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South Dakota Traditions
Capital: Pierre
State abbreviation/Postal code: S.D./SD
Governor: Mike Rounds, R (to Jan. 2011)
Lieut. Governor: Dennis Daugaard, R (to Jan. 2011)
Senators: John R. Thune, R (to Jan. 2011); Tim Johnson, D (to Jan.
2009)
U.S. Representatives: 1
Atty. General: Larry Long, R (to Jan. 2011)
Secy. of State: Chris Nelson, R (to Jan. 2011)
Treasurer: Vernon L. Larson, R (to Jan. 2011)
Organized as territory: March 2, 1861
Entered Union (rank): Nov. 2, 1889 (40)
Present constitution adopted: 1889
Motto: Under God the people rule
State symbols:
flower American pasqueflower (1903)
grass Western wheat grass (1970)
soil houdek (1990)
tree black hills spruce (1947)
bird ring-necked pheasant (1943)
insect honeybee (1978)
animal coyote (1949)
mineral stone rose quartz (1966)
gemstone fairburn agate (1966)
colors blue and gold (in state flag)
song
“Hail! South Dakota” (1943)
fish walleye (1982)
musical instrument fiddle (1989)
dessert kuchen (2000)
Nicknames: Mount Rushmore State; Coyote State
Origin of name: From the Sioux tribe, meaning “allies”
10 largest cities (2005 est.): Sioux Falls, 139,517; Rapid City,
62,167; Aberdeen, 24,098; Watertown, 20,265; Brookings, 18,715;
Mitchell, 14,696; Pierre, 14,052; Yankton, 13,716; Huron, 11,086;
Vermillion, 9,964
Land area: 75,885 sq mi. (196,542 sq km)
Geographic center: In Hughes Co., 8 mi. NE of Pierre
Number of counties: 66 (64 county governments)
Largest county by population and area: Minnehaha, 160,087
(2005); Meade, 3,471 sq mi.
State parks: 12
Residents: South Dakotan
2005 resident population est.: 775,933
Exploration of this area began in 1743 when Louis-Joseph and
François Verendrye came from France in search of a route to the
Pacific.
The U.S. acquired the region as part of the Louisiana Purchase in
1803, and it was explored by Lewis and Clark in 1804–1806. Fort
Pierre, the first permanent settlement, was established in 1817.
Settlement of South Dakota did not begin in earnest until the
arrival of the railroad in 1873 and the discovery of gold in the
Black Hills in 1874.
Agriculture is a cultural and economic mainstay, but it no longer
leads the state in employment or share of gross state product.
Durable-goods manufacturing and private services have evolved as
the drivers of the economy. Tourism is also a booming industry in
the state, generating over a billion dollars' worth of economic
activity each year.
South Dakota is the second-largest producer of flaxseed and
sunflower seed in the nation. It is the third-largest producer of hay
and rye.
The Black Hills are the highest mountains east of the Rockies. Mt.
Rushmore, in this group, is famous for the likenesses of
Washington, Jefferson, Lincoln, and Theodore Roosevelt, which
were carved in granite by Gutzon Borglum. A memorial to Crazy
Horse is also being carved in granite near Custer.
Other tourist attractions include the Badlands; the World's Only
Corn Palace, in Mitchell; and the city of Deadwood, where Wild Bill
Hickok was killed in 1876 and where gambling was recently
legalized.
History
Early Inhabitants, European Exploration, and Fur Trading
At the time of European
exploration, South Dakota was inhabited
by Native Americans of the agricultural Arikara and the nomadic
Sioux (Dakota). By the 1830s the Sioux had driven the Arikara
from the area. Part of the region that is now South Dakota was
explored in the mid-18th cent. by sons of the sieur de la
Vérendrye. The United States acquired the region as part of the
Louisiana Purchase, and it was partially explored by Lewis and
Clark in their Missouri River expedition of 1804–6. Later explorers
became well acquainted with the warlike Sioux, who continued to
dominate the region from the period of the fur trade until to the
middle of the 19th cent. Individual traders from the time of Pierre
Dorion in the late 18th cent. made the region their home, and the
posts founded by Pierre Chouteau and the American Fur Company
were the first bases for settlement. (Fort Pierre was established in
1817.)
Settlement
It was not until land speculators and farmers moved westward
from Minnesota and Iowa in the 1850s that any significant
settlements developed in South Dakota. Two land companies were
established at Sioux Falls in 1856, and in 1859 Yankton, Bon
Homme, and Vermillion were laid out. A treaty with the Sioux
opened the land between the Big Sioux and the Missouri, and in
1861 Dakota Territory was established, embracing not only
present-day North and South Dakota but also E Wyoming and E
Montana. Yankton was the capital. Settlers were discouraged by
droughts, conflicts with the Native Americans, and plagues of
locusts; however, by the time the railroad pushed to Yankton in
1872, the region had received the first of the European immigrants
who later came in great numbers, contributing significant German,
Scandinavian, and Russian elements to the Dakotas.
Gold Fever and the End of Sioux Resistance
Rumors of gold in the Black Hills, confirmed by a
military
expedition led by George A. Custer in 1874, excited national
interest, and wealth seekers began to pour into the area. However,
much of the Black Hills region had been granted (1868) to the
Sioux by treaty, and when they refused to sell either mining rights
or the reservation itself, warfare again broke out. The defeat
(1876) of Custer and his men by Sitting Bull, Crazy Horse, and Gall
in the battle of the Little Bighorn (in what is now Montana) did not
prevent the whites from gradually acquiring more and more Native
American land, including the gold-lined Black Hills.
The near extinction of the buffalo herds, Sitting Bull's death
(1890) at the hands of army-trained Native American police, and
the subsequent massacre of Big Foot's band at Wounded Knee
Creek were among the factors leading to the permanent end of
Native American resistance in South Dakota. Tribal organization
was weakened by the Dawes Act of 1887. Although the Indian
Reorganization Act of 1934 attempted to restore tribal ownership
of repurchased lands, younger generations have moved to the
cities in increasing numbers. During the 1870s the gold fever
mounted; Deadwood had its day of gaudy glory, Wild Bill Hickok
and Calamity Jane created frontier legends, and the town of Lead
began its long, productive history.
The Dakota Land Boom, Statehood, and Agrarian Reform
Although gold did not make the fortune of
South Dakota, it laid the
foundation by stimulating cattle ranching—herds of cattle were
first brought to the grasslands of W South Dakota partly to supply
food for the miners. Settlement in the east also increased and the
period from 1878 to 1886, following the resumption of railroad
building after the financial depression earlier in the decade, was
the time of the great Dakota land boom, when the region's
population increased threefold.
Agitation for statehood developed; in 1888 the Republican party
adopted the statehood movement as a campaign issue, and in 1889
Congress passed an enabling act. The Dakotas were separated;
South Dakota became a state with Pierre as capital. Disasters,
however, rocked its security. The unusually severe winter of
1886–87 had destroyed huge herds of cattle in the west, ruining
the great bonanza ranches and promoting among the ranchers the
trend—dominant ever since—of having smaller herds with
provisions for winter shelter and feeding. Cattle grazed on public
land and were rounded up only for branding and shipment to
market.
Recurrent droughts added to the difficulties of the farmers, who
sought economic relief in the cooperative ventures of the Farmers'
Alliance and political influence in the Populist party, which won a
resounding victory in 1896. Initiative and referendum were
adopted (1898; South Dakota was the first state to adopt them)
and other progressive measures of the day were enacted. However,
prosperity resumed, and with it South Dakota quickly returned to
political conservatism and the Republican party.
Railroads, Droughts, and the Great Depression
The extension of railroads (particularly the Milwaukee,
which was
the only transcontinental line passing through South Dakota)
encouraged further expansion of agriculture, but new droughts
(especially that of 1910–11) brought a brief period of emigration.
Many new farmsteads were abandoned, and a turn toward political
radicalism developed. The Progressive party, led by Peter Norbeck
(governor 1917–21) and operating as a branch of the Republican
party, revived the attempts of Populist reform programs to regulate
railroad rates and raise assessments of corporate property. The
Progressives also entered into experiments in state ownership of
business.
Prosperity-depression cycles again affected the state after the
boom of World War I. The combination of droughts and the Great
Depression brought widespread calamities in the late 1920s and
early 30s, and the state's population declined by 50,000 between
1930 and 1940. Vigorous relief measures were instituted under
the New Deal, and higher farm prices during World War II and the
ensuing years brought a new era of hopefulness.
Postwar Changes
The 1950s began a period of Democratic strength in state politics.
George McGovern was elected to the House of Representatives in
1956 and to the Senate in 1962, 1968, and 1974. In 1972
McGovern ran unsuccessfully for president. In 1973 a militant
Native American group occupied a courthouse at Wounded Knee
and the resulting gun battle with federal marshals heightened the
long-time Native American resentment of the U.S. government over
the issue of broken treaties.
In the postwar period the adoption of improved farming techniques
resulted in a steady increase in agricultural and livestock
production. This was accompanied, however, by the consolidation
of small farms into large units and the displacement of many small
farmers. Irrigation projects, extension of hydroelectric power, and
protective measures against wind and water erosion have been
implemented, avoiding the threat of new disasters. In 1981 a
major New York bank relocated its credit-card operations to Sioux
Falls, marking the beginning of the state's shift toward service,
finance, and trade industries that, in turn, has resulted in
significant economic growth. Some casino gambling was legalized
in 1989 and tourism continues to be one of the state's top sources
of income. To know more about South Dakota than just the black
Tennessee Melody
Capital: Nashville
State abbreviation/Postal code: Tenn./TN
Governor: Phil Bredesen, D (to Jan. 2011)
Lieut. Governor: Ron Ramsey, R (to Jan. 2009)
Senators: Lamar Alexander, R (to Jan. 2009); Bob Corker, R (to Jan. 2013)
U.S. Representatives: 9
Secy. of State: Riley C. Darnell, D (to Jan. 2010)
Atty. General: Robert Elbert Cooper, Jr. (appt'd. by supreme court)
Treasurer: Dale Sims, D (to Jan. 2009)
Comptroller: John G. Morgan, D
Entered Union (rank): June 1, 1796 (16)
Present constitution adopted: 1870; amended 1953, 1960, 1966, 1972, 1978
Motto: Agriculture and Commerce (1987)
Slogan: Tennessee—America at its best! (1965)
State symbols:
flower iris (1933)
tree tulip poplar (1947)
bird mockingbird (1933)
horse
Tennessee walking horse
animal raccoon (1971)
wild flower passion flower (1973)
songs “My
Homeland, Tennessee” (1925); “When It's Iris Time in Tennessee” (1935); “My Tennessee” (1955);
“Tennessee Waltz” (1965); “Rocky Top” (1982); “Tennessee” (1992); “The Pride of
Tennessee” (1996)
Nickname: Volunteer State
Origin of name: Of Cherokee origin; the exact meaning is unknown
10 largest cities (2005 est.): Memphis, 672,277; Nashville-Davidson,1 549,110; Knoxville, 180,130;
Chattanooga, 154,762; Clarksville, 112,878; Murfreesboro, 86,793; Jackson, 62,099; Johnson City, 58,718; Franklin, 53,311;
Hendersonville, 44,876
Land area: 41,217 sq mi. (106,752 sq km)
Geographic center: In Rutherford Co., 5 mi. NE of Murfreesboro
Number of counties: 95
Largest county by population and area: Shelby, 909,035 (2005); Shelby, 755 sq mi.
State forests: 15 (162,371 ac,)
State parks: 54
Residents: Tennessean, Tennesseean
2005 resident population est.: 5,962,959
First visited by the Spanish explorer Hernando de Soto in 1540, the Tennessee area would later be
claimed by both France and England as a result of the 1670s and 1680s explorations of Jacques Marquette and Louis Joliet,
Sieur de la Salle, and James Needham and Gabriel Arthur. Great Britain obtained the area after the French and Indian Wars
in 1763.
During 1784–1787, the settlers formed the “state” of Franklin, which was disbanded
when the region was allowed to send representatives to the North Carolina legislature. In 1790 Congress organized the territory
south of the Ohio River, and Tennessee joined the Union in 1796.
Although Tennessee joined the Confederacy during the Civil War, there was much pro-Union sentiment
in the state, which was the scene of extensive military action.
The state is now predominantly industrial; the majority of its population lives in urban areas.
Among the most important products are chemicals, textiles, apparel, electrical machinery, furniture, and leather goods. Other
lines include food processing, lumber, primary metals, and metal products. The state ranks high in the production of marble,
zinc, pyrite, and ball clay.
Tennessee is a leading tobacco-producing state. Other farming income is derived from livestock and
dairy products, as well as greenhouse and nursery products and cotton.
With six other states, Tennessee shares the extensive federal reservoir developments on the Tennessee
and Cumberland River systems. The Tennessee Valley Authority operates a number of dams and reservoirs in the state.
Among the major points of interest are the Andrew Johnson National Historic Site at Greeneville,
the American Museum of Atomic Energy at Oak Ridge, Great Smoky Mountains National Park, the Hermitage (home of Andrew Jackson
near Nashville), Rock City Gardens near Chattanooga, and three National Military Parks.
History
Early History
W Tennessee abounds with artifacts of the prehistoric Mound Builders,
who were the earliest inhabitants of the area. Cherokee, Chickasaw, Shawnee, and Creek were in the region when it was first
visited by a European expedition under De Soto in 1540. French explorers came down the Mississippi River, claiming both sides
for France, and c.1682 La Salle built Fort Prudhomme, possibly on the site of present-day Memphis. The French established
additional trading posts in the area, but they suffered continual harassment from the Chickasaw. Meanwhile, English fur traders
and long hunters (frontiersmen who spent long periods hunting in this area) came over the mountains from the Carolinas and
Virginia, prevailed over the Cherokee, and made ineffectual the French claims to the area, which in any event was lost (1763)
by the French in the French and Indian Wars.
The first permanent settlement was made (1769) in the Watauga River valley of E Tennessee by Virginians;
they were soon joined by North Carolinians, including perhaps a few refugees of the Regulator movement. In 1772 these hardy
settlers living beyond the frontier formed the Watauga Association, the first attempt at government in Tennessee, and in 1777,
at their request, North Carolina organized those settlements into Washington co.; Jonesboro, the county seat and oldest town
in Tennessee, was founded two years later.
The American Revolution and Statehood
In the American Revolution, John Sevier was among the notable
Tennesseans who served with distinction. When, after the war, North Carolina ceded its western lands to the federal government,
the E Tennessee settlers, incensed at being transferred without their consent, formed a short-lived independent government
(1784–88) under Sevier (see Franklin, State of). The cession was reenacted in 1789, and in 1790 the federal government
created the Territory of the United States South of the River Ohio (Southwest Territory), with William Blount as governor.
This act disposed of various schemes to place the area under the control of Spanish Louisiana. In 1796 Tennessee, with substantially
its present boundaries, was admitted to the Union as a slave state, with its capital at Knoxville. It was the first state
to be carved out of national territory.
Tennessee's constitution, which provided for universal male suffrage (that is, including free blacks),
was described by Thomas Jefferson as “the least imperfect and most republican” of any state. Armed with land grants
awarded for service in the American Revolution, veterans and speculators (who had acquired the grants from veterans, sometimes
fraudulently) swarmed in from the Carolinas, Virginia, Pennsylvania, and even from New England via such overland routes as
the Wilderness Road and Cumberland Gap. Others poled keelboats from the Ohio up the Cumberland and Tennessee rivers.
The Early Nineteenth Century
For the most part a rough and ready people, numbering over 100,000
by 1800, the settlers of Tennessee were nevertheless strongly influenced by the Great Revival, a wave of religious hysteria
that swept the state that year. The virtues and vices of their strongly egalitarian society were exemplified by Andrew Jackson,
who was prominent in the faction-ridden politics of Tennessee. By 1829 when Jackson became president, the state was prospering.
The first steamboat had reached Nashville in 1819, the year in which Memphis, soon to become the metropolis of a fast-growing
cotton kingdom, was platted.
Internal improvement projects—canals and then railroads—were pushed, and a new, smaller
wave of immigrants (predominantly Irish and German) arrived after the Cherokee and the Chickasaw were banished West in the
late 1830s. Insatiable land hunger, the spirit of adventure, and personal considerations carried many white Tennesseans beyond
the state; among them were Gov. Samuel Houston and David Crockett, both of whom had been conspicuous in the fight for Texan
independence. A decade later the response of Tennessee to the request for volunteers to fight in the Mexican War was so overwhelming
that it has since been known as the Volunteer State. Tennessee's James K. Polk, a Jackson protégé, was the President of the
United States during that war.
The Civil War and Reconstruction
Although slaves were numerous in W Tennessee, and to a lesser
extent in Middle Tennessee, and free blacks were subjected to a series of discriminatory regulations, the state was pro-Union;
it voted in the presidential election of 1860 for its own John Bell, candidate of the moderate Constitutional Union party.
Secession was rejected in a popular referendum on Feb. 9, 1861. However, after the firing on Fort Sumter and Lincoln's call
for troops, the pro-Confederate element, led by Gov. Isham G. Harris, canvassed the state, and on June 8, 1861, a second referendum
approved secession by a two-thirds majority. The one third opposed represented mainly E Tennessee, where slavery was a negligible
factor and where Andrew Johnson (then U.S. Senator) and William G. Brownlow had strengthened the natural Union loyalties of
the people.
In the Civil War Tennessee was, after Virginia, the biggest and bloodiest battleground. The rivers
served as Union invasion routes. Nashville was occupied by Gen. D. C. Buell in Feb., 1862, after the victories of Gen. Ulysses
S. Grant on the lower Tennessee and Cumberland rivers (see Fort Henry and Fort Donelson). In April one of the bloodiest battles
of the war was fought near the Mississippi state line (see Shiloh, battle of), and Memphis fell to a Union fleet in June.
Confederate Gen. Braxton Bragg, defeated at Perryville, Ky. in Oct., 1862, retreated further in Jan., 1863, after the battle
of Murfreesboro, and Grant, successful in the Vicksburg campaign, completely routed him (Nov., 1863) in the Chattanooga campaign.
The Confederates did manage to hold on to Knoxville until Sept., 1863, and their cavalry, particularly
the forces of Gen. N. B. Forrest and Gen. J. H. Morgan, remained active. An army under Gen. J. B. Hood made a last desperate
attempt to regain the state late in 1864 but was defeated at Franklin (Nov. 30) and annihilated at Nashville (Dec. 15–16)
by federal troops under G. H. Thomas. The Union military government that had been set up under Andrew Johnson in 1862 was
succeeded in Apr., 1865, by a civil government headed by Brownlow. An amendment to the state constitution of 1834 freed the
slaves, and, with ex-Confederates disfranchised and radical Republicans in control, the state was readmitted to the Union
in Mar., 1866.
As the first Confederate state to be readmitted, Tennessee was spared the worst aspects of Congressional
Reconstruction, but the postwar years were nonetheless bitter. The organization formed largely to reestablish “white
supremacy” in the South, the Ku Klux Klan, was founded (1866) in Tennessee, at Pulaski. The situation improved after
Brownlow left (1869) the governorship for the U.S. Senate, to which the state also returned (1875) Andrew Johnson in vindication
of his record as Lincoln's successor in the presidency. Brownlow's successor, Gov. De Witt C. Senter, although nominally a
Republican, encouraged the calling of a new state constitutional convention. In 1870 the delegates drew up a constitution
that rejected the reforms of the radical Republicans; African-American suffrage was limited by means of the poll tax and former
Confederates were reenfranchised.
Industrialization, Prohibition, and the Scopes Trial
Economically, the farm-tenancy system, which
had replaced the plantation system, brought much misery; industry, however, made advances after the Civil War. The iron- and
steelworks of E Tennessee were unable to meet the competition of Birmingham, Ala., but coal mining continued and textile production
increased. The use of convict labor in the mines precipitated the state's first major labor disturbance (1891–92), but
not until 1936 was the convict-leasing system abolished.
A statewide Prohibition bill (not repealed until 1939) was passed over a governor's veto in 1909,
and this question so divided the Democratic party that in 1910 a Republican was elected governor for the first time since
1880. In World War I the thousands of Tennessean volunteers in the U.S. armed forces included Sgt. Alvin C. York, who became
one of the nation's most highly publicized heroes. In 1925 the state attracted international attention with the famous Scopes
trial at Dayton. The fact that the state law banning the teaching of evolution was not repealed until 1967 is indicative of
the strong role that Protestant fundamentalism played in the lives of many Tennesseans. Its further influence was reflected
in the passing of a 1973 bill prohibiting the teaching of evolution as a fact rather than a theory.
The TVA and an Expanded Economy
One of the most important events in Tennessee since the Civil
War was the establishment of the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) in 1933. Although opposed by private power companies, the
TVA succeeded in providing hydroelectric power cheaply and in abundance, bringing modern comforts to thousands. Over the years
its programs expanded and were supplemented by other projects for water-resources development. Most important, the TVA was
chiefly responsible for the basic change in the state's economy from agriculture to industry and for the significant growth
and diversification of industry, especially during and after World War II. The TVA also came to be associated with atomic
energy, for it provides the power for Oak Ridge, one of the sources of production of the constituents for the first atomic
bombs.
Since the late 1970s there has been significant growth in the service, trade, and finance sectors
of the state economy and Tennessee has been very aggressive in attracting new industry. Many of the firms that have been setting
up new factories and distribution centers in Tennessee come from America's northern industrial states and from Japan.
For more on Tennessee and good ol' boy music please visit us at www.tnvacation.com .
Texas Pride
Capital: Austin
State abbreviation/Postal code: Tex./TX
Governor: Rick Perry, R (to Jan. 2011)
Lieut. Governor: David Dewhurst, R (to Jan. 2011)
Senators: John Cornyn, R (to Jan. 2009); Kay Bailey Hutchison, R
(to Jan. 20013)
U.S. Representatives: 32
Secy. of State: Roger Williams (apptd. by gov.)
Comptroller: Susan Combs, R (to Jan. 2011)
Atty. General: Greg Abbott, R (to Jan. 2011)
Entered Union (rank): Dec. 29, 1845 (28)
Present constitution adopted: 1876
Motto: Friendship
State symbols:
flower bluebonnet (1901)
tree pecan (1919)
bird mockingbird
(1927)
song “Texas, Our Texas” (1929)
fish guadalupe bass (1989)
seashell lightning whelk (1987)
dish
chili (1977)
folk dance square dance (1991)
fruit Texas red grapefruit (1993)
gem Texas blue topaz (1969)
gemstone
cut Lone Star cut (1977)
grass sideoats grass (1971)
reptile horned lizard (1993)
stone petrified palmwood (1969)
plant prickly pear cactus
insect monarch butterfly
pepper jalapeño pepper
mammal longhorn
small mammal
armadillo
flying mammal Mexican free-tailed bat
Nickname: Lone Star State
Origin of name: From an Indian word meaning “friends”
10 largest cities (2005 est.): Houston, 2,016,582; San Antonio,
1,256,509; Dallas, 1,213,825; Austin, 690,252; Fort Worth, 624,067; El Paso, 598,590; Arlington, 362,805; Corpus Christi,
283,474; Plano, 250,096; Garland, 216,346
Land area: 261,797 sq mi. (678,054 sq km)
Geographic center: In McCulloch Co., 15 mi. NE of Brady
Number of counties: 254
Largest county by population and area: Harris, 3,693,050 (2005);
Brewster, 6,193 sq mi.
State forests: 5 (7,314 ac.)
State parks: 115 (600,000+ ac.)
Residents: Texan
2005 resident population est.: 22,859,968
Spanish explorers, including Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca and Francisco
Vásquez de Coronado, were the first to visit the region in the 16th and 17th centuries, settling at Ysleta near El Paso in
1682. In 1685, Robert Cavelier, Sieur de la Salle, established a short-lived French colony at Matagorda Bay.
Americans, led by Stephen F. Austin, began to settle along the Brazos
River in 1821 when Texas was controlled by Mexico, recently independent from Spain. In 1836, following a brief war between
the American settlers in Texas and the Mexican government, the Independent Republic of Texas was proclaimed with Sam Houston
as president. This war was famous for the battles of the Alamo and San Jacinto. After Texas became a state in 1845, border
disputes led to the Mexican War of 1846–1848.
Possessing enormous natural resources, Texas is a major agricultural
state and an industrial giant. Second only to Alaska in land area, it leads all other states in such categories as oil, cattle,
sheep, and cotton. Texas ranches and farms also produce poultry and eggs, dairy products, greenhouse and nursery products,
wheat, hay, rice, sugar cane, and peanuts, and a variety of fruits and vegetables.
Sulfur, salt, helium, asphalt, graphite, bromine, natural gas, cement,
and clays are among the state's valuable resources. Chemicals, oil refining, food processing, machinery, and transportation
equipment are among the major Texas manufacturing industries.
Millions of tourists spend well over $44 billion annually visiting
more than 100 state parks, recreation areas, and points of interest such as the Gulf Coast resort area, the Lyndon B. Johnson
Space Center in Houston, the Alamo in San Antonio, the state capital in Austin, and the Big Bend and Guadalupe Mountains National
Park.
History
Spanish Exploration and Colonization
The region
that is now Texas was early known to the Spanish, who were, however, slow to settle there. Cabeza de Vaca, shipwrecked off
the coast in 1528, wandered through the area in the 1530s, and Coronado probably crossed the northwest section in 1541. De
Soto died before reaching Texas, but his men continued west, crossing the Red River in 1542. The first Spanish settlement
was made (1682) at Ysleta on the site of present day El Paso by refugees from the area that is now New Mexico after the Pueblo
revolt of 1680. Several missions were established in the area; but the Comanche, Apache, and other Native American tribes
resented their encroachment, and the settlements did not flourish.
A French expedition led by La Salle penetrated E Texas in 1685 after
failing to locate the mouth of the Mississippi. This incursion, though brief, stirred the Spanish to establish missions to
hold the area. The first mission, founded in 1690 near the Neches, was named Francisco de los Tejas after the so-called tejas
[friends]: Native Americans. This is also the origin of the state's name. In general, however, Spanish attempts to gain wealth
from the wild region and to convert the indigenous population were unsuccessful, and in most places occupation was desultory.
American Expeditions and Settlement
By the early 19th cent. Americans
were covetously eyeing Texas, especially after the Louisiana Purchase (1803) had extended the U.S. border to that fertile
wilderness. Attempts to free Texas from Spanish rule were made in the expeditions of the adventurers Gutiérrez and Magee (1812–13)
and James Long (1819). In 1821 Moses Austin secured a colonization grant from the Spanish authorities in San Antonio. He died
from the rigors of his return trip from that distant outpost, but his son, Stephen F. Austin, had the grant confirmed and
in Dec., 1821, led 300 families across the Sabine River to the region between the Brazos and Colorado rivers, where they established
the first American settlement in Texas. Austin is known as the father of Texas.
The newly independent government of Mexico, pleased with Austin's
prospering colony, readily offered grants to other American promoters and even gave huge land tracts to individual settlers.
Americans from all over the Union, but particularly from the South, poured into Texas, and within a decade a considerable
number of settlements had been established at Brazoria, Washington-on-the-Brazos, San Felipe de Austin, Anahuac, and Gonzales.
The Americans easily avoided Mexican requirements that all settlers be Roman Catholic, but conflict with Mexican settlers
over land titles resulted in the Fredonian Rebellion (1826–27).
By 1830 the Americans outnumbered the Mexican settlers by more than
three to one and had formed their own society. The Mexican government became understandably concerned. Its sporadic attempts
to tighten control over Texas had been hampered by its own political instability, but in 1830 measures were taken to stop
the influx of Americans. Troops were sent to police the border, close the seaports, occupy the towns, and levy taxes on imported
goods. The troops were withdrawn in 1832, when Mexico was again in political upheaval, but the Texans, alarmed and hoping
to achieve a greater measure of self-government, petitioned Mexico for separate statehood (Texas was then part of Coahuila).
When Austin presented the petition in Mexico City, Antonio López de Santa Anna had become military dictator. Austin was arrested
and imprisoned for eighteen months, and Texas was regarrisoned.
Independence from Mexico
The Texas Revolution broke out (1835)
in Gonzales when the Mexicans attempted to disarm the Americans and were routed. The American settlers then drove all the
Mexican troops from Texas, overwhelming each command in surprise attacks. At a convention called at Washington-on-the-Brazos,
Texas declared its independence (Mar. 2, 1836). A constitution was adopted and David Burnet was named interim president.
The arrival of Santa Anna with a large army that sought to crush
the rebellion resulted in the famous defense of the Alamo and the massacre of several hundred Texans captured at Goliad. Santa
Anna then divided his huge force to cover as much territory as possible. The small Texas army, commanded by Samuel Houston,
protected their rear, retreating strategically until Houston finally maneuvered Santa Anna into a cul-de-sac formed by heavy
rains and flooding bayous, near the site of present-day Houston. In the battle of San Jacinto (Apr. 21, 1836), Houston surprised
the larger Mexican force and scored a resounding victory. Santa Anna was captured and compelled to recognize the independence
of Texas.
The Texas Republic and U.S. Annexation
Texans sought annexation
to the United States, but antislavery forces in the United States vehemently opposed the admission of another slave state,
and Texas remained an independent republic under its Lone Star flag for almost 10 years. The Texas constitution was closely
modeled after that of the United States, but slaveholding was expressly recognized. Houston, the hero of the Texas Revolution,
was the leading figure of the Republic, serving twice as president.
Under President Mirabeau Lamar large tracts of land were granted
as endowments for educational institutions, and Austin was made (1839) the new capital of the republic. Despite the efforts
of presidents Houston and Anson Jones, a combination of factors—confusion in the land system, insufficient credit abroad,
and the expense of maintaining the Texas Rangers and protecting Texas from marauding Mexican forces—contributed to impoverishing
the republic and increasing the urgency for its annexation to the United States.
Southerners pressed hard for the admission of Texas, the intrigues
of British and French diplomats in Texas aroused U.S. concern, and expansionist policies began to gain popular support. President
Tyler narrowly pushed the admission of Texas through Congress shortly before the expiration of his term; Texas formally accepted
annexation in July, 1845. This act was the immediate cause of the Mexican War. After Gen. Zachary Taylor defeated the Mexicans
at Palo Alto and Resaca de la Palma, the Mexican forces retreated back across the Rio Grande.
Civil War and Reconstruction
During the pre–Civil War period
settlers, attracted by cheap land, poured into Texas. Although open range cattle ranching was beginning to spread rapidly,
cotton was the state's chief crop. The planter class, with its slaveholding interests, was strong and carried the state for
the Confederacy, despite the opposition of Sam Houston and his followers. During the Civil War, Texas was the only Confederate
state not overrun by Union troops. Remaining relatively prosperous, it liberally contributed men and provisions to the Southern
cause.
Reconstruction brought great lawlessness, aggravated by the appearance
of roving desperadoes. Radical Republicans, carpetbaggers, and scalawags controlled the government for several years, during
which time they managed to lay the foundations for better road and school systems. Texas was readmitted to the Union in Mar.,
1870, after ratifying the Thirteenth, Fourteenth, and Fifteenth amendments. Although Texas was not as racially embittered
as the Deep South, the Ku Klux Klan and its methods flourished for a time as a means of opposing the policies of the radical
Republicans.
The Late Nineteenth Century
Reconstruction in Texas ended in
1874 when the Democrats took control of the government. The following decade was politically conservative, highlighted by
the passage of the constitution of 1876, which, although frequently amended, remains the basic law of the state. As in the
rest of the South, the war and Reconstruction had resulted in the breakdown of the plantation system and the rise of tenant
farming. This did not, however, have as marked an effect as elsewhere, partly because much of the land was still unsettled,
but in greater measure, perhaps, because the Texas tradition is only partly Southern.
In the decades following the Civil War the Western element in Texas
was strengthened as stock raising became a dominant element in Texas life. This was the era of the buffalo hunter and of the
last of the Native American uprisings. From the open range and then from great fenced ranches, Texas cowboys drove herds of
longhorn cattle over trails such as the Chisholm Trail to the railheads in Kansas and even farther to the grasslands of Montana.
The traditional symbols of Texas are more the “ten-gallon” hat, the cattle brand, and spurs and saddles than anything
reminiscent of the Old South.
As railroads advanced across the state during the 1870s, farmlands
were increasingly settled, and the small farmers (the “nesters”) came into violent conflict with the ranchers,
a conflict which was not resolved until the governorship of John Ireland. Many European immigrants—especially Germans
and Bohemians (Czechs)—took part in the peopling of the plains (they continued to arrive in the 20th cent., when many
Mexicans also entered). Agrarian discontent saw the rise of the Greenback party, and during the 1880s demands for economic
reform and limitation of the railroads' vast land domains were championed by the Farmers' Alliance and Gov. James S. Hogg.
However, antitrust legislation was insufficient to curb the power of big business.
Oil, Industrialization, and World Wars
The transformation of
Texas into a partly urban and industrial society was greatly hastened by the uncovering of the state's tremendous oil deposits.
The discovery in 1901 of the spectacular Spindletop oil field near Beaumont dwarfed previous finds in Texas, but Spindletop
itself was later surpassed as oil was discovered in nearly every part of Texas. Texas industry developed rapidly during the
early years of the 20th cent., but conditions worsened for the tenant farmers, who by 1910 made up the majority of cultivators.
Discontented tenants were largely responsible for the election of James Ferguson as governor.
World War I had a somewhat liberating effect on African-American
Texans, but the reappearance of the Ku Klux Klan after the war helped to enforce “white supremacy.” The economic
boom of the 1920s was accompanied by further industrialization. The Great Depression of the 1930s, while severe, was less
serious than in most states; the chemical and oil industries in particular continued to grow (the East Texas Oil Field was
discovered in 1930).
The significance of the petrochemical and natural gas industries
increased during World War II, when the aircraft industry also rose to prominence and the establishment of military bases
throughout Texas greatly contributed to the state's economy. Postwar years brought continued prosperity and industrial expansion,
although in the 1950s the state experienced the worst drought in its history and had its share of destructive hurricanes and
flooding.
Many projects for increased flood control, improved irrigation,
and enhanced power supply have been undertaken in Texas; notable among these are Denison Dam, forming Lake Texoma (shared
between Texas and Oklahoma); Lewisville Dam and its reservoir, supplying Fort Worth and Dallas; Lake Texarkana on the Sulphur
River; and Falcon Dam and its reservoir on the Rio Grande. The Amistad Dam on the Rio Grande, serving both the United States
and Mexico, was completed in 1969.
Industry in the Late Twentieth Century
In the 1960s, Texas began
to develop its technology industries as oil became less easy to exploit—even though soaring oil prices in the 1970s
caused the energy industry to boom. Since then, the state has become a preferred location for the headquarters of large corporations
from airlines and retail chains to telecommunications and chemical companies. High-technology industries have boomed since
the 1980s, especially in the Dallas–Fort Worth, Houston, and Austin areas. The state's economy proved still vulnerable
to the fluctuations of the energy industry in the mid-1980s, however, when falling oil prices resulted in massive layoffs,
hurting the state's real estate market and in turn precipitating the failure of hundreds of savings and loans in the state.
Texas has, however, continued to grow, becoming the second most
populous state in the nation. Its population increased by nearly 23% between 1990 and 2000, and its economy slowly recovered
in the 1990s. Its political influence has grown commensurately, and since the 1960s three sons (or adopted sons) of Texas
have been president of the nation: Lyndon Johnson, George Herbert Walker Bush, and George Walker Bush. In Sept., 2005, SE
Texas suffered extensive damage as a result of Hurricane Rita, but it was spared the devastating storm surge that ravaged
the neighboring SW Louisiana coast. For more information in the lone star state, please visit us at www.traveltex.com .
Utah Unity
Capital: Salt Lake City
State abbreviation/Postal code: Utah/UT
Governor: Jon Huntsman, Jr., R (to Jan. 2009)
Lieut. Governor: Gary Herbert, R (to Jan. 2009)
Senators: Robert F. Bennett, R (to Jan. 2011); Orrin G. Hatch, R
(to Jan. 2013)
U.S. Representatives: 3
Treasurer: Edward T. Alter, R (Jan. 2009)
Atty. General: Mark Shurtleff, R (to Jan. 2009)
Organized as territory: Sept. 9, 1850
Entered Union (rank): Jan. 4, 1896 (45)
Present constitution adopted: 1896
Motto: Industry
State symbols:
flower sego lily (1911)
tree blue spruce (1933)
bird California
gull (1955)
emblem beehive (1959)
song “Utah, We Love Thee” (1953)
gem topaz
animal Rocky Mountain
elk (1971)
insect honeybee (1983)
grass Indian rice grass (1990)
fossil allosaurus (1988)
cooking pot dutch
oven (1997)
fish Bonneville cutthroat trout (1997)
fruit cherry (1997)
mineral copper
rock coal (1991)
Nickname: Beehive State
Origin of name: From the Ute tribe, meaning “people of the
mountains”
10 largest cities (2005 est.): Salt Lake City, 178,097; Provo, 113,459;
West Valley City, 113,300; West Jordan, 91,444; Orem, 89,713; Sandy, 89,664; Ogden, 78,309; St. George, 64,201; Layton, 61,782;
Taylorsville, 58,009
Land area: 82,144 sq mi. (212,753 sq km)
Geographic center: In Sanpete Co., 3 mi. N. of Manti
Number of counties: 29
Largest county by population and area: Salt Lake, 948,172 (2005);
San Juan, 7,821 sq mi.
National parks: 5
National monuments: 6
State parks/forests: 40
Residents: Utahan, Utahn
2005 resident population est.: 2,469,585
The region was first explored for Spain by Franciscan friars
Escalante and Dominguez in 1776. In 1824 the famous American frontiersman Jim Bridger discovered the Great Salt Lake.
Fleeing religious persecution in the East and Midwest, the Mormons
arrived in 1847 and began to build Salt Lake City. The U.S. acquired the Utah region in the treaty ending the Mexican War
in 1848, and the first transcontinental railroad was completed with the driving of a golden spike at Promontory Summit in
1869.
Mormon difficulties with the federal government about polygamy did
not end until the Mormon Church renounced the practice in 1890, six years before Utah became a state.
Rich in natural resources, Utah has long been a leading producer
of copper, gold, silver, lead, zinc, and molybdenum. Oil has also become a major product. Utah shares rich oil shale deposits
with Colorado and Wyoming. Utah also has large deposits of low sulphur coal.
The state's top agricultural commodities include cattle and calves,
dairy products, hay, greenhouse and nursery products, and hogs.
Utah's traditional industries of agriculture and mining are complemented
by increased tourism and growing aerospace, biomedical, and computer-related businesses.
Utah is a great vacationland with 11,000 mi of fishing streams and
147,000 acres of lakes and reservoirs. Among the many tourist attractions are Arches, Bryce Canyon, Canyonlands, Capitol Reef,
and Zion National Parks; Cedar Breaks, Dinosaur, Hovenweep, Natural Bridges, Rainbow Bridge, Timpanogos Cave, and Grand Staircase
(Escalante) National Monuments; the Mormon Tabernacle in Salt Lake City; and Monument Valley. Salt Lake City hosted the 2002
Winter Olympics.
History
Spanish Exploration and Possession
Recent anthropological
studies have produced evidence that the Utah area was inhabited as early as c.9,000 B.C. Although some of Coronado's men under
García López de Cárdenas may have entered S Utah in 1540, the first definite penetration by Europeans did not occur until
1776, when the Spanish missionaries Silvestre Vélez de Escalante and Francisco Atanasio Domínguez opened the route for the
Old Spanish Trail between Santa Fe and Utah Lake. By the Treaty of 1819 between the United States and Spain, the large area
of which Utah was a part was officially recognized as a Spanish possession (it passed to the United States in 1848 with the
Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo after the Mexican War).
Mountain Men and Wagon Trains
In the 1820s the mountain men,
in search of rich beaver streams, made their way over the difficult terrain, thoroughly exploring the region. The discovery
of Great Salt Lake is generally credited to James Bridger, but Étienne Provot, Jedediah S. Smith, and others also have claims.
The Canadian fur trader Peter Skene Ogden led four expeditions into the Snake River area; he and his explorations are commemorated
in the name of one of Utah's leading cities. Between 1824 and 1830 the riches in furs were exhausted, and a decade was to
pass before the arrival of the next transients—westward-bound emigrants.
In 1841 the first California-bound group of emigrants, usually called
the Bidwell party, left the Oregon Trail and made its way across the Great Salt Lake Desert. Several years later Miles Goodyear
became Utah's first settler when he set up a trading post at the site of present-day Ogden, naming it Fort Buenaventura. The
ill-fated Donner Party broke trail over the difficult mountains E of Great Salt Lake in 1846 and proceeded in their tragic
journey westward across the desert.
Mormon Settlement and Territorial Status
Permanent settlement
began in 1847 with the arrival of the first of the hosts of persecuted Mormons, seeking a “gathering place for Israel”
in some undesired and isolated spot. It is said that when Brigham Young, their leader, surmounted the Wasatch Range and looked
out over the green Great Salt Lake valley, he knew that the place had been found. On July 24, 1847, now celebrated as Pioneer
Day, he entered the valley. Young was to prove himself one of the greatest administrators and leaders in 19th-century America.
Under his direction and in communal fashion the ground was plowed and planted, the Temple foundation was laid, and Salt Lake
City was platted directly on compass lines.
Gradually the Latter-Day Saints assembled, their ranks swelled by
streams of emigrants from the United States and abroad (particularly Great Britain and the Scandinavian countries). More and
more of the arid land yielded to their pioneering irrigation. In the next 50 years they not only had to learn the techniques
of wresting a living from the desert, of combating frequent invasions of grasshoppers, and confronting the Native Americans,
but they also had to face opposition from the federal government. In 1850 a large area, of which the present state was a part,
was constituted Utah Territory and Young was appointed governor. The name Deseret [honeybee], chosen by the Mormons, was discarded,
but the beehive remains a ubiquitous symbol of Mormon activity throughout Utah.
Friction with Native Americans and the U.S. Government
The Native
Americans, dispossessed of their lands and foreseeing further encroachment, became embittered, and the Mormons were threatened
by the powerful Ute. The confrontation eventually lead to the Walker War (1853–54) and the Black Hawk War (1865–68).
There were also conflicts between the Mormons and the California-bound immigrants, but the real trouble came with the gradual
disintegration of relations between the Mormons and the federal government. Numerous petitions for statehood were denied because
of the practice of polygamy, publicly avowed by the Mormons in 1852. Friction was increased by the assigning of non-Mormon
and often incompetent federal judges to Utah, and clashes between church and federal interpretation of the law became frequent.
Stories of Mormon violence toward non-Mormon settlers circulated in the East, and antagonism, much of it based on misunderstanding,
grew out of proportion.
In 1857 a “state of substantial rebellion” was declared
by the federal government; Young was removed from his post, and President James Buchanan directed U.S. army troops to proceed
against the Mormons. The Mormons prepared for warfare, calling in outlying settlers, and guerrilla bands harassed the westward-bound
troop supply trains of Albert S. Johnston. The affair, known as the “Utah War” or the “Mormon campaign,”
was finally settled peacefully, but great ill feeling had developed, particularly after the massacre at Mountain Meadows.
Some settlers who during the disturbances had traveled to land south of the Utah Valley remained to spread colonization there.
This turbulent episode was followed by several difficult decades.
Congress passed acts forbidding polygamy in 1862, 1882, and 1887. In the attempt to enforce them, civil liberties were infringed
upon and some Mormon church properties were expropriated. In 1890 a church edict advising members to abstain from the practice
of polygamy was ratified, and civil rights and church properties were restored.
Statehood and the End of Isolation
Long before Utah became a
state in 1896, its area had been reduced to its present size by the creation of the Nevada and Colorado territories in 1861
and the Wyoming Territory in 1868. The influx of settlers included many non-Mormon groups, and cultural and economic isolation
was largely ended by the development of mining as well as by the completion of the Union Pacific RR, which in 1869 joined
the Central Pacific RR northwest of Ogden, completing the nation's first transcontinental railroad.
Twentieth-Century Developments
Agriculture was long hampered
by an 1880 court ruling favoring a concept of water as private property. Not until the Reclamation Act of 1902 was the principle
of water as public property restored, reinforced by state legislation in 1903 vesting ownership of water in the state. World
War II spurred industrial growth, and the development of hydroelectric power during the 1950s attracted new industries. The
federal government, which owns over 60% of Utah's land, has become one of the state's largest employers, at both military
and civilian facilities. Computer-software and other high-technology firms have recently given the state a diversified and
robust economy. For more on Utah please visit
www.utah.com .
Picturesque Vermont
Capital: Montpelier
State abbreviation/Postal code: Vt./VT
Governor: Jim Douglas, R (to Jan. 2009)
Lieut. Governor: Brian Dubie, R (to Jan. 2007)
Senators: Patrick Leahy, D (to Jan. 2011); Bernie Sanders, I (to
Jan. 2013)
U.S. Representatives: 1
Secy. of State: Deborah L. Markowitz, D (to Jan. 2009)
Treasurer: Jeb Spaulding, D (to Jan. 2009)
Atty. General: William Sorrell, D (to Jan. 2009)
Entered Union (rank): March 4, 1791 (14)
Present constitution adopted: 1793
Motto: Vermont, Freedom and Unity
State symbols:
flower red clover (1894)
tree sugar maple (1949)
bird hermit
thrush (1941)
animal Morgan horse (1961)
insect honeybee (1978)
song “These Green Mountains” (2000)
Nickname: Green Mountain State
Origin of name: From the French “vert mont,” meaning
“green mountain”
10 largest cities (2005 est.): Burlington, 38,531; Rutland, 17,046;
South Burlington, 16,993; Barre, 9,128; Essex Junction, 8,841; Montpelier, 8,003; St. Albans, 7,476; Winooski, 6,353; Newport,
5,207; Northfield, 3,157
Land area: 9,250 sq mi. (23,958 sq km)
Geographic center: In Washington Co., 3 mi. E of Roxbury
Number of counties: 14
Largest county by population and area: Chittenden, 149,613 (2005);
Windsor, 971 sq mi.
State forests: 300,000 ac.
State parks: 52
Residents: Vermonter
2005 resident population est.: 623,050
The Vermont region was explored and claimed for France by Samuel
de Champlain in 1609, and the first French settlement was established at Fort Ste. Anne in 1666. The first English settlers
moved into the area in 1724 and built Fort Dummer on the site of present-day Brattleboro. England gained control of the area
in 1763 after the French and Indian Wars.
First organized to drive settlers from New York out of Vermont,
the Green Mountain Boys, led by Ethan Allen, won fame by capturing Fort Ticonderoga from the British on May 10, 1775, in the
early days of the Revolutionary War. In 1777 Vermont adopted its first constitution, abolishing slavery and providing for
universal male suffrage without property qualifications.
Vermont leads the nation in the production of monument granite,
marble, and maple syrup. It is also a leader in the production of talc. Vermont's rugged, rocky terrain discourages extensive
agricultural farming, but is well suited to raising fruit trees and to dairy farming.
Principal industrial products include electrical equipment, fabricated
metal products, printing and publishing, and paper and allied products.
Tourism is a major industry in Vermont. Vermont's many famous ski
areas include Stowe, Killington, Mt. Snow, Okemo, Jay Peak, and Sugarbush. Hunting and fishing also attract many visitors
to Vermont each year. Among the many points of interest are the Green Mountain National Forest, Bennington Battle Monument,
the Calvin Coolidge Homestead at Plymouth, and the Marble Exhibit in Proctor.
History
French Vermont
The first European known to have
entered the area that is now Vermont was Samuel de Champlain, who, after beginning the colonization of Quebec, journeyed south
with a Huron war party in 1609 to the beautiful lake to which he gave his name. The French did not attempt any permanent settlement
until 1666, when they built a fort and a shrine to Ste Anne on the Isle La Motte in Lake Champlain. However, this and later
French settlements were abandoned, and until well into the 18th cent. the region was something of a no-man's-land.
Benning Wentworth and the New Hampshire Grants
Fort Dummer, built
(1724) by the English near the site of Brattleboro, is considered the first permanent settlement in what is now Vermont. However,
Vermont's history may be said to have really begun in 1741, when Benning Wentworth became royal governor of New Hampshire.
According to his commission New Hampshire extended west across the Merrimack River until it met “with our [i.e., the
king's] other Governments.” Since the English crown had never publicly proclaimed the eastern limits of the colony of
New York, this vague description bred considerable confusion.
Wentworth, assuming that New York's modified boundary with Connecticut
and Massachusetts (20 mi/32 km E of the Hudson River) would be extended even farther north, made (1749) the first of the New
Hampshire Grants—the township called Bennington—to a group that included his relatives and friends. However, New
York claimed that its boundary extended as far east as the Connecticut River, and Gov. George Clinton of New York (father
of Sir Henry Clinton) promptly informed Governor Wentworth that he had no authority to make such a grant. Wentworth thereupon
suggested that the dispute between New York and New Hampshire over control of Vermont be referred to the crown. The outbreak
of the last of the French and Indian Wars in 1754 briefly suspended interest in the area, but after the British captured Ticonderoga
and Crown Point in 1759, Wentworth resumed granting land in the area of present Vermont.
In 1764 the British authorities upheld New York's territorial claim
to Vermont. New York immediately tried to assert its jurisdiction—Wentworth's grants were declared void, and new grants
(for the same lands) were issued by the New York authorities. Those who held their lands from New Hampshire resisted, and
a hot controversy, long in the making, now exploded. New York and New Hampshire land speculators had the most at stake, with
the New Hampshire grantees, first on the scene, having the advantage. Regional pride among the New England settlers played
a large part in creating resistance to New York authority. Chief among the leaders of this resistance was Ethan Allen, who
organized the Green Mountain Boys. New York courts were forcibly broken up, and armed violence was directed against New Yorkers
until the outbreak of the American Revolution in 1775, when the British became the major threat and common enemy.
The American Revolution and Independent Vermont
At the beginning
of the Revolution, Ethan Allen and the Green Mountain Boys captured Ticonderoga, and Seth Warner took Crown Point. In Jan.,
1777, Vermont (as its citizens were soon calling the region) proclaimed itself an independent state at a meeting in the town
of Westminster. Chiefly because of the opposition of New York, the Continental Congress refused to recognize Vermont as the
14th colony or state. The convention that met at Windsor in July reaffirmed Vermont's independent status and adopted a constitution,
notable especially because it was the first in the United States to provide for universal male suffrage. Thomas Chittenden
was elected the first governor.
The Green Mountain Boys under Seth Warner and John Stark made an
important contribution to the American cause with their victory at Bennington in Aug., 1777 (see Saratoga campaign). Later,
Ethan Allen and his brother Ira Allen, acting on their own, entered into devious negotiations with British agents, possibly
with the intent of annexing Vermont to Canada. The talks were inconclusive and ended when the Americans finally triumphed
at Yorktown in 1781. For ten years Vermont remained an independent state, performing all the offices of a sovereign government
(such as coining money, setting up post offices, naturalizing new citizens, and appointing ambassadors) and gradually becoming
more and more independent.
Statehood, at Last
Not until 1791, after many delays and misunderstandings
and, most important, after the dispute with New York was finally adjusted (1790) by payment of $30,000, did Vermont enter
the Union. It was the first state to be admitted after the adoption of the Constitution by the 13 original states. In the
next two decades Vermont had the greatest population increase in its history, from 85,425 in 1790 to 217,895 in 1810. As in
the earlier days, most of the settlers migrated from S New England, and, since the more desirable lands in the river valleys
were soon taken, many of them settled in the less hospitable hills.
Although the Embargo Act of 1807 aided the development of many small
manufacturing establishments, it was bitterly opposed in Vermont for its disruption of the profitable trade with Canada. The
War of 1812 was unpopular in Vermont as it was in the rest of New England, and during the war extensive smuggling across the
Canadian border was carried on. Vermont was threatened by British invasion from Canada until U.S. troops, under Thomas Macdonough,
won (1814) the battle on Lake Champlain.
At this early period in its history, Vermont, lacking an aristocracy
of wealth, was the most democratic state in New England. Jeffersonian Democrats held control for most of the first quarter
of the 19th cent. Beginning in the 1820s political and social life in Vermont was considerably affected by the activities
of those opposed to Freemasonry, and in the presidential election of 1832 Vermont was the only state carried by William Wirt,
candidate of the Anti-Masonic party. Anti-Masonry agitation was soon succeeded by even more vigorous efforts in behalf of
another cause—the one against slavery.
The Mexican and Civil Wars
In the Mexican War, which it viewed
as having been undertaken solely to increase slave territory, Vermont was very apathetic. However, no Northern state was more
energetic in support of the Union cause in the Civil War, and Vermonters strongly favored Lincoln over Vermont-born Stephen
Douglas. One of the most bizarre incidents of the war was the Confederate raid (1864) on Saint Albans, a town which, after
the war, also figured in the equally bizarre attempt of the Fenians to invade Canada in the cause of Irish independence.
The Changing Economy of Vermont
The economy of the state, meanwhile,
was in the midst of a series of sharp dislocations. The rise of manufacturing in towns and villages during the early 19th
cent. had created a demand for foodstuffs for the nonfarming population. Consequently, commercial farming began to crowd out
the subsistence farming that had predominated since the mid-18th cent. Grain and beef cattle became the chief market produce,
but when the rapidly expanding West began to supply these commodities more cheaply and when wool textile mills began to spring
up in S New England, Vermont turned to sheep raising.
After the Civil War, however, the sheep industry, unable to withstand
the competition from the American West as well as from Australian, and South American wool, began to diminish. The rural population
declined as many farmers migrated westward or turned to the apparently easier life of the cities, and abandoned farms became
a common sight. The transition to dairy farming in the 20 years following the war staved off a permanent decline in Vermont's
agricultural pursuits.
Since the 1960s, Vermont's economy has grown significantly with
booms in the tourist industry and in exurban homebuilding and with the attraction of high-technology firms to the Burlington
area. In recent years, prosperity has to some degree conflicted with concern for environmental issues. Nonetheless, the state
has been active in attempts to preserve its natural beauty, enacting very strict laws regarding industrial pollution and the
conservation of natural resources. For more on Vermont please visit www.travel-vermont.com .
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