50 States (Fandex Family Field Guides Series)

by Thomas J. Craughwell

Overview

50 STATES

Bringing America to your fingertips, Fandex presents a field guide to the 50 states plus the District of Columbia. Which is the only state with a tropical rain forest? Which state sparked the civil rights movement? Which two states entered the Union on the same day, and which was bought from a single family for the bargain price of $6,000? Illustrated with full-color, custom-designed maps and featuring nicknames, capitals, mottoes, emblems, anecdotes and natural treasures, it's a rich mosaic of the United States.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780761113997
Publisher:	Workman Publishing Company, Inc.
Publication date:	10/28/1998
Series:	Fandex Family Field Guides Series
Pages:	53
Product dimensions:	4.13(w) x 10.72(h) x 0.81(d)
Lexile:	IG1150L (what's this?)
Age Range:	10 - 14 Years

About the Author

Thomas J. Craughwell is an author and problem solver. He traced the evolution of Manhattan urban legends (Alligators in the Sewer); sorted out fact from fiction in old wives tales (Do Blue Bedsheets Bring Babies?); identified the patron saints of bloggers, vegetarians and hangovers (This Saint Will Change Your Life); and resurrected a long-forgotten story from 1876, when a gang of hapless Irish immigrant counterfeiters tried to kidnap the body of Abraham Lincoln—and almost got away with it (Stealing Lincoln's Body). Tom lives in Bethel, Connecticut.

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 Hudson River 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