Read an Excerpt
NEW YORK
Ratified the U.S. Constitution:
July 26, 1788 (11th State)
Nickname: Empire Sate
Motto: Excelsior (Ever Upward)
Capital: Albany
Bird: Bluebird
Flower: Rose
We might as well, admit it right from the start: the city of New York dominates the rest of the state (and there are lots of people in the state who aren't too happy about that). New York City attracts the talented, the energetic, the ambitious and the loud. A financial and cultural powerhouse, it is at once awesome (the skyline), inviting (the restaurants) and infuriating (the traffic). And no matter what you want to do, buy, see or consume, it's better than even money that you'll find it in "the Big Apple."
The state of New York has born on the southernmost tip of the island of Manhattan. Here, in 1626, Peter Minuit struck the city's first shrewd business deal: $24 in trade goods to the Indians for Manhattan. Settlement of the state moved north along the Hudson River, then west into the Mohawk Valley and beyond. New York - the city and the state - has always been the goal of immigrants (in 1645, a visitor found 18 languages spoken among the 400 inhabitants of New Amsterdam). The immigrants are still coming - from Europe, Asia, Central and South America, the Caribbean and Africa.
But the city is just one facet of New York. Long Island has beautiful beaches (the Hamptons, Montauk, Fire Island). Much of the state has varied countryside with verdant mountain forests, fertile valleys, sparkling lakes and rivers. The Adirondack Mountains preserve six million acres of unspoiled wilderness (hikers often go for days without encountering another soul). The HudsonRiver Valley is remarkable for its natural beauty and its history. Cooperstown is home to baseball's Hall of Fame. The U.S. military Academy at West Point crowns a bluff overlooking the Hudson. And the most famous waterfall in America, Niagara Falls, is found at the western end of the state.
New York is an economic dynamo (the whole world is affected by what happens on Wall Street). The combined assets of New York's brokerage, houses, banks and other financial services are worth more than $1 trillion. The state produces $80 billion in manufactured goods (second only to California). And New York leads the nation in book publishing (three out of four books in the U.S. are published here).
(From Arizona)
Admitted to the Union: February 14, 1912 (48th state)
Nickname: "Grand Canyon State"
Motto: "Diat Deus" (God enriches)
Capital: Phoenix
Bird: Cactus Wren
Flower: Saguaro
Arizona is dry. Dry as the desert of Egypt. And as in Egypt, its dry air preserves relics of great civilizations-the fabulous cliff cities of the Anasazi, the petroglyphs in the Canyon de Chelly, the 2,500 ancient sites in Wupatki National Monument.
No one knows the real name of the earliest inhabitants of Arizona. Contemporary Native Americans call them Hohokam, which means "people who have gone."
European settlement in Arizona began in 1540 when Francisco Vasquez de Coronado led an expedition in search of the fabled Seven Cities of Cibola. Coronado never found the golden cities, and his discovery of the Grand Canyon carried no weight with Spain.
With the Gadsden purchase of 1853, Arizona was joined to the United States. As Americans moved into the territory, Arizona began its most colorful period, epitomized by the "anything goes" town of Tombstone 30 miles north of the Mexican border. The most famous incident in the annals of Tombstone is the gunfight at the O.K. Corral where, at 2:30 P.M. on October 26, 1881, cattle rustlers Billy Clanton and Frank and Tom McLaury were "hurled into eternity," as the Tombstone "Epitaph" put it, by Doc Holliday and the Earp brothers.
Throughout the 19th century, Native Americans made up the largest percentage of Arizona's inhabitants. Even today, the state has one of the largest Native American populations in the U.S.
Furthermore, tribally owned land occupies half of Arizona's territory-more than in any other state. Oraibi, for example, has been continuously occupied by the Hopi tribe for more than 800 years.
You can still see cowboys in Arizona (the first competitive annual rodeo began in Prescott on July 4, 1888), and the bola tie is the official State Neckwear, but these days most residents are urbanites, living in and around Phoenix, Tucson and Sun City. The dry climate has attracted wave upon wave of newcomers from every part of the U.S. so that Arizona's population has tripled since World War II and risen 35 percent since 1980.
In a state rich in natural treasures, the Grand Canyon is Arizona's hottest attraction. Visitors explore it on foot, by mule and in rafts. It is 2 billion years old, 277 miles long, 17 miles across at its widest spot, and so deep that its climate changes from level to level. It is a natural marvel that gives an adrenaline rush to even the most jaded traveler.
Excerpted from Fandex Family Field Guides: 50 States. Copyright (c) 1998 by Workman Publishing. Reprinted by permission of Workman Publishing.
loading...