“What’s in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell just as sweet.”
–William Shakespeare, in “Romeo and Juliet”
Some of the best-known places in Rhode Island don’t really exist.
You’re probably familiar with many of them.
You probably think you’ve been to them.
But, nope. They don’t exist. People have been lying to you.
More than a handful of Rhode Island places are known by popular names that official mapmakers just don’t recognize.
From historic grudges against King George III to honors for a 20th-century senator to superhero TV shows, plenty of Rhode Island quirks have kept those cartographers on their toes.
For this story, we consider the U.S. Board on Geographic Names, a federal panel that settles disputes over the names of places, the ultimate authority, though it sometimes punts. As an example, the board won’t weigh in on what to call manmade structures, so we turn to other sources.
Here are nine places we find in Unreal Rhode Island: