Facts and History of my State, please share yours.

I thought it would be interesting and educational if we all put one interesting piece of history or fact about our State. We could limit this to one or 2 facts per person per day. Each of us would learn something new about another State or possiblely even our own. The reason I say maybe one or 2 a day per person is because there are alot of you from New York and only one or 2 of us from Maine and poor Al is all alone in Wisconsin! Also, trying to cram to much info into an old brain all in one day leads to migraines!
OK, i'll start.....

Maine:
1. Eastport is the most eastern city in the United States. The city is considered the first place in the United States to receive the rays of the morning sun.
2. Maine is the only state in the United States whose name has one syllable

Ok, so share some interesting facts/history about your State, I'm eager to learn!!

NH Flower/Tree - Syringa vulgaris
NH Bird - Purple finch.

New Hampshire's Flower -- Tree -- Bird because it "is symbolic of that hardy character of the men and women of the Granite State.

schickenlady, I had no idea that Lilac's are the N.H. flower! That is so cool, and pretty too. See, im learning something new already!!

Very interesting facts. The state flower of Ma is the Mayflower (Epigaea regans) http://www.statesymbolsusa.org/Massachusetts/flower_mayflower.html I have never seen one however. Ma was the sixth state and was added 220 years ago this past wednesday. the bird is the Black-Capped chickadee and the game bird is the wild turkey, plenty of those around.The state insect is the lady bug. There have been four presidents from Ma. The name Massachusetts comes from an Algonquian indian word for "big hill place'. Of corse we have Plymouth Rock and the Boston Tea party and all the historical facts and places from the American Revolution. The state motto is By the sword we seek peace, but peace only under liberty. NH says the same thing pretty much only better. The state hero is Johnny Appleseed.

What a beautiful State flower to have! Johnny Appleseed is one of my heros too! LOL

Connecticut is known as the "Constitution State" because its Fundamental Orders of 1638 are supposedly the first written governmental constitution.

However it has a more common moniker: According to the state library, "The sobriquet, the Nutmeg State, is applied to Connecticut because its early inhabitants had the reputation of being so ingenious and shrewd that they were able to make and sell (false) wooden nutmegs. Sam Slick (Judge Halliburton) seems to be the originator of this story."

Yankee peddlers from Connecticut did sell nutmegs, and an alternative story is that:
"Unknowing buyers may have failed to grate nutmegs, thinking they had to be cracked like a walnut. Nutmegs are wood, and bounce when struck. If southern customers did not grate them, they may very well have accused the Yankees of selling useless "wooden" nutmegs, unaware that they wear down to a pungent powder to season pies and breads." (Elizabeth Abbe, Librarian, the Connecticut Historical Society; Connecticut Magazine, April 1980.)

This message was edited Feb 8, 2008 9:23 AM

That is a really neat story and a great piece of history. I can see where the Southerners would think the Yankee's were trying to swindle them!

Ok, since I am pretty much alone here in Maine i'll add a few more.

3.Joshua L. Chamberlain born in Brewer received the only battlefield promotion to General during the Civil War. He was also the last Civil War soldier to die of wounds incurred in the War.

4.Aroostook County at 6,453 square miles covers an area greater than the combined size of Connecticut and Rhode Island.

I like the Nutmeg stories and do you think a "slick" salesman came from his name? Massachusetts has a couple firsts: first public Library in Franklin, named after Benjamin of course who's idea it was and first to allow gay marriage. Also Ma is the lowest state in illiteracy and next to lowest in divorces. Do you think these two sets of facts are related? Thanks for this thread its fun to look up stuff that you have forgotten about your local area.

Wisconsin is known as the 'Badger state', this came from what they called lead and copper miners digging into the hillsides. The town where I was born - Mineral Point is where is originated. There are badger(the animals) around, but they are rare to see.

The state rock is Red Granite, I grew up in a town with a quarry for it in the center of town.

i'd always wondered about the "Nutmeg State". Does nutmeg grow here? What does it look like? i've only ever seen it ground up...

Al,
I bet that red granite is pretty, have you ever gone mining? I've gone many times and loved it, although since DH got hurt i've only been 2X.
Neat that the miners were named for that reason.

I haven't Pixie. We took the kids to the earth science musuem last summer and they got to talk to an old miner.
Back in the 1830's it was harder to dig deep mines.
I want to say some of the granite from my hometown is in one of the monuments in Washington. The quarry closed in the mid70's and before it filled in with water it was cool to look down at the bottom 200' deep.

What a beautiful and interesting house! Thanks for sharing that Al....I love that I can come to DG and learn about plants, history, and pretty much anything else my curious mind wants to know!!

Mass. has a state bean! It's the navy bean - the official bean of Boston Baked Beans.
Toll House Cookies were "invented" in Mass.
Johnny Appleseed was originally from Mass.
Oh, we have a state book - Make Way for Ducklings.

My humble town of Medway was the birthplace of Grizzly Adams - remember the t.v. show?

Dan Haggerty - how 'bout that.

Good job on the Toll House.

I use to watch Grizzly Adams all the time with the kids, then I married a look-a-like! hee hee

i am originally from Missouri, the "Show Me"state...

Sounds like a dare ;)

Hmmm, lots of interesting stuff about Wisconson, Cool story about the Nutmegs. ☺

The caskets for the Grants are real nice. I used to go to the memorial to eat lunch.

We also have a beautiful Island Nantucket, Whalers contibuted to their wealth but not the Macy's, they were busy running a dry good store , one of them, openend one in New York City and todays it is spread all over the States

New Jersey State Flower - Violet - Viola sororia
State Bird - Eastern goldfinch
State Mammal - Horse
State Insect - Honey Bee
State Shell - Knobbed whelk
State Fish - Brook trout
State Tree - Red oak
State Fruit - Blueberry (I thought cranberry, guess not)

New Jersey was the 3rd state in the USA; it became a state on December 18, 1787.

State Abbreviation - NJ
State Capital - Trenton
Largest City - Newark
Area - 8,722 square miles [New Jersey is the 47th biggest state in the USA]
Population - 8,414,350 (as of 2000) [New Jersey is the ninth most populous state in the USA]
Name for Residents - New Jerseyites or New Jerseyans
Major Industries - farming (potatoes, tomatoes, peaches), chemicals, pharmaceuticals, petroleum-based products, insurance, tourism

Presidential Birthplace - Grover Cleveland was born in Caldwell on March 18, 1837 (he was the 22nd and 24th US President, from 1885 to 1889 and from 1893 to 1897).

Major Rivers - Delaware River, Hudson River
Highest Point - High Point - 1,803 feet (550 m) above sea level (located in the northernmost part of New Jersey)
Bordering States - New York, Pennsylvania, Delaware
Bordering Body of Water - Atlantic Ocean


Origin of the Name New Jersey - New Jersey was named by James, Duke of York (the brother of King Charles II of England), who was given New Jersey by his brother. James later gave New Jersey to Lord John Berkeley and Sir George Carteret. James named the colony New Jersey to honor Carteret, who had been the Governor of Jersey, a British island in the English Channel.
State Nickname - Garden State
State Motto - "Liberty and Prosperity"
State Song - none

Dinosaur Fossils Found in New Jersey - Coelurosaurus, Diplotomodon, Dryptosaurus, Hadrosaurus foulkii, Nodosaurus, Ornithotarsus

The Garden State... home to not so many farms as there used to be and smelly highways!

History lesson for today with some interesting facts:

Maine is the only state that shares its border with only one other state.

In Wilton there's a cannery that imports and cans only dandelion greens.

Bath is known as the City of Ships.

The White Mountain National Forest covers nearly 800,000 acres, the forest covers a landscape ranging from hardwood forests to the largest alpine area east of the Rocky Mountains.

Approximately 40 millions pounds (nearly 90 percent) of the nation's lobster supply is caught off the coast of Maine.

Maine produces 99% of all the blueberries in the country making it the single largest producer of blueberries in the United States.

Maine’s earliest inhabitants were descendants of Ice Age hunters.
(I guess this means I should feel right at home here)

A few more.....

Portland was first temporarily selected as the state capital. In 1832 the capital was moved to the centrally located site of Augusta.

In 1641 America's first chartered city was York.

Acadia National Park is the second most visited national park in the United States.

West Quoddy Head is the most easterly point in the United States.

Augusta is the most eastern capital city in the United States.

Mount Katahdin is the state's highest point at 5,268 feet above sea level.

Anybody else learning new things? I am.....even about my own State!!!

Maria, I never knew that about the Macys!

FAMOUS BAY STATERS:

John Adams 2nd U.S. president, Braintree
John Quincy Adams 6th U.S. president, Braintree
Samuel Adams patriot, Boston
Jack Albertson actor, Malden
Horatio Alger author, Revere
Susan B. Anthony woman suffragist, Adams
F. Lee Bailey defense attorney, Waltham
Clara Barton American Red Cross founder, Oxford
Leonard Bernstein conductor, Lawrence
Forrest M. Bird inventor, Stoughton
Harold Stephen Black inventor, Leominster
Rachel Fuller Brown inventor, Springfield
William Cullen Bryant poet, editor, Cummington
Luther Burbank horticulturalist, Lancaster
George Bush 41st U.S. president, Milton
John Chapman / Johnny Appleseed nurseryman, Leominster
William D. Coolidge inventor, Hudson
John Singleton Copley painter, Boston
E. E. Cummings poet, Cambridge
Bette Davis actress, Lowell
Cecil B. DeMille film director, Ashfield
Emily Dickinson poet, Amherst
Ralph Waldo Emerson philosopher, poet, Boston
Brian Evans singer, Haverhill
Ann Smith Franklin printer, almanac publisher, Boston
Benjamin Franklin statesman, scientist, Boston
Buckminster Fuller architect, educator, Milton
Robert Hutchings Goddard rocketry, Worcester
John Hancock statesman, Braintree
Nathaniel Hawthorne author, Salem
Oliver Wendell Holmes poet, Cambridge
Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. jurist, Boston
Winslow Homer painter, Boston
Elias Howe inventor, Spencer
Helen Hunt Jackson writer, Amherst
John F. Kennedy U.S. president, Brookline
Amy Lowell poet, Brookline
Percival Lowell astronomer, Boston
James Russell Lowell poet, Cambridge
Robert Lowell poet, Boston
Horace Mann educator, Franklin
Cotton Mather clergyman, Boston
Sharon Christa McAuliffe teacher, astronaut, Framingham
Samuel F. B. Morse painter, inventor, Charlestown
Leonard Nemoy actor, Boston
Albert Pike pioneer teacher, lawyer, Boston
Edgar Allan Poe writer, Boston
Ella Raines actress, Snoquaimie
Paul Revere silversmith, Revolutionary War figure, Boston
Robert H. Rines inventor, Boston
Dr. Seuss Theodore Geisel author, illustrator, Springfield
Lucy Stone woman suffragist, West Brookfield
Louis Henry Sullivan architect, Boston
Henry David Thoreau author, Concord
Max Tishler inventor, Boston
James McNeill Whistler painter, Lowell
Eli Whitney inventor, Westborough
John Greenleaf Whittier poet, Haverhill
Eli Whitney inventor, Westboro
Jo Dee Messina country singer, Holliston

A lot of people on that list Maria that were thinking out of the box and thinking independently and using their imagination. I think we could use more of that today. Oldie but goodie of the same: Massachusetts was the only state that did not vote for Nixon.

Just a note about the last name on that list - Jo Dee Messina. One of my db's was dating and living with one of her ds's for about 8 years. Unfortunately, it didn't work out. But I was almost related to someone famous!

Togus was the first Veteran's Hospital in the United States. The facility was founded in 1866.

An unsuccessful attempt at establishing a permanent English settlement in the New World was at the location now known as Popham Beach. Sir George Popham led the expedition in 1607. (one of my favorite beaches in Maine)

love Jo Dee Messina!

I love her music - I'll leave it at that.

ok I guess my comment can be misleading... yes I meant I love her voice and her music

I know, I was talking about her personality.

First Basketball game was played at Springfield college, its Memorial hall of Fame is located in that city

i giggle every time i drive by the giant basketball, and the path of basketball lights...

Just seen it once, had to smile too

Long Island, New York

1) Size: It's 118 miles long x (12 to 23) miles wide.*

2) Water: All of Long Island's water supply comes from underground water held in aquifers. Stacked one on top of the other like layers in
a cake. All Long Island aquifers receive their fresh water from precipitation which takes from 25 to 1,000 years to migrate through the layers to the aquifers, which hold roughly 70 trillion US gallons enough to flood the entire surface of Long Island with more than 300 feet of water.*

* From Wikipedia

enc. NASA Landsat image; public domain.

Which house is yours, WC?