Introduction
There are over thirty places named Bristol in North America, including those in Alaska and Canada. I hope to eventually visit them all. Some of the communities are very small and have no web presence at all. At least one, the Bristol in Nevada, is deserted.
Some of these places seem to be very small and only a few of them have any web presence at all. At least one, the Bristol in Nevada, is deserted - a ghost town. Although I haven't set out to systematically visit all of them the following pages contain information and photographs of the ones that I've been to. The first I managed to get to was the one in Indiana. In October 2000, Patty and I visited a friend in Chicago, on the way back to Terre Haute we stopped off to visit the town.
Patty's parents were "Snowbirds", that is they lived in one part of the country, in this case Illinois, and moved somewhere warmer in the winter. In their case it was southern Florida. In January 2002, we visited them in their winter home, on the way down we visited the Bristols in Tennessee/Virginia and Georgia and on the way back the one in Florida. Getting close to Bristol, Georgia I was going a bit fast and got stopped by the police. He asked for my ID and driving license when I gave him my British passport and UK driving license I think I surprised him a bit. He asked if my driving license was valid in the US, I said yes. I'm fairly certain it is, but don't know for sure. Luckily for me, after warning me that he could actually jail me while they check out my documents he let me go on my, much slower, way.
In July 2002 we visited Patty's brother in Minneapolis, Minnesota. On the way we went to the Bristol's in Illinois, Wisconsin, Minnesota and Iowa. One day her brother and wife both had to work so we took a trip to Bristol, South Dakota. It was quite a daytrip as it's over 250 miles each way.
Places named Bristol in North America
The Bristols I've visited are marked in blue, the ones I've yet to see are those in red.
Thr Bristols in Canada are marked in purple
The map is clickable, click on the state containing a Bristol to learn more about it
Original base map: Wikimedia
The four Bristols in Canada, marked in purple in the above map, are from west to east in: Quebec, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, and Prince Edward Island.
Suggested itinerary
If you want to visit all the Bristols in North America then here's a suggested itinery. This is a long trip of around 15,000 miles which will take at least 2 weeks of doing nothing but driving. To properly enjoy the trip and visit all the Bristols will take at least 6 weeks, probably closer to 2 months. Of course, you can always split trip into sections, such as all the New England ones on trip.
| Start point | Destination | Time (Hours) | Main roads | Distance (Miles) | Direction |
| Bristol, Michigan | Bristol, Wisconsin | 5 | US-131 S, I-196 W and I-94 W | 330 | S then W then N |
| Bristol, Wisconsin | Bristol, Illinois | 2 | IL-47 S | 80 | S |
| Bristol, Illinois | Bristol, Indiana | 3 | I-94 E | 165 | E |
| Bristol, Indiana | Bristol, Ohio | 5.5 | US-30 E and I-70 E | 325 | SE |
| Bristol, Ohio | Bristol, West Virginia | 2 | US-50 E and Northwestern Turnpike | 105 | S then E |
| Bristol, West Virginia | Bristol, Maryland | 4.5 | I-68 E | 280 | E |
| Bristol, Maryland | Bristol, Pennsylvania | 3.5 | I-95 N | 175 | NE |
| Bristol, Pennsylvania | Bristol, Massachusetts | 5 | I-95 N | 270 | NE |
| Bristol, Massachusetts | Bristol, Connecticut | 2.5 | I-84 | 110 | E |
| Bristol, Connecticut | Bristol, New Hampshire | 3.5 | I-91 N | 210 | N |
| Bristol, New Hampshire | Bristol, Maine | 3.5 | NH-25 E and ME-25 E | 160 | E |
If you want to visit the Bristols in Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, and New Brunswick in Canada then use the following. Don't forget your passports and whatever other documents you will need.
| Start point | Destination | Time (Hours) | Main roads | Distance (Miles) | Direction |
| Bristol, Maine | Bristol, Nova Scotia | 10 | New Brunswick Route 1 E/NB-1 E | 580 | NE then S |
| Bristol, Nova Scotia | Bristol, Prince Edward Island | 5 | NS-103 E | 315 | N |
| Bristol, Prince Edward Island | Bristol, New Brunswick | 5.5 | Trans-Canada Hwy/NB-2 W | 320 | W |
| Bristol, New Brunswick | Bristol, Vermont | 8 | I-95 S | 450 | SW |
| Bristol, Vermont | Bristol, Quebec | 5.5 | Autoroute 50 | 295 | N then W |
| Bristol, Quebec | Bristol, New York | 5.5 | I-81 S | 310 | S |
There is a place named Bristol's Hope in southeast Newfoundland. This trip will take a couple of days. You can get a ferry from North Sydney, Nova Scotia to Argentia, Newfoundland. There are also flights between Nova Scotia and Newfoundland.
If you don't want to take this 2,300 mile, 40 hour trip into Canada, then you can travel from Bristol, Maine to Bristol, Vermont, and then on to Bristol, New York.
| Start point | Destination | Time (Hours) | Main roads | Distance (Miles) | Direction |
| Bristol, Maine | Bristol, Vermont | 6 | US-2 W | 255 | W |
| Bristol, Vermont | Bristol, New York | 6 | NY-8 S | 290 | W |
From Bristol, New York the rest of the trip is:
| Start point | Destination | Time (Hours) | Main roads | Distance (Miles) | Direction |
| Bristol, New York | Bristolville, Ohio | 7 | I-86 W | 425 | SW then S |
| Bristolville, Ohio | Bristol, Iowa | 13.5 | I-74 | 910 | W then NW |
| Bristol, Iowa | Bristol, South Dakota | 5 | I-90 W and I-29 N | 345 | W then N/td> |
| Bristol, South Dakota | Bristol, Minnesota | 6 | I-29 S and I-90 E | 400 | W then N |
| Bristol, Minnesota | Bristol, Missouri | 8 | I-29 S | 535 | S |
| Bristol, Missouri | Bristol, Tennessee / Virginia | 13 | I-70 E and I-40 E | 840 | E |
| Bristol, Tennessee / Virginia | Bristol, Georgia | 7.5 | I-26 E | 425 | S |
| Bristol, Georgia | Bristol, Florida | 4 | US-84 W | 205 | SW |
| Bristol, Florida | Bristol, Louisiana | 7 | I-10 W | 480 | W |
| Bristol, Louisiana | Bristol, Texas | 6 | I-49 N and I-20 W | 400 | NW |
| Bristol, Texas | Bristol, Independence, Colorado | 10 | TX-114 W, US-287 N and US-287 N | 625 | NW |
| Bristol, Independence, Colorado | Bristol Head, Colorado | 6.5 | US-160 W | 330 | W |
| Bristol Head, Colorado | Bristol, Nevada | 12 | I-70 W | 665 | W |
| Bristol, Nevada | Bristol, California | 5.5 | US-93 S | 335 | S |
| Bristol, California | Bristol, Washington | 18.5 | US-93 N and I-84 W | 1,900 | N |
From Bristol, Washington, you can make your way to Alaska. The best was would probably be to fly from Portland or Seattle to King Salmon or Dillingham.
From Bristol, Washington back to the starting point of Bristol, Michigan is 2,260 miles which would take about 33 hours, travelling eastwards on I-90 E, I-94 E and US-131 N.
I used Furkot to try and find the shortest route between the various Bristols.
Bristols by Age
| State | Founded |
| England, UK | ~600 |
| Rhode Island | 1680 |
| Pennsylvania | 1681 |
| Maine | 1765 |
| New York | 1778 |
| Connecticut | 1785 |
| Vermont | 1789 |
| Ohio | 1804 |
| New Hampshire | 1819 |
| Indiana | 1834 |
| Wisconsin | 1836 |
| Tennessee / Virginia | 1850 |
| Iowa, Worth County | 1855 |
| Minnesota | 1858 |
| Florida | 1859 |
| Iowa, Greene County | 1871 |
| South Dakota | 1881 |
| Michigan | 1887 |
| Colorado | 1906 |
| Georgia | 1914 |
Bristols by Population
| State | Population 1990 | 2000 | 2010 | 2020 |
| England, UK | 396,999 | 380,615 | 428,234 | 472,467 |
| Connecticut | 60,640 | 60,062 | 60,477 | 60,833 |
| Tennessee / Virginia | 43,324 | 42,737 | 44,537 | 44,461 |
| Illinois | 5,614 | 7,816 | 26,255 | 32,050 |
| Rhode Island | 21,626 | 22,489 | 22,920 | 22,480 |
| Pennsylvania | 10,385 | 9,942 | 9,726 | 9,868 |
| Wisconsin | 1,850 | 4,538 | 2,584 | 5,199 |
| Vermont | 3,762 | 3,788 | 3,894 | 3,782 |
| New Hampshire | 2,483 | 3,037 | 3,041 | 3,249 |
| Maine | 2,338 | 2,644 | 2,755 | 2,844 |
| Ohio | 3,103 | 3,143 | 2,920 | 2,691 |
| New York | 2,071 | 2,421 | 2,315 | 2,298 |
| Indiana | 1,139 | 1,538 | 1,602 | 1,779 |
| Florida | 937 | 841 | 996 | 918 |
| Texas | 355 | 553 | 668 | 714 |
| Minnesota | 385 | 501 | 394 | 431 |
| South Dakota | 475 | 375 | 341 | 288 |
| Iowa | 197 | 202 | 160 | 144 |
| Georgia | 38 | 73 | 111 | 122 |
Sources and Resources
See America 2000 - in 2000, Chuck Lamb of Bristol Mills, Maine set out on his motorbike to visit as many of the Bristols in the US as he could. The Internet Archive couldn't capture all of his site so the link takes you to a list of files it was able to save.
Why Claudia could be the most Bristolian person ever - Bristol Live - In 2019, Claudia Collins from Bristol, UK, came to the US to visit a couple of Bristols here. There are pictures of her at In pictures: Claudia Collins' Bristol experience