States and Provinces
Note: All Texans know that if you were to melt Alaska, it would be smaller than Rhode Island!
—Texans-R-Us.com, "Just How Big is Texas?," (March 2002).
The state of Rhode Island could fit into Alaska 425 times.
—50states.com, (August 2000).
Our smallest province, Prince Edward Island, is roughly twice the size of Rhode Island, USA.
—MUFON Canada, (August 2000).
Somewhere along the line, Rhode Island became the standard by which all big things are compared. For reference, Alaska is 120 times the size of Rhode Island.
—EarthRoamer.com, "Road Trip—Western Canada and Alaska, June-October 1999," October 1999.
Everything in Alaska is bigger than Rhode Island.
—Johnwall.com, "Alaska 1999," quoting kayaking guide Peggy Wilcox, September 10, 1999.
One hundred Rhode Islands can be set down upon [Alaska's] 104,500 square miles. One of its counties (Gunnison) is larger than Massachusetts and Rhode Island combined. [Colorado] has four magnificent parks, situated in the mountains, from seven thousand to nine thousand feet above the sea, the smaller of which is equal to two Rhode Islands; and the State of Massachusetts could be set within the larger. These four parks contain as many acres as Massachusetts, Connecticut, and Rhode Island together... Kansas is almost ten times larger than Massachusetts, nearly seventeen times larger than Connecticut, sixty-five times larger than Rhode Island; and its area more than equals the combined area of all the New England States, with Maryland and Delaware added... Montana is almost as large as Dakota, and can spread seventeen Massachusetts and one Rhode Island over its ample surface.
—Marvels of the New West by William M. Thayer, 1887.