How many national parks does RI have? Depends on your definition of 'national park'
Every year, hundreds of millions of Americans make the trip to one of the National Parks.
People marvel at the rim of the Grand Canyon, wait for Old Faithful to erupt at Yellowstone, walk out to coastal ledges to get sprayed with sea salt at Acadia.
But Rhode Island finds itself a little left out.
“Are there really no national parks in Rhode Island?” a What and Why RI reader wrote in asking, after an article ran in The Providence Journal about National Parks in April.
Yes, and also no. Here’s the explanation.
What is a National Park?
As a primer, let’s talk about the difference between national parks in general, of which there are 429, and parks with the National Park designation, of which there are 63.
The National Park System uses nearly 20 different naming conventions for the different recreational spaces they manage. There are national historical parks, national seashores, national historic sites and national monuments, just to name a few of them.
All of them can be called “parks,” according to the National Park System.
A National Park is a specific designation.
“Generally, a national park contains a variety of resources and encompasses large land or water areas to help provide adequate protection of the resources,” the National Park System wrote in a post explaining the different names. For a sense of how large, more than 10 national parks are larger than the state of Rhode Island.
Rhode Island doesn’t have any parks that fall under this designation, but we do have four parks under NPS.
Blackstone River Valley: National Historical Park
Paying tribute to how the Blackstone River Valley powered the Industrial Revolution, this park focuses on the history of the area. Slate Mill, located in Pawtucket and open Thursday through Sunday, is one of the park's must-see attractions.
The park has several sites beyond Slater Mill that people can visit in Massachusetts and Rhode Island. They include the Blackston River State Park in Lincoln, The Blackstone Canal Towpath in Uxbridge, the 18.2 mile Blackstone River Bikeway, and Captain Wilbur Kelly House Transportation Museum in Lincoln.
More: How many people visit our America's national parks? Graphics explain
Roger Williams: National Memorial
A small park, the Roger Williams National Memorial is a 4.5 acre spot at the foot of College Hill in Providence. It was established in 1965 to mark Williams’ “outstanding contributions to the development of the principles of freedom in this country.”
The park has a visitor’s center and features a freshwater spring that was once the center of Providence Plantations settlement.
Touro Synagogue: National Historic Site
The oldest synagogue in the United States, The Touro Synagogue in Newport was designated as a National Historic Site in 1946. About 30,000 visitor go every year to take a tour of the interior and learn about the history.
Washington-Rochambeau Revolutionary Route: National Historic Trail
This National Historic Trail stretched through nine states, starting in Newport. It follows the path the Continental Army and French Army took in the Yorktown campaign, though it looks very different now. The trail connects historic sites, such as the battlefield of Yorkton and a revolutionary was re-enactment. These days, the trail is usually driven, as you can take I-95 and hit all the key sites in less than a day (if you don’t spend much time actually being at any of them).
What and Why RI is a weekly feature by The Providence Journal to explore our readers' curiosity. If you have a question about Rhode Island, big or small, email it to klandeck@gannett.com. She loves a good question.
This article originally appeared on The Providence Journal: How many national parks does RI have? Check it out.