New Hampshire

New Hampshire is a small U.S. state in northern New England. It is located east of Vermont, north of Massachusetts, south of Quebec, Canada, and west of Maine and the Atlantic Ocean. The state ranks 46th of the 50 states in land area (23,249 km²) and 41st in population (around 1.3 million by a 2003 U.S. Census Bureau estimate). It is the site of the New Hampshire primary, the first U.S. presidential primary in the U.S. presidential elections, and has probably the most famous of all state mottos: "Live free or die". New Hampshire's state nickname is "the Granite State" because it has numerous granite quarries, although that industry has declined greatly in recent decades. The nickname has also been embraced for reflecting the state's attachment to tradition and limited government. Its state flower is the lilac. Its state bird is the purple finch. Its state tree is the Paper Birch, also called paper birch or canoe birch. New Hampshire is home to the highest winds ever recorded on Earth: 231 mph in 1934 at the Mount Washington (New Hampshire) weather observatory in the Presidential Range. 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 and other winter sports; observing the fall foliage; the Lakes Region; and the New Hampshire International Speedway (formerly Loudon Racetrack), 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 13 colonies that revolted against British rule in the American Revolution. It was the first state to declare its independence, and the historic attack on Fort William and Mary (now Fort Constitution) helped supply the cannon and ammunition needed for the Battle of Bunker Hill that took place north of Boston a few months later. In the 1830s, NH saw two major news stories: the founding of the Republic of Indian Stream on its northern border with Canada over the unresolved post-revolutionary war border issue, and the founding of the modern Republican Party by Amos Tuck and friends. New Hampshire grew as a hotbed of Abolitionist sentiment up to the Civil War, participating in the Underground Railroad in providing safe routes into Canada, primarily via the Connecticut River waterway. In the 20th Century, NH gained political renown for its First in the Nation political primaries which tended to accurately predict who would be elected President of the United States. == Law and Government == The New Hampshire state capital is Concord, New Hampshire, which has also been known over time by the names Rumford and Penacook. The governor of New Hampshire is John Lynch (Democrat). New Hampshire's 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. Unlike most states, New Hampshire does not have a Lieutenant Governor; the Senate President fills that role. However, New Hampshire has a bifurcated executive branch consisting of the Governor and a five-person Executive Council(New Hampshire) that is a holdover from the Governor's Council of the Colonial era. The Executive Council's duties include voting on state contracts worth more than $5,000, on nominations made by the governor to major state positions such as department heads, and all judgeships. The New Hampshire state legislature, called the General Court, has 400 members in the House and 24 in the Senate. It claims to be the third-largest legislative body in the English-speaking world, behind only the United States House of Representatives and the British House of Commons. Based on 2000 Census data, this averages out to about one Representative for every 3090 people. State representatives and state senators are paid just $100 a year, plus mileage, effectively meaning that state laws are written by volunteers. Because of this pay scale, many New Hampshire lawmakers are either wealthy or retired. New Hampshire's government has earned the positive attention of residents in neighboring states: Killington, Vermont voted on March 2, 2004 to secede from Vermont and join New Hampshire—a largely symbolic act, since actual secession would require the agreement of both states' legislatures and the U.S. Congress. Supporters note that almost all Vermont towns were first chartered by New Hampshire, and point out that these two states already have unusual cross-border links, with the only two interstate school districts in the United States. == Geography == ''See List of New Hampshire counties'' New Hampshire is part of the New England (U.S.) region. It is bounded by Quebec, Canada 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 Great North Woods, the White Mountains region, the Lakes region the Seacoast region, the Merrimack Valley region, the Monadnock region, and the Dartmouth-Lake Sunapee area. ''See List of mountains in New Hampshire'' New Hampshire was home to the famous geological formation called the Old Man of the Mountain, a face-like profile in Franconia Notch, until May 2–3, 2003, when the symbol of New Hampshire collapsed. The Presidential Range in New Hampshire spans the central portion of the state, with Mount Washington (New Hampshire) being the tallest, and other mountains like Mount Madison and Mount Quincy Adams surrounding it. With hurricane force winds every third day on the average, 100 recorded deaths among visitors, and conspicous krummholz (dwarf, matted trees much like a carpet of bonsai), the upper reaches Mount Washington claim the distinction of the " worst weather on earth". In consequence, a non-profit observatory is located on the peak for the purposes of observing harsh environmental conditions. In the flatter southwest corner of New Hampshire another feature, the prominent landmark and tourist attraction of Mount Monadnock, has given its name to a general class of earth-forms, a monadnock signifying in geomorphology any isolated resistant peak rising from a less resistant eroded plain. '' See List of New Hampshire rivers'' Major rivers include the 116 mile (187 km) Merrimack River, which bisects the state north-south and ends up in Massachusetts. Its major tributaries include the Souhegan River. The 410 mile (670 km) Connecticut River, which starts at New Hampshire's Connecticut Lakes and 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, New Hampshire. The largest lake is Lake Winnipesaukee, which covers 72 square miles (186 km²) in the central part of New Hampshire. New Hampshire has the shortest ocean coastline of any coastal state, 18 miles (29 km) by state figures. (Under some federal definitions, Pennsylvania's coast is shorter: See Footnote in "Miscellaneous"). Hampton Beach, New Hampshire is a popular local summer destination. About 10 miles (16 km) 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, as well as the alleged location of one of the buried treasures of the pirate Blackbeard. There is an ongoing boundary dispute with Maine in the area of Portsmouth Harbor, with NH claiming dominion over several islands (now known as Seavey Island) that include the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard as well as to the Maine towns of Kittery, Maine and Berwick, Maine, which NH asserts were granted to it by Massachusetts prior to Maine becoming a state of its own rather than just the northern part of Massachusetts, in the Missouri Compromise of 1820. This claim is also bolstered by British records of captured American POWs during the Revolutionary period, held in England, who claimed "Berwick, NH", "York, NH", and "Kittery, NH" as their home towns. A dramatic change in the visual landscape of New Hampshire occurred about a century ago when its changed from an open landscape of fields and small farms: It is now the second-most-forested state in the country, after Maine, in terms of percentage of land covered by woods. This change was caused by the abandonment of farms by owners seeking wage jobs in urban areas or bank seizure of unproductive farms, with farming families moving west. The reversion forms the subject of many poems by Robert Frost, while the emigration is consistent with the results of NH native and newspaper legend Horace Greeley imploring, "Go West, Young Man." == Economy == [http://www.bea.gov/ The Bureau of Economic Analysis] estimates that New Hampshire's total state product in 2003 was $49 billion. Per capital personal income in 2003 was $35,140, 7^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. The current 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 neighboring 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. Additionally, New Hampshire's lack of a broad based tax system (aside from the controversial state-wide property tax which former Governor Benson cut nearly in half in two years) has resulted in the state's local communities having some of the nation's highest property taxes, yet overall NH remains ranked 49th in combined average state and local tax burden, due to its lack of income or sales taxes. == Demographics == According to the Census Bureau, as of 2003, the population of New Hampshire was 1,287,687. The racial makeup of the state is: * 95.1% Caucasian (making New Hampshire number three in the highest caucasian percentage in the US, trailing Maine and Vermont) *1.7% Hispanic American *1.3% Asian American *0.7% African American *0.2% American Indian *1.1% mixed race. The 5 largest ancestry groups in New Hampshire are: Ireland (19.4%), England (18%), France (14.6%), French Canadian (10.6%), German-American (8.6%). ===Religion=== The religious affiliations of the citizens of New Hampshire are: *Protestant – 41% *Roman Catholic – 41% *Other Christian – 3% *Other Religions – 2% *Non-Religious – 9% The three largest Protestant denominations in New Hampshire are: Methodist (11% of the total state population), Baptist (9%), Presbyterian & Episcopalian (tied 2%). == Important cities and towns == * Manchester, New Hampshire, the largest city in the state and known as the "Queen City", Manchester, has a main street (Elm Street) which is a dead-end at both ends. The Merrimack River runs through the city and once provided water power to a textile mill industry. * Keene, New Hampshire is still called "The Elm City" despite the fact that Dutch elm disease destroyed most of the city's elm trees in the 1930s. Keene is the home to Keene State College. * Salem, New Hampshire contains The Mall at Rockingham Park, frequented by Massachusetts residents to avoid paying sales tax; Canobie Lake Park, an amusement; and Rockingham Park, New England's first racetrack for horses. * Peterborough, New Hampshire is the inspiration for the town of Grover's Corners portrayed in Thornton Wilder's play ''Our Town''. *Lebanon, New Hampshire known as "The City of Fountains" is the least-populated community in NH organized as a city. It contains Lebanon College and the Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center and is the location of many malls along the Connecticut River that draw Vermont shoppers avoiding that state's sales tax.

*Manchester, New Hampshire *Nashua, New Hampshire *Concord, New Hampshire *Derry, New Hampshire *Portsmouth, New Hampshire *Rochester, New Hampshire *Keene, New Hampshire *Durham, New Hampshire *Peterborough, New Hampshire *Loudon, New Hampshire *Littleton, New Hampshire *Claremont, New Hampshire

*Dover, New Hampshire *Merrimack, New Hampshire *Bedford, New Hampshire *Londonderry, New Hampshire *Hudson, New Hampshire *Hampton, New Hampshire *Milford, New Hampshire *Hanover, New Hampshire *New London, New Hampshire *Randolph, New Hampshire *Tilton, New Hampshire *Franklin, New Hampshire

====10 Largest Towns/Cities in New Hampshire According to 2000 Census==== {| cellpadding=4 cellspacing=2 |- | ||Manchester ||107,006 |- | ||Nashua ||86,605 |- | ||Concord ||40,687 |- | ||Derry ||34,021* |- | ||Rochester ||28,461 |- | ||Salem ||28,112 |- | ||Dover ||26,884 |- | ||Merrimack ||25,119* |- | ||Londonderry ||23,236* |- | ||Hudson ||22,928''' |} * ''While Census records may seem to indicate that two separate Census Districts exist for this community, in fact one district is contained entirely within the other.'' == Education == === Colleges and universities ===

*Antioch New England *Chester College of New England *Colby-Sawyer College *College for Lifelong Learning *Daniel Webster College *Dartmouth College *Franklin Pierce College *Franklin Pierce Law Center *Keene State College

*Lebanon College *New England College *Southern New Hampshire University *Notre Dame College *Plymouth State University *Rivier College *Saint Anselm College *The Thomas More College of Liberal Arts *University of New Hampshire *University of New Hampshire at Manchester

== Professional sport teams == Minor league baseball teams: *Nashua Pride *New Hampshire Fisher Cats Hockey teams: *Manchester Monarchs Arena football teams: *Manchester Wolves == Miscellaneous information == ''See List of New Hampshire-related topics'' * New Hampshire was the last of the New England states to observe Fast Day, a day of prayer for a bountiful harvest. Traditionally 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. [http://www.state.nh.us/nhinfo/fast.html] * In 1999 New Hampshire changed the name of Civil Rights Day to Martin Luther King Day. [http://www.factmonster.com/spot/mlkhistory1.html] * There are no general sales or individual income taxes in New Hampshire, though the state does have meals, lodging, and other taxes. (List of states without personal income tax) * New Hampshire is the only state that does not mandate public kindergarten, partly out of frugality and lack of funding, 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. * Like several states, New Hampshire requires all hard liquor to be sold in state-owned, state-run stores. This system generates millions of dollars annually for the state and results in liquor being so cheap that it attracts many out-of-state customers. Many liquor stores are located near state lines, often on interstate highways (with their own exits). * 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, the state symbol, fell apart due to natural erosion on May 3, 2003. * In northern New Hampshire the town of Dixville Notch, New Hampshire is traditionally the first city or town in the U.S. to vote in presidential primaries and the presidential election. The few dozen residents of Dixville Notch all stay awake until after midnight to vote. State law grants that a town where all registered citizens have voted may close early and announce their results. * New Hampshire is the only state with no mandatory seatbelt law for adults, no motorcycle helmet law for adults nor mandatory vehicle insurance for automobiles. * New Hampshire is the destination of the Free State Project. * EXTENDED FOOTNOTE on coastline. Official figures recognize two coastal concepts, the coastline and the shoreline. The coastline is a generalized measurement of the shore configuration, whereas the shoreline is the most detailed measurement practical and includes measurements for offshore islands and other features such as inlets and rivers to the head of a narrow tidewater. Based on these concepts, Pennsylvania has a saltwater coastline of 0 miles , so it cannot be considered for ranking in a discussion of saltwater coastlines, but when the more detailed measurement of shoreline is used, Pennsylvania has a saltwater shoreline of 89 miles versus 131 for New Hampshire, giving Pennsylvania a shorter ocean shore. Pennsylvania's number apparently comes because a portion of the Delaware River on its s eastern border is tidal. Source: US Dept of Commerce, "US Coastline by States" cited on Page 606 of the 2003 "World Almanac". === Daily newspapers ===

*New Hampshire Union Leader (Manchester) *Telegraph of Nashua *Concord Monitor *Foster's Daily Democrat of Dover *Laconia Citizen

*Portsmouth Herald *Keene Sentinel *Conway Daily Sun *Eagle Times of Claremont

=== Other publications === *The New Hampshire Gazette Portsmouth alternative biweekly, arguably the oldest paper in America (although other publications also make that claim) *New Hampshire Business Review (statewide) *Hippo Press (Manchester and Nashua editions) *''The New Hampshire'' (University of New Hampshire's student-run newspaper since 1911) == External links == * [http://www.state.nh.us Official State Website] * [http://www.state.nh.us/nhinfo/ The New Hampshire Almanac] U.S. states New Hampshire

New Hampshire

Wondering how to edit this State Entry?
The WikiProject U.S. States standards might help. --------- ''An event mentioned in this article is a Template:June 21 selected anniversaries'' ----- So the NH house of reps has 400 members, with multiple members selected from at-large districts... is this a system of proportional representation? If not, what voting system is used instead? -- User:Pde 02:39, 19 Oct 2004 (UTC) : No. In theory, the state is divided up into districts - many covering several towns, but some covering only a portion of more populous cities - so that in theory each voter has equal representation in the House. The districts are of various size, with as few as three seats and as many as 11. (I'm not certain those are the extremes, but they're close) So a district with 8 representatives should, in theory, contain twice as many residents as a district with 4 representatives. It doesn't quite work out, of course. Within any given district that has X seats , the top X vote-getters in the general election go to the Legislature. - User:DavidWBrooks 12:55, 19 Oct 2004 (UTC) ::That sounds like (non-preferential) proportional representation to me, provided each voter only gets to vote for one candidate. If Greens or Libertarians (for example) made up over 1/9th of the vote in an 8 member district, they would elect representatives. -- User:Pde 03:41, 20 Oct 2004 (UTC) :::You get to vote for as many candidates as there are seats in your district. In my town, for example, there are four seats in our district. Four Republicans and four Democrats are running - I vote for up to four out of that total of eight (I can vote for three or fewer, if I want). Minor party candidates could (and in rare occasions have) vote in representatives. - User:DavidWBrooks 18:54, 20 Oct 2004 (UTC) ::::Okay, that's bloc voting, which sucks. -- User:Pde 09:00, 21 Oct 2004 (UTC) == Benson is still governor == Note to the anon who keeps changing the governor: Until Lynch is sworn in, which doesn't happen for a few weeks, Craig Benson is still governor. - User:DavidWBrooks 23:39, 14 Nov 2004 (UTC) :Note: the new executive is now to be referred to as Lynch The Governor.User:Mlorrey 02:59, 6 May 2005 (UTC) == external links == I've removed a few external links, leaving only a couple official state web sites. Wikipedia is not a link farm, and we don't need to connect to any web site discussing/arguing aspects of life in New Hampshire; it would swamp the article. I also removed the U-L's website, since there are a variety of other, competing private sites and we don't want to list all of them. - User:DavidWBrooks 14:32, 18 Feb 2005 (UTC) Who are you to decide what the New Hampshire Wikipedia entry should look like? Has the article been swamped with external links? Just 3 or 4 ....hmmm maybe not a problem then. I don't like windbags censoring me. Russell Kanning -- "NH residents keeping NH free" is not an NPOV description of the site [http://www.nhfree.com]. How about "The New Hampshire Underground, a fundamentalist libertarian website in NH"? My adjectives may not be quite accurate, I am not too familiar with nhfree.com; wikipedia defines "fundamentalist" currently as "strictly adher[ing] to founding principles", which seems to fit well. I am not sure if "libertarian" should be replaced my minarchist (a term that is easy to understand, but nevertheless I have never heard before). User:Aleph4 16:02, 18 Feb 2005 (UTC) That wouldn't be too bad of a description. :) NHfree.com doesn't really censor content so it can go in any direction people might take it. We use the site for all sorts of NH related topics so I thought it belonged on the NH wikipedia page. We seem to attract people from all over the political spectrum, so I don't see its inclusion here as going against the point of the whole wikipedia. I am not that interested in the Wikipedia becoming just another arm of academia and political correctness, so I think we should allow more variety in content, descriptions, and opinions. :) Russell Kanning : Forget my "POV" dig and anybody's opinion of the site. The point is that an article about New Hampshire is not a link farm for any website dicussing aspects of life in New Hampshire - there'd soon be 500 of them, swamping the article. Browsers wouldn't be able to open it! Gun owners, gun haters, pro/con toll booths, save the shipyard, maple syrup sucks, Monarchs vs. Ice Cats, Free Staters, Massholes Are Ruining Everything, etc. etc. etc. (Imagine what the California article would look like!) Once agin, wikipedia is not a link farm to all Web debate related in some form the article at hand. It's not that this site is wrong or bad, just inappropriate as an external link. - User:DavidWBrooks 17:37, 18 Feb 2005 (UTC) ::Well, we have a three-revert rule here on wikipedia (don't make the same/similar edits three times in one day) to prevent pissy edit wars, so the inappropriate link will last a day. I will fix the other errors, though. - User:DavidWBrooks 18:52, 18 Feb 2005 (UTC) == Benson mention == To the anon who keeps putting in a mention that Lynch beat Benson: That doesn't seem appropriate here - after all, we don't mention who all the other elected officials defeated! Lynch's article covers this in depth. - User:DavidWBrooks 12:41, 29 Apr 2005 (UTC) --- If the tidal portion of a river is used to determine a state's "coastline," wouldn't the District of Columbia then have a shorter coastline than Penn. or N.H. since the Potomac is tidal up to the Key Bridge? Another case of no D.C. representation!! (CBG, Washington, D.C.)

New Hampshire

New Hampshire

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New Hampshire

New Hampshire is a state in the United States. U.S. states

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