Block Island is part of the U.S. state of Rhode Island and is
located in the Atlantic Ocean approximately 13 mi south of the
coast of Rhode Island, 14 mi east of Montauk Point on Long
Island, and is separated from the Rhode Island mainland by Block
Island Sound. The United States Census Bureau defines Block
Island as Census Tract 415 of Washington County, Rhode Island.
As of the 2000 census the population of 1,010 lived on a land
area of 9.734 sqmi. The island is part of the Outer Lands
region, a coastal archipelago made by the recessional and
terminal moraine that resulted from the Wisconsonian Laurentide
glacier retreat, about 22,000 years ago.The Nature Conservancy
added Block Island to its list of "The Last Great Places." The
list consists of twelve sites in the Western Hemisphere.
Approximately 20 percent of the Island is set aside for
conservation. Presidents Bill Clinton, Dwight D. Eisenhower,
Franklin Delano Roosevelt, and Ulysses S. Grant visited Block
Island.The only town on the island is New Shoreh