Welcome Drifters!! I am so happy to show you around one of my childhood home states.

Beautiful New Hampshire, where the air is fresh and clean, and natures beauty is in abundance!

New Hampshire is a New England state of the United States that is noted for its natural beauty and year-round outdoor activities. In summer, vacationers flock to the state's rugged mountains, blue lakes, sandy beaches, and quiet villages. In the fall, visitors tour the countryside ablaze with red, orange, and yellow leaves. In winter, skiers race down snow-covered slopes and then warm themselves near crackling fires in friendly ski lodges.

The scenic beauty and other attractions bring millions of tourists from many parts of the world to tiny New Hampshire, and give the state a major source of income. But New Hampshire is more than a vacation wonderland. New Hampshire is the home of freedom-loving, industrious people who built a prosperous state and helped form a nation.

New Hampshire was first settled in 1623, just three years after the Pilgrims landed in Massachusetts. Early New Hampshire settlers traded in fish, lumber, and furs. They soon carved farms out of a wilderness and worked the land for food. Later, the people turned their skills and their state's resources to industrial development. They cut down trees for the giant lumber and papermaking industries. They took minerals from the mountains and hills to start a mining industry. They used the rivers and lakes as sources of power for mills and factories. And they built ships along the state's small Atlantic coastline. In all, the people of New Hampshire changed a wilderness into a farming society, and then into a thriving industrial state.

New Hampshire and its people have played important roles in United States history. On Jan. 5, 1776, New Hampshire became the first of the 13 original colonies to adopt its own constitution. On June 21, 1788, it became the ninth state to ratify the United States Constitution. This act of ratification put the Constitution into effect. Since 1920, New Hampshire has held the nation's earliest presidential primary elections.

The U.S. Navy's first shipbuilding yard opened at Portsmouth in 1800. One of the country's first tax-supported public libraries was established at Peterborough in 1833. In 1853, Franklin Pierce of New Hampshire became the 14th President of the United States. Daniel Webster, a leading statesman and orator of the 1800's, was born in New Hampshire. So was Alan B. Shepard, Jr., the first American astronaut to travel in space. The great poet Robert Frost lived in New Hampshire for many years.

New Hampshire's large granite deposits give it the nickname of the Granite State. Concord is the capital of New Hampshire and Manchester is the largest city.

STATE FLOWER

State Flower. The purple lilac, Syringa vulgaris, is the state flower of New Hampshire. New Hampshire historian Leon Anderson writes in To This Day that the purple lilac was first imported from England and planted at the Portsmouth home of Governor Benning Wentworth in 1750. It was adopted as our state's flower in 1919. That year bills and amendments were introduced promoting the apple blossom, purple aster, wood lily, Mayflower, goldenrod, wild pasture rose, evening primrose and buttercup as the state flower. A long and lively debate followed regarding the relative merits of each flower. The purple lilac was ultimately chosen, according to Anderson in New Hampshire's Flower -- Tree -- Bird because it "is symbolic of that hardy character of the men and women of the Granite State."

STATE TREE

The white birch tree, Betula papyrifera, is the state tree of New Hampshire. The White birch became the Granite State's official tree in the 1947 Legislature without argument or opposition. It was sponsored by Senator J. Guy Smart of Durham, on behalf of the New Hampshire Federation of Garden Clubs, of which Mrs. Helen C. Funkhauser of Durham was president. They easily piloted the birch tree bill through the Senate and the House of Representatives, and it was signed into law on May 22 by Governor Charles M. Dale of Portsmouth. The white birch is also called the canoe birch or the paper birch, for understandable reasons. Indians used its bark to make canoes, and it was also used for writing paper.The official state tree was labelled "Queen Of The Woods," by Evelyn W. Cortez, in an article in the December, 1947, issue of New Hampshire Troubadour, the one-time esteemed state government booklet, which said in part: There are several reasons for choosing the white birch for the state tree. Not only is it native to New Hampshire -- a first consideration -- but it is found in all regions of the state, growing as it does on rich-wooded slpes and along the borders of lakes and streams. It is a characteristic part of the scenery. The beauty of the white birch is dramatic against the green of other trees. While all birches are sturdy and graceful and may grow tall, the canoe, or white birch sometimes reaches a height of 80 feet. Its bark is chalky to cream white, tinged with yellow, and peels in thin film-like layers. Its leaves are broadly oval on short, stout leaf stalks. The cylindrical fruit spikes usually droop in contrast to the more commonly erect fruit of the other birches.

STATE BIRD

Bird Name: Purple Finch Field Marks: The Purple Finch is not really purple. The male Purple Finch has a brown and mixed rose back while the rest of it is rosy. The female is brown with light eyebrows. It has dark brown cheeks and its body is heavily striped. The tail of the Purple Finch is deeply forked and it has a thick, heavy bill. Feeder Food: Sunflower seeds, mixed seeds, nuts Natural Food: Seeds, insects, fruit, berries, buds and flower petals of the tree and shrubs Behavior: A finch is a rival for the food at your feeder. It will scare away other birds by leaning forward and raising the feathers on top of its head. It will add to its threat by opening its bill and flicking its wings and tail. You will see them at your feeder during years when their favorite trees have few seeds. Male Purple Finches will energetically sing and flutter their wings to attaract females during courtship.

State Bird. The purple finch is hereby designated as the official state bird of New Hampshire. The pert little purple finch toppled the one-time sturdy New Hampshire hen to become the Granite State's official bird, by vote of the 1957 Legislature. Rep. Robert S. Monahan of Hanover, then Dartmouth College forester, sponsored a purple finch bill, which was filed in the House of Representatives on February 12, Lincoln's birthday anniversary, with impressive backing. He later testified that it bore the support of the Audubon Society of New Hampshire, the New Hampshire Federation of Garden Clubs, and the State Federation of Women's Clubs. The purple finch proposal ran into quick opposition. Rep. Doris M. Spollett of Hampstead, veteran legislator and mail carrier and breeder of prize goats, once again sponsored the New Hampshire hen for a state bird. She had lost an initial bid for this special breed of hen, to become the official bird, eight years earlier, while serving in the Senate. Monahan won speedy approval for the purple finch, as his bill came up for public hearing before the House Committee on Recreation, Resources and Development on March 27, as he urged quick enactment "before some other state beats us to it." The purple finch readily mustered broad legislative support, because of the respected influence of its sponsoring organizations, and Miss Spollett's hen bill became pigeon-hold. The House Committee on Recreation, Resources and Development held a March 27 public hearing on Monahan's bill, and promptly recommended its passage. The House then passed the purple finch, and the Senate speedily concurred. Governor Lane Dwinell of Lebanon signed the purple finch into law on April 25.

STATE SEAL

The seal of the state shall be 2 inches in diameter, circular, with the following detail and no other: A field crossed by a straight horizon line of the sea, above the center of the field; concentric with the field the rising sun, exposed above the horizon about 1/3 of its diameter; the field encompassed with laurel; across the field for the full width within the laurel a broadside view of the frigate Raleigh, on the stocks; the ship's bow dexter and higher than the stern; the 3 lower masts shown in place, together with the fore, main and mizzen tops, shrouds and mainstays; an ensign staff at the stern flies the United States flag authorized by act of Congress June 14, 1777; a jury staff on the mainmast and another on the foremast each flies a penant; flags and pennants are streaming to the dexter side; the hull is shown without a rudder; below the ship the field is divided into land and water by a double diagonal line whose highest point is sinister; no detail is shown anywhere on the water, nor any on the land between the water and the stocks except a granite boulder on the dexter side; encircling the field is the inscription, SEAL OF THE STATE OF NEW HAMPSHIRE, the words separated by round periods, except between the parts of New Hampshire; at the lowest point of the inscription is the date 1776, flanked on either side by a 5-pointed star, which group separates the beginning and end of the inscription; the whole form and design to be as follows:

New Hampshire has had a state seal for more than 200 years, but its present form is only 50 years old.

The seal was first created in 1775 by the First Provincial Congress. It comprised a pine tree and an upright fish, on each side of a bundle of five arrows. The design reflected the state's then two major economic resources, and the arrows symbolized the strength of unity among the then five counties.

When the present state constitution became effective in 1784, the new Legislature revised the seal, to depict a ship on stocks, with a rising sun in the background, to reflect Portsmouth having become a major shipbuilding center during the war years. Various items for shipment were also shown on a frontal dock.

Details of this 1784 seal became so distorted in the ensuing century and a half that the 1931 Legislature voted major improvements, and, or the first time, spelled out its makeup. Director Otis G. Hammond of the New Hampshire Historical Society sparked this adjustment, by reporting that artists and sketchers had injected surprising details into the seal, as they produced new dies every few years for official state use. They produced rum barrels on the dock, and, on occasion, even human beings beside them.

When Governor John G. Winant of Concord launched a second term in 1931, he named a committee to serve with Hammond, to produce a less objectionable seal. The 1931 Legislature readily approved its recommendations.

STATE FLAG

The state flag shall be of the following color and design: The body or field shall be blue and shall bear upon its center in suitable proportion and colors a representation of the state seal. The seal shall be surrounded by a wreath of laurel leaves with nine stars interspersed. When used for military purposes the flag shall conform to the regulations of the United States. New Hampshire did not officially adopt a state flag until 1909. Prior to that, New Hampshire had numerous regimental flags to represent the state. The flag has only been changed once, in 1931 when the state's seal was modified.

The body of the flag is blue. The center of the flag has the state's seal with the frigate Raleigh -- all surrounded by laurel leaves and nine stars.

STATE EMBLEM AND MOTTO

The state emblem shall be of the following design: Within an elliptical panel, the longest dimension of which shall be vertical, there shall appear an appropriate replica of the Old Man of the Mountain; surrounding the inner panel, and enclosed within another ellipse, there shall be at the bottom of the design the words of any state motto which may be adopted by the general court; and at the top of the design, between the inner and outer elliptical panels, the words, New Hampshire, appropriately separated from the motto, if adopted, by one star on each side. Said emblem may be placed on all printed or related material issued by the state and its subdivisions relative to the development of recreational, industrial, and agricultural resources of the state. New Hampshire Revised Statutes Annotated (RSA) 3:1 Anderson, Leon. History. Manual for the General Court 1981. State Motto. The words "Live Free or Die," written by General John Stark, July 31, 1809, shall be the official motto of the state. It was the 1945 Legislature that gave New Hampshire its official motto and emblem, as World War II approached a successful end. The motto became "Live Free Or Die," as once voiced by General John Stark, the state's most distinguished hero of the Revolutionary War, and the world famous Old Man of the Mountain was voted the official state emblem. The motto was part of a volunteer toast which General Stark sent to his wartime comrades, in which he declined an invitation to head up a 32nd anniversary reunion of the 1777 Battle of Bennington in Vermont, because of poor health. The toast said in full: "Live Free Or Die; Death Is Not The Worst of Evils." The following year, a similar invitation (also declined) said: "The toast, sir, which you sent us in 1809 will continue to vibrate with unceasing pleasure in our ears, "Live Free Or Die; Death Is Not The Worst Of Evils."