Also see Specific Destinations, Travel and Location Humor.

Page Toppers

• Autumn in New Hampshire
• Cold New Hampshire Morning
• New Hampshire Nights
• The Road Less Traveled
• Snowbound in New Hampshire

Quotes

• I choose to be a plain New Hampshire farmer with an income in cash of say a thousand. (Robert Frost)
• I have lived, somewhat brokenly to be sure, in Salem, Derry, Plymouth, and Franconia, New Hampshire, from my tenth to my forty-fifth year. (Robert Frost)
• Men hang out their signs indicative of their respective trades: shoemakers hang out a gigantic shoe; jewelers, a monster watch; and the dentist hangs out a gold tooth; but up in the mountains of New Hampshire, God Almighty has hung out a sign to show. (Daniel Webster)
• Portsmouth is a gem, a microcosm, a living illustration of New England coastal history. (New York Times June 2, 2002)

New Hampshire Symbols

• Nicknames: The Granite State; The White Mountain State; The Mother of Rivers; Switzerland of America
• Slogan: The Road Less Traveled
• Motto: Live Free or Die (from a statement by Revolutionary General John Stark, hero of the Battle of Bennington)
• Song: Old New Hampshire
• Honorary Songs: New Hampshire, My New Hampshire; New Hampshire Hills; Autumn in New Hampshire; New Hampshire's Granite State; Oh, New Hampshire; New Hampshire State March; New Hampshire Naturally and The Old Man of the Mountain
• Animal: White-tail Deer
• Bird: Purple Finch
• Freshwater Fish: Brook Trout
• Saltwater Fish: Striped Bass
• Amphibian: Spotted Newt
• Insect: Ladybug
• Butterfly: Karner Blue
• Tree: White Birch
• Flower: Purple Lilac
• Wildflower: Pink Lady's Slipper
• Fruit: Pumpkin
• Gemstone: Smoky Quartz
• Mineral: Beryl
• Rock: Granite
• Sport: Skiing

Facts About New Hampshire

• Capital: Concord
• Residents: New Hampshirites
• State Name Origin: named after the English county of Hampshire
• Admitted to Statehood: 21 Jun 1788
• Order of Admission: 9th state
• Coastline/Shoreline: 13/131 miles
• Length: 190 miles
• Width: 70 miles
• Area: 9,350 square miles
• Size Rank: 46
• Number of Counties: 10
• Streams and Rivers: 10,881 miles
• NJ is called "the mother of all rivers" because five New England rivers start here--the Connecticut, Pemigewasset, Merrimack, Piscataqua, and Winnipesaukee
• Geographic Center: 3 miles E of Ashland in Belknap Co.
• Mean Elevation: 1,000 feet
• Highest Point: Mt. Washington, 6,288 feet
• Lowest Point: Atlantic coast, sea level
• Agricultural Products: dairy products, poultry products, fruit, truck vegetables, corn, potatoes, hay, maple sugar, maple syrup
• Commercial Products: electric and electronic equipment, textiles, paper products, plastic products, stone, clay products, agriculture
• Average Annual Rainfall: varies by area
• Average Winter High Temperature: 15 degrees
• Record Low Temperature: -47 degrees (29 Jan 1934 Mt. Washington)
• Average Summer High Temperature: 69 degrees
• Record High Temperature: 106 degrees (4 Jul 1911 Nashua)
• Official Language: English
• More information about New Hampshire

Items of Interest

• New Hampshire was the first of the thirteen original colonies to declare its independence from England--six months before the Declaration of Independence was signed. As a result NH delegates received the honor of being the first to vote for the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776.
• The highest wind speed recorded at ground level is at Mt. Washington, on April 12, 1934. The winds were three times as fast as those in most hurricanes.
• The first potato planted in the U.S. was at Londonderry Common Field in 1719.
• The first free public library in the United States was established at Peterborough in 1833.
• New Hampshire adopted the first legal lottery of the twentieth century in the US in 1963.
• On December 30, 1828, about 400 mill girls walked out of the Dover Cotton Factory enacting the first women's strike in the U.S. The women were forced to give in when the mill owners began advertising for replacement workers.
• New Hampshire's State House is the oldest state capitol in which a legislature still meets in its original chambers.
• The karner blue butterfly, lynx, bald eagle, short nose sturgeon, Sunapee trout, Atlantic salmon and dwarf wedge mussel are on the State's endangered species list.
• America's Stonehenge is a 4000 year old megalithic (stone constructed) site located on Mystery Hill in Salem.
• It takes approximately forty gallons of sap to make approximately one gallon of maple syrup.
• Wallace D. Lovell built the Hampton River Bridge in 1900. Called the "mile-long bridge" it was supposedly the longest wooden bridge in the world.

Notable Natives

Some of these were born here, others just lived a while in the state.

• Sherman Adams - governor, public official
• Lewis Cass - public official
• Samuel Portland Chase - U.S. chief justice (Cornish)
• Jonas Chickering - piano manufacturer
• Ralph Addams Cram - architect (Hampton Falls)
• Charles Anderson Dana - editor (Hinsdale)
• Mary Morse Baker Eddy - founder of Christian Science (Bow)
• William Pitt Fessenden - politician (Boscawer)
• Sam Walter Foss - journalist, poet
• Daniel Chester French - sculptor (Exeter)
• Robert Frost (1874-1963) - Pulitzer Prize-winning poet (lived in Derry and Franconia)
• Horace Greeley - journalist, politician (Amherst)
• Sarah Josepha Buell Hale (1788-1879) - journalist, editor, author, wrote Mary Had a Little Lamb in 1830
• Levi Hutchins - invented the first alarm clock in 1787.
• John Irving (1942- ) - author (Exeter)
• Benjamin F. Keith - theater entrepreneur (Hillsboro)
• Luther C. Ladd - first enlisted soldier to lose his life in the Civil War (born in Alexandria)
• John Langdon - political leader (Portsmouth)
• Christa McAuliffe (1948-1986) - teacher who died in the space shuttle Challenger explosion (taught in Concord)
• Bob Montana (1920-1975) - created the comic strip Archie (lived in Manchester)
• Franklin Pierce (1804-1869) - 14th U.S. president, hero of the war with Mexico (born in Hillsboro, lived in Concord)
• Eleanor Porter (1868-1920) - children's author (Littleton)
• Augustus Saint-Gaudens (1848-1907) - first sculptor to design a U.S. coin (born in Ireland, came to Cornish in 1885)
• Alan Bartlett Shepard, Jr. (1923-1998) - astronaut, first American to travel in space in 1961 (East Derry)
• Harlan F. Stone - supreme court justice (Chesterfield)
• Earl Silas Tupper (1907-1983) - founder of Tupperware (Berlin)
• Daniel Webster (1782- ) - lawyer, statesman, politician, orator (Franklin)
• Benning Wentworth - merchant, public official
• John Wentworth - merchant, public official
• Eleazar Wheelock (1711-1779) - founded Dartmouth College in 1769 in Hanover
• Henry Wilson (born Jeremiah Jones Colbath) (1812-1875) - U.S. vice president under Grant (Farmington)
• Joseph Worcester - lexicographer (Bedford)

The New Hampshire State Flag
The flag background is blue. In the center is the state seal surrounded by a wreath of laurel leaves with nine stars interspersed (symbolizing that NH was the ninth state to join the union). In the center of the seal is the frigate, Raleigh, one of the first ships the Constitutional Congress authorized for the nation's navy. The sun rises over the Atlantic ocean. The date at the bottom is "1776".

You Know You're From New Hampshire When...

• driving is better in the winter because the potholes get filled with snow.
• shoveling the driveway constitutes a great upper body workout.
• the mosquitoes have landing lights.
• the most effective mosquito repellent is a shotgun.
• The snowmobile outlet on any Saturday is busier than the toy stores at Christmas.
• the trunk of your car doubles as a deep freezer.
• you design your Halloween costumes to fit over snow suits.
• you find -40C a might chilly.
• you clean grease off your barbecue so the bears won't prowl on your deck.
• you have ten favorite recipes for moose meat.
• you have more miles on your snow blower than your car.
• you know the four seasons: Winter, Still Winter, Not Winter and Almost Winter.
• you know which leaves make good toilet paper.
• you live in a house that has no front steps, yet the door is one meter above the ground.
• you only own three spices--salt, pepper and ketchup.
• you owe more money on your snowmobile than your car.
• you think everyone from the city has an accent.
• you think sexy lingerie is tube socks and a flannel nightie with only eight buttons.
• you think the start of moose season is a national holiday.
• you thought Grumpy Old Men was a documentary.
• your snow blower gets stuck on the roof.

Songs about New Hampshire

• Along the New Hampshire Way - The Shaw Brothers (1987)
• Autumn in New Hampshire - Sean Spicer and Laura-Lee Cascagnette (2008)
• Cold New Hampshire Morning - Polk, Barton and Towhead (1997)
• Cornish, New Hampshire - Helms (2003)
• Escape From New Hampshire - Boscoden (2007)
• Farm in New Hampshire - Robert Blake (2003)
• I'll Always Miss New Hampshire - Jim Britton (2004)
• Leaving New Hampshire - Andy Leftwich (2007)
• New Hampshire - Storm (2005)
• New Hampshire Girl - Hutch (1998)
• New Hampshire Naturally - The Shaw Brothers (1987)
• New Hampshire Nights - Kevin McMahon (2000)
• New Hampshire With My Love - Phil Coley (2004)
• Rye, New Hampshire - Anne Hills (1991)
• Snowbound in New Hampshire - Tony Smith (2002)
• To New Hampshire With Love (2006)

Songs about New England

• Homesick for New England - Roger Williams (1960)
• Weekend in New England - Barry Manilow (1976)
• When Fall Comes to New England - Cheryl Wheeler (1992)
• Whoever's in New England - Reba McEntire (1986)