When traveling the narrow, hilly roads through the woods of Foster, it's easy to forget that Rhode Island is the second-most densely populated state in the country. And that feeling of being far from the bustle of modern life is intensified in quiet Foster Center, where the town government is based, surrounded by trees, historic houses and a horse farm.

The police station sits in what looks like a small weathered shed. The town library is in an historic Cape-style house, painted barn red. On a fine summer day recently, a horse was being groomed outside a barn just a few feet from the road at the Cornerstone Farm.

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Elwood Hopkins lives in a house across the street from the fire station on Foster Center Road. The house is almost 200 years old, Hopkins said, and the town itself "hasn't made many changes in the past 200 years." He and his wife own the Cornerstone Farm, which is now managed by their daughter.

Tucked away in northwest Rhode Island, bordering Connecticut, Foster offers plenty of space and fresh air. Hopkins said the only drawback is that you have to drive about 10 miles to buy a loaf of bread. "You've got to go a long ways to get a loaf of bread or to buy some gasoline, but most people like that part," he said.

Hopkins said he served on the Town Council from 1968 to 1974. At that time, "the only person in the town office was the town clerk." He remembers that in 1970, a property revaluation listed about 400 residences in town; in 2000, the Census Bureau found 1,578 housing units. Foster also has the state's only covered bridge, the Swamp Meadow Covered Bridge, a reproduction built in 1994.

Of the 34 houses in Foster recently offered for sale through the statewide Multiple Listing Service, only 3 were in Foster Center, and the prices were all in the mid-300s. Townwide, listing prices for houses ranged from $228,000 to $849,900.

People who decide to live in Foster "want a little bit of space and the pastoral setting; they don't want their neighbors on top of them," said Diane Setzler, a real estate agent with Coldwell Banker who has a house listing in Foster Center. Local zoning rules require house lots to have a minimum of 4.5 acres, she said.

"They're very clever out there," Setzler said. Local officials have worked to ensure the town doesn't "become overrun with subdivisions."

And even though the town may seem rural and isolated, it's easy for parents with young children to connect through school functions, Setzler added. "There's a lot of camaraderie, a lot of things going on in Foster Center," she said.

One of the town's traditions is Old Home Days, held in late July, which is the social event of the season in Foster, according to Hopkins. "It gets people together, friends and families," he said. Fiddlers, tractor pulls, 4-H shows and exhibits, and food are all part of the event.

"I believe that most people are very happy in Foster because it's kept so rural with so little development," Hopkins said.

cdunn@projo.com / (401) 277-7913

POPULATION: (Foster, 2000): 4,274

MEDIAN SALES PRICE (Foster, 2005): $389,950

PUBLIC SCHOOLS: Captain Isaac Paine Elementary School

Ponaganset Middle School

Ponaganset High School

INTERESTING FACT: The highest point in Rhode Island, Jerimoth Hill, 812 feet above sea level, is in northwest Foster.