New Hampshire, NH.

Granite State

New Hampshire is a small U.S. state in northern New England. It is located east of Vermont, north of Massachusetts, south of Quebec, Canada, and west of Maine and the North Atlantic Ocean. The state ranks 46th of the 50 states in land area (23,249 km2) and 41st in population (around 1.3 million by a 2003 U.S. Census Bureau estimate). It is the site of the New Hampshire primary, the first primary in the U.S. presidential elections, and has probably the most famous of all state mottos: "Live free or die," quoted from Revolutionary War hero John Stark's response to a letter honoring him for the Battle of Bennington. New Hampshire's state nickname is "the Granite State" because it has numerous granite quarries, although that industry has declined greatly in recent decades. The nickname has also been embraced for reflecting the state's attachment to tradition and limited government. Its state flower is the purple lilac. Its state bird is the purple finch. Its state tree is the American white birch, also called paper birch or canoe birch. New Hampshire is home to the highest winds ever recorded on Earth: 231 mph in 1934 at the Mount Washington weather observatory in the Presidential Range. In 2003, it gained international attention for having the first openly gay bishop of a large mainline Christian church, Gene Robinson, within the Anglican Communion (the Episcopal Church in the United States of America). New Hampshire's recreational attractions include skiing and other winter sports; observing the fall foliage; the Lakes Region; and the New Hampshire International Speedway (formerly Loudon Racetrack), home of the Loudon Classic, the longest-running motorcycle race in the United States. USS New Hampshire was named in honor of this state.

New Hampshire was founded by Captain John Mason and first settled in 1623, just three years after the Pilgrims landed at Plymouth. In 1631, Captain Thomas Wiggin served as the first governor of the Upper Plantation (comprising modern-day Dover, Durham and Stratham). In 1679 this Upper Plantation became the "Royal Province" with John Cutt as governor. The "Royal Province" continued until 1698 when it came under the jurisdiction of Massachusetts with Joseph Dudley as Governor. Thus it continued until 1741. Under King George II New Hampshire returned to its royal provincial status with a governor of its own, Benning Wentworth, who was its governor from 1741 to 1766. It was one of the thirteen colonies that revolted against British rule in the American Revolution. It was the first state to declare its independence, and the historic attack on Fort William and Mary (now Fort Constitution) helped supply the cannon and ammunition needed for the Battle of Bunker Hill that took place north of Boston a few months later. On January 5, 1776, the Provincial Congress of New Hampshire, meeting in Exeter, New Hampshire ratified the first state constitution in the soon-to-be United States, six months before the signing of the Declaration of Independence. In the 1830s, New Hampshire saw two major news stories: the founding of the Republic of Indian Stream on its northern border with Canada over the unresolved post-revolutionary war border issue, and the founding of the modern Republican Party by Amos Tuck and friends. New Hampshire grew as a hotbed of Abolitionist sentiment up to the Civil War, participating in the Underground Railroad in providing safe routes into Canada, primarily via the Connecticut River waterway. In the 20th Century, New Hampshire gained political renown for its First in the Nation political primaries which tended to accurately predict who would be elected President of the United States.

source:http://wikipedia.org/