Block Island is a part of Rhode Island. I bet you didn’t know that. It’s 13 miles off the coast of Rhode Island and a mere 50 minute ferry ride to get to the island from Pt. Judith. The Indian name for Block Island was “Manisses” which means “Little Island of God”. The first recorded landing by a european was in 1614 when a Dutch trader called Adriaen Block visited the island. The only town on the island is called New Shoreham, and has been named by the Nature Conservancy as one of the “Last Great Places” in the western hemisphere.