All About Massachusetts

Nickname: Bay State

Admitted to Union: February 6, 1788

Capital: Boston

Area: 10555 square miles

Coastline: 192 miles

Highest Point: Mt. Greylock at 3491 feet above sea level

Lowest Point: Atlantic Coast

Bordering States: Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New York, Rhode Island, Vermont

State Bird: Chickadee

State Flower: Mayflower

State Tree: American Elm

State Song: "All Hail to Massachusetts" by Arthur Marsh

State Insect: Ladybug

State Book: Make Way For Ducklings by Robert McCloskey

State Beverage: Cranberry Juice Cranberry Cooler Recipe

State Berry: Cranberry Chocolate Covered Cranberries

State Muffin: Corn Muffin

State Dessert: Boston Creme Pie

State Cookie: Chocolate Chip Cookie

Favorite Sons & Daughters: John Adams, John Quincy Adams, Samuel Adams, Horatio Alger, Susan B. Anthony, F. Lee Bailey, Clara Barton, Leonard Bernstein, George Bush, John Chapman (Johnny Appleseed), John Singleton Copley, E. E. Cummings, Bette Davis, Emily Dickinson, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Benjamin Franklin, John Hancock, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Oliver Wendell Holmes, Winslow Homer, Elias Howe, John F. Kennedy, Horace Mann, Sharon Christa McAuliffe, Samuel F. B. Morse, Leonard Nemoy, Edgar Allan Poe, Paul Revere, Theodore Geisel (Dr. Seuss), Henry David Thoreau, James McNeill Whistler, Eli Whitney

Interesting Facts:
6th state to sign the Constitution
The first Thanksgiving was celebrated in Plymouth in 1621.
The first American public secondary school, Boston Latin Grammar School, was founded in Boston in 1635.
The first basketball game was played in Springfield in 1891.
The first American Christmas card was printed by Louis Prang in Boston in 1875.
The first American subway system was opened in Boston in 1898.