New Hampshire

New Hampshire is a New England state in the United States (U.S. postal abbreviation NH). It was named after the English county of Hampshire. New Hampshire is called the "Granite State" because it has numerous granite quarries, although that industry has declined greatly in recent decades. The nickname has also come to reflect the state's attachment to tradition and its history of frugal government. There are no general sales or individual income taxes, which fits with the state motto of "Live free or die". (List of other states without personal income taxes)

New Hampshire's state flower is the purple lilac. Its state bird is the purple finch. Its state tree is the white birch.

New Hampshire is best known as the state with the first primary in the presidential election (see New Hampshire primary), the spot with the worst recorded weather at an inhabited location (the Mount Washington weather observatory in the Presidential Range), and colorful fall foliage. In 2003 it gained international attention for having the first openly gay bishop, Gene Robinson, within the Anglican Communion (the Episcopal Church in the USA).

New Hampshire's recreational attractions include skiing in the White Mountains, the Lakes Region, and the New Hampshire International Speedway (formerly the Loudon Racetrack), the home of the Loudon Classic, the longest-running motorcycle race in the United States.

USS New Hampshire was named in honor of this state.

History

New Hampshire was founded by Captain John Mason and first settled in 1623, just three years after the Pilgrims landed in Massachusetts and it was one of the thirteen colonies that revolted against British rule in the American Revolution.

Law and Government

The New Hampshire state capital is Concord, which has also been known over time by the names Rumford and Penacook. The governor of New Hampshire is Craig Benson (Republican) and its two U.S. senators are Judd Gregg (Republican) and John E. Sununu (Republican), whose father John H. Sununu was governor of the state from 1983-1988. List of New Hampshire Governors.

Its strong libertarian heritage has attracted the Free State Project to New Hampshire.

Geography

See: List of New Hampshire counties

New Hampshire is part of the New England region. It is bounded by Quebec to the north, Maine and the Atlantic Ocean to the east, Massachusetts to the south, and Vermont to the west. New Hampshire's major regions are the White Mountains region, the Lakes area, the Seacoast region, the Merrimack Valley area, the Monadnock region, and the Dartmouth-Lake Sunapee area.

Major rivers include the 116-mile Merrimack River, which bisects the state north-south and ends up in Massachusetts. Its major tributaries include the Souhegan River. The 410-mile Connecticut River, which flows south to Connecticut, forms the western border of New Hampshire. Oddly, the state border is not in the center of that river, as is usually the case, but lies at the low-water mark on the Vermont side, so New Hampshire actually owns the whole river. The Piscataqua River and its several tributaries form the state's only significant ocean port where they flow into the Atlantic at Portsmouth.

The largest lake is Lake Winnipesaukee, which covers 72 square miles in the central part of New Hampshire.

New Hampshire has the shortest ocean coastline of any state, just 18 miles. About 10 miles offshore are the Isles of Shoals, nine small islands best known as the site of a 19th-century art colony founded by poet Celia Thaxter.

Economy

New Hampshire's 1999 total state gross product was $44 billion, placing it 39^th in the nation. Its 2000 Per Capita Personal Income was $33,332, 6^th in the nation. Its agricultural outputs are dairy products, nursery stock, cattle, apples, and eggs. Its industrial outputs are machinery, electric equipment, rubber and plastic products, and tourism.

New Hampshire experienced a significant shift in its economic base during the last century. Historically, the base was composed of the traditional New England manufactures of textiles, shoe-making, and small machining shops drawing upon low wage labor from nearby small farms and from Quebec. Today, these sectors contribute only 2% for textiles, 2% for leather goods, and 9% for machining of the state's total manufacturing dollar value ( Source: US Economic Census for 1997, Manufacturing, New Hampshire). These traditional sectors experienced their sharp decline during the Twentieth Century due to increasingly obsolete plants and increasingly cheaper wages available in the US South.

Today's New Hampshire economy is largely driven by fiscal policy. The state has no personal income tax and advocates a frugal budget, thereby attracting commuters, light industry, specialty horticulture, and service firms from other jurisdictions with high tax policies, notably from closely nearby Massachusetts. This is a viable fiscal policy for a small, high-income state with limited social service demands, but it has not been one hundred per cent successful, and pockets of depressed manufacturing activity still remain.

Demographics

The population of the state in 2000 is 1,235,786.

Important cities and towns

Manchester, the largest city in the state, has a main street (Elm Street) which is a dead-end at both ends.

Education

Colleges and universities

Miscellaneous information

• New Hampshire was the last of the New England states to observe Fast Day, a day of prayer for a bountiful harvest. Traditionallly observed on the 4th Thursday in April, from 1949 was observed as a legal holiday on the 4th Monday in April until 1991 when it was replaced by Civil Rights Day. [1]
• In 1999 New Hampshire changed the name of Civil Rights Day to Martin Luther King Day. [2]
• New Hampshire is the only state that does not mandate public kindergarten, partly out of frugality and partly out of belief in local control, a philosophy under which towns and cities, not the state, make as many decisions as possible. As of 2003, all but about two dozen communities in the state provided public kindergarten with local property-tax money.
• New Hampshire is host to the New Hampshire Highland Games, formerly the Scottish Games. New Hampshire has also registered an official Tartan with the proper authorities in Scotland; this tartan is used to make kilts worn by the State Police while they serve during the games.
• New Hampshire has the only piece of Interstate highway that is two-lane (i.e. a single northbound lane and a single southbound lane) with a cobblestone median. This was done to preserve Franconia Notch, the site of the Old Man of the Mountain, a rock formation visible from Interstate 93 in Franconia. The formation was the symbol of the state until it fell apart, due to natural erosion, on May 3, 2003.
• The New Hampshire state quarter features the Old Man of the Mountain on the reverse, which makes it the only US coin with a profile on both sides.

Daily newspapers

Other publications

• New Hampshire Business Review (statewide)
• Hippo Press (Manchester)

External links

• http://www.state.nh.us
• The New Hampshire Almanac