Just the Facts:
Capital: Boston Population: 6,349,097 Governor: Mitt Romney (R, to January 2007) Entered the Union: Feb. 6, 1788 As the: 6th state Motto: Ense petit placidam sub libertate quietem (By the sword we seek peace, but peace only under liberty) Nickname: Bay State, Old Colony State Flower: Mayflower Bird: Chickadee Song: All Hail to Massachusetts Sports Teams: Boston Celtics(Basketball); New England Patriots(Football); Boston Red Sox(Baseball); Boston Bruins(Hockey) Origin of Name: From two Indian words meaning "Great Mountain Place" Major Industries: Health Care, tourism, education, finance, insurance, farming, fishing Historical Sites: Minute Man National Historical Park, Boston's National Historical Park, Old State House(Boston), Old South Meeting House(Boston), Bunker Hill Monument(Boston), Old North Churc h(Boston), Paul Revere's House(Boston), Charlestown Navy Yard Points of Interest: Cape Cod, USS Constitution, and the John F. Kennedy Library and Museum Bordering States: Massachusetts borders Connecticut, New Hampshire, New York, Rhode Island, and Vermont. Flag:
Massachusetts is bordered on the north by New Hampshire and Vermont; on the west by New York; on the south by Connecticut and Rhode Island; and on the east by the Atlantic Ocean. At the southeastern corner of the state is a large, sandy, arm-shaped peninsula called Cape Cod. The islands of Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket lie to the south of Cape Cod.
Massachusetts is known as the Bay State because of the several large bays that give its coastline its distinctive shape: Massachusetts Bay and Cape Cod Bay on the state's east coast, and Buzzards Bay to the south. A few cities and towns on the MassachusettsRhode Island border are also adjacent to Narragansett Bay.
Boston is the largest city, located at the inmost point of Massachusetts Bay, at the mouth of the Charles River, the longest river entirely within Massachusetts. Most of the population of the Boston metropolitan area (approximately 5,800,000) does not live in the city; eastern Massachusetts on the whole is fairly densely populated and largely suburban.
Western Massachusetts is more rural and sparsely populated, especially in the Berkshires, the branch of the Appalachian Mountains which forms the western border of the state. The most populated part of western Massachusetts is the "Pioneer Valley," alongside the Connecticut River, which flows across Western Massachusetts from north to south.
The fourteen counties, moving roughly from west to east, are Berkshire, Franklin, Hampshire, Hampden, Worcester, Middlesex, Essex, Suffolk, Norfolk, Bristol, Plymouth, Barnstable, Dukes, and Nantucket.
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