Picture of the Day-Fishing On the Rocks

Fishing On the Rocks

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Today’s Picture of the Day is of a few fishermen fishing on some rocks near a little beach area in Jamestown. This is the same Jamestown that the Jamestown Bridge connects to the mainland or Providence Plantations part of the state (I showed you the remnants of the old bridge yesterday). If you are from Rhode Island probably you already know most of this, so just bear with me.

As you Rhode Islanders know the official name of the state is The State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, the smallest state with the longest name, and that is why the I referenced the rest of the state as the Providence Plantations. Since no one knows for sure which island was originally named Rhode Island (Some think it was Block Island, which Aquidneck Island was later mistaken for, and others think many Islands made it look like the Aegean sea and the area was named after the Rhodes, by the Italian explorer Giovanni da Verrazzano in 1524. Coincidentally, the bridge I showed you yesterday was named after him.). So, even if Conanicut Island may not always be considered with the Rhode Island part of the state it is an island, so for our purposes I have classified with the Rhode Island part of the state; as I do not think there is any “official” way to go about it anyway.

If you are not from Rhode Island you may have the tendency to confuse Jamestown, Rhode Island with Jamestown, Virginia. In fact, the names of the towns and cities were pretty confusing when I first came here too, and I am sure it did not help that I was fairly young and had actually had came from Virginia. For example, I also remember was the first time someone told me they were from Richmond. I had through they came all the way from Richmond, Virginia; not realizing that there is actually a Richmond, Rhode Island. Perhaps, the strangest names can be found in our own little piece of Israel right down in Narragansett, with names like Galilee and Jerusalem.

The only real difference between Jamestown, Rhode Island and Jamestown, Virginia, aside from the obvious geographical and the historical significance of the Jamestown settlement in Virginia, is that Jamestown, Virginia was named after King James I and Jamestown Rhode Island was named after King James II. Thereby making it the secondary and lesser of the two, at best, since Jamestown, Rhode Island was only originally established as a place for grazing sheep. Jamestown, Virginia on the other hand is the first permanent English settlement in the New World.

So how many places are actually named Jamestown? Well, I found there are 20 in the United States alone, 1 in Australia, 2 in Canada, 1 in Ghana, 4 in Ireland, 1 in Saint Helena, 1 in Saint Kitts and Nevis, 2 in South Africa (probably purchased by missionaries and given to free slave), and 3 in the United Kingdom. I also found that Jamestown is the title of the lead single from The Movielife’s Forty Hour Train Back to Penn, the title of a 2007 novel by Matthew Sharpe, and of course used in reference to the Indian massacre of 1622 at the Jamestown settlement in Virginia.

Below is the list of states that have Jamestown in them; none of the other Jamestowns seem to have a lot of known history behind them. Therefore I am inclined to say that Jamestown, Rhode Island is the second most known Jamestown and oldest Jamestown in the world (although, second by a long shot; still second, as far as I can tell). Jamestowns in the United States:
Jamestown, California
Jamestown, Colorado
Jamestown, Indiana
Jamestown, Kansas
Jamestown, Kentucky
Jamestown, Louisiana
Jamestown, Missouri
Jamestown, New York
Jamestown, North Carolina
Jamestown, North Dakota
Jamestown, Ohio
Jamestown, Oklahoma
Jamestown, Pennsylvania
Jamestown, Rhode Island
Jamestown, South Carolina
Jamestown, Tennessee
Jamestown, Virginia and Jamestown Settlement - commonly regarded as the first permanent English settlement in what is now the United States
Jamestown, West Virginia
Jamestown, Wisconsin
James Town, Wyoming



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Tags: Conanicut, fish, fishing, island, jamestown, rock, rocks, sunset