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1893 Map of Sakonnet

Name: 1893 Topographic Map of Sakonnet
Creator: U.S. Geological Survey
Published: 1938
License: https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/

USGS Topo · Published 1938

About this map

The rocky coastline and maritime boundary of Little Compton and Middletown define this late nineteenth-century coastal survey. Characterized by numerous points, coves, and small islands, the landscape reflects the exposed Atlantic edge of Rhode Island. Significant landmarks such as Sakonnet Point, protected by a Breakwater, and the nearby West Island and East Island highlight the navigational importance of the mouth of the Sakonnet River.

The interior terrain near the Rhode Island Massachusetts Boundary Line is punctuated by several coastal ponds, including Tunipus Pond and Quicksand Point, indicating a marshy transition between the sea and the mainland. For local historians and genealogists, the map preserves early place names like Woods Castle and Warren Point during a period of reconnaissance mapping that captured the shoreline before twentieth-century development and erosion altered these coastal features.