The Rhode Island 39 Club:

More About The Author

As a published author who has written seven books on the history of the Catskill and Adirondacks fire towers and lore and NY, CT, & RI Civilian Conservation Corps camps, Podskoch decided to write a book about all 102 Adirondack towns  The Adirondack 102 Club  based on the “Vermont 251 Club formed in the 1950s. Professor Arthur W. Peach wrote an article in a Vermont magazine in 1954 where he encouraged people to “take the road less traveled and get to know all of Vermont.”

Calling the book the “Adirondack 102 Club,” Podskoch included a space for journaling and a place where readers could get it stamped, stickered or signed from a business or location indicating they had been at a particular town. “The whole thing is to make sure people visit and talk to people and not just drive through,” he said. 

The reward for visiting all 102 towns was the “Vagabond” patch. By 2015, five people had received their “Vagabond” patch during a dinner organized by ladies from the Brant Lake area who liked the idea of the club. Podskoch replicated his idea of traveling to every town, city and village with the Connecticut 169 Club. Podskoch recruited writers, historians, and officials from each town and asked them to write a short description about their town’s history, interesting places to visit, and good places to eat.

The reward for visiting all 169 CT towns, cities and villages is a “Leatherman” patch which commemorates this legendary vagabond, who during the late 1800s wore leather clothes and travelled a 365-mile circuit in approx. 34 days between the Hudson and Connecticut Rivers while camping out in caves.

After Podskoch finished and published his Rhode Island CCC Camps Book in December 2020, he began searching for volunteer writers in Rhode Island to write about their town’s history and interesting places to visit. He was able to gather 45 writers in all walks of life: librarians, historians, historical society members, free-lance writers, public officials, college professors, town citizens, and Chamber of Commerce officers. Four months later all the stories and photos were sent to the graphic artist to be printed.

Interesting Facts

Banished from the Massachusetts Bay Colony for his radical views, Roger Williams purchased land from the Narragansett Indians and founded the first permanent white settlement in Providence in 1636. His firm belief in religious freedom, tolerance and the separation between church and state governed the colony of Rhode Island and inspired the future founders of the United States.

Benedict Arnold, the first governor appointed under the Rhode Island Royal Charter in 1663, was the great grandfather of the notorious traitor of the Revolutionary War—also named Benedict Arnold.

On May 4, 1776, Rhode Island became the first colony to renounce allegiance to King George III of England. In 1908, the General Assembly established May 4th as “Rhode Island Independence Day.”

Although enslaved workers were an important part of the colony’s economy, Rhode Island passed the first gradual emancipation act after Quakers waged a campaign to abolish slavery. Children who were born to enslaved people after March 1, 1784, were to become free after a period of “apprenticeship,” but existing slaves were not granted freedom as part of the legislation.

On September 12, 1953, John F. Kennedy and Jacqueline Bouvier were married in St. Mary’s Church of Newport—Rhode Island’s oldest Roman Catholic parish, which had been established on April 8, 1828.

Rhode Island is the only state that still celebrates the end of World War II on Victory Day (which is also known as VJ Day). The official state holiday is observed each year on the second Monday of August.

Preferring the Articles of Confederation, Rhode Island refused to participate in creating the U.S. Constitution, and was the last of the original 13 states to ratify it.

The 39 Towns in that Make Up teh State of RI

Barrington

Bristol

Burrillville

Central Falls

Charlestown

Coventry

Cranston

Cumberland

East Greenwich

East Providence

Exeter
Foster

Glocester

Hopkinton

Jamestown

Johnston

Lincoln

Little Compton

Middletown

Narragansett

New Shoreham

Newport

North Kingstown

North Providence

North Smithfield

Pawtucket

Portsmouth

Providence

Richmond

Scituate

Smithfield

South Kingstown

Tiverton

Warren

Warwick

West Greenwich

West Warwick

Westerly

Woonsocket