68 Fun Facts About New Hampshire

What is the official state motto of New Hampshire?

Live Free or Die. Too ill to attend an 1809 reunion of Bennington veterans, a Revolutionary War general sent the line in a written toast, and the state made it official in 1945.

Which city is the capital of New Hampshire?

Concord. The town was called Rumford until 1765, when it was renamed to mark the peaceful end of a bitter boundary dispute with the neighbouring town of Bow.

What is the most populous city in New Hampshire?

Manchester. It was plain Derryfield until 1810, when it took the name of the English mill city that canal builder Samuel Blodget had hoped it would rival.

As the ninth state to ratify the Constitution, New Hampshire did what?

Put it into effect. Article VII needed only nine of the thirteen states, so the new government could go ahead while Virginia and New York were still arguing.

Roughly how long is New Hampshire's Atlantic seacoast, the shortest ocean coastline of any state?

18 miles. That is the open Atlantic shore alone; follow every tidal inlet and bay, as federal chartmakers do, and the shoreline stretches to 131 miles.

Which tax do New Hampshire and only four other U.S. states go without?

General sales tax. The state taxes no wages either, so it leans heavily on local property taxes to pay for its schools.

What is New Hampshire's official nickname?

The Granite State. The name honours its quarries, whose stone travelled as far as Washington, D.C., to help build the Library of Congress.

Which Canadian province borders New Hampshire to the north?

Quebec. Thousands of French Canadians came south from the province for jobs in the textile mills, and their descendants remain a large share of the state's people.

What is New Hampshire's state bird?

Purple finch. The little songbird won the title in 1957 by beating a home-grown rival, the New Hampshire hen, a chicken breed another lawmaker had put forward.

Which state fruit of New Hampshire do most cooks treat as a vegetable?

Pumpkin. Botany backs the 2006 law: a pumpkin is the seed-bearing fruit of a squash vine, technically a giant berry, however often it is cooked like a vegetable.

On January 5, 1776, New Hampshire became the first American colony to do what?

Adopt its own constitution. It replaced royal rule six months before July 4, yet stopped short of independence: the text said the colony would rejoice at a reconciliation with Britain.

The colony that became New Hampshire was named in 1629 after a county in which country?

England. Captain John Mason named his land grant after the county of Hampshire, yet he never saw it: he died in 1635 while preparing for his first visit.

What is the official name of New Hampshire's state legislature?

The General Court. Only Massachusetts shares the title, and there it is a holdover from the Massachusetts Bay Company, whose general court began as a meeting of shareholders and turned into a colonial legislature.

How many members sit in New Hampshire's House of Representatives, the largest lower house of any state?

400. With that many seats, each member speaks for only about 3,400 residents, the fewest of any state house; a California assembly member answers to nearly half a million.

What annual salary does a member of the New Hampshire House of Representatives receive?

$100. The state constitution fixes pay at $200 for each two-year term plus mileage, so lawmakers cannot give themselves a raise without amending it.

Who won New Hampshire's 1952 Republican primary without ever setting foot in the state?

Dwight Eisenhower. Supporters put the reluctant general on the ballot and he beat the favourite, Robert Taft, by 12 points, while President Truman lost the Democratic contest and soon quit the race.

Which tiny New Hampshire hamlet opens its polls at midnight to cast the primary's first ballots?

Dixville Notch. A polling place may close once every registered voter has cast a ballot, so its handful of voters all turn out at midnight and the result is known within minutes.

The Northeast's highest peak, at 6,288 feet, crowns which range of New Hampshire's White Mountains?

Presidential Range. Its ridge runs north to south across several converging storm tracks, which is why the peaks named for Washington, Adams and Jefferson are notorious for wild weather.

What wind speed did the Mount Washington Observatory record in April 1934, then a world record?

231 mph. The gust stood as the world record for 62 years, until an instrument on Australia's Barrow Island caught a stronger one inside Cyclone Olivia in 1996.

Which Mount Washington cirque is the Northeast's best-known spring backcountry ski spot?

Tuckerman. Spring skiers reach it the hard way, climbing the ravine on foot with their gear before dropping down slopes as steep as 50 degrees.

After Mount Washington's Auto Road opened in 1861, which summit landmark followed in 1869?

The Cog Railway. Lawmakers laughed when its inventor asked for a charter, one joking he might as well build on to the Moon, yet it became the world's first mountain-climbing cog line.

Which Robin Williams film turned downtown Keene, New Hampshire, into the fictional town of Brantford?

Jumanji. A Parrish Shoes sign painted in Keene for the film became the gathering place for a memorial when Williams died in 2014.

On which mountain did the Old Man of the Mountain rock profile sit before it collapsed?

Cannon. The face is gone, but at the plaza below the cliff visitors sight along steel profilers that line up to put its outline back on the mountain.

What finally brought down the Old Man of the Mountain?

Freezing and thawing. Water had prised at the ledges for centuries, and the rods and turnbuckles added to pin them could not hold when the rock gave way one night in May 2003.

Which author drew on the Old Man of the Mountain for the 1850 short story 'The Great Stone Face'?

Nathaniel Hawthorne. In his tale a villager named Ernest waits a lifetime for the great man prophesied to resemble the face, until neighbours see that the likeness is his own.

In 2000 the Old Man of the Mountain appeared on which U.S. coin?

Quarter. New Hampshire's entry in the fifty-coin state series showed the profile, and within three years it was honouring a landmark that no longer existed.

Which Revolutionary War general's 1809 toast later became New Hampshire's motto?

John Stark. Passed over for promotion, he quit the Continental Army in 1777, then came back months later at the head of New Hampshire militia and won the Battle of Bennington.

George Maynard, who won a 1977 Supreme Court case over covering the motto on his New Hampshire plates, followed which faith?

Jehovah's Witness. Maynard said the motto clashed with his beliefs, and the justices agreed that a state cannot make drivers carry a message they reject on their own cars.

What is the largest body of fresh water in New Hampshire?

Winnipesaukee. The 1991 comedy What About Bob? is set on its shore, but Bill Murray never filmed there: a lake in Virginia stood in for it.

On which New Hampshire lake was most of the 1981 film On Golden Pond shot?

Squam. The story was inspired by its author's summers on a pond elsewhere in New England, but when Hollywood came calling the cameras set up on this New Hampshire lake instead.

Which New Hampshire city hosts Motorcycle Week, a rally at Weirs Beach whose origins go back to 1916?

Laconia. Riders kept arriving earlier each year to enjoy the Lakes Region's roads, which is how a gathering of a few days stretched into a week-long rally each June.

Who is the only U.S. president born in New Hampshire?

Franklin Pierce. He took office in mourning: shortly before the inauguration his last surviving son, eleven-year-old Benjamin, was killed in a train accident as the family travelled.

The only president born in New Hampshire chose which future Confederate leader as his secretary of war?

Jefferson Davis. As war secretary he pressed for a southern railroad to the Pacific, one reason the administration bought a strip of desert from Mexico in the Gadsden Purchase.

Which New Hampshire native, born in Derry, became the first American in space on May 5, 1961?

Alan Shepard. Ten years later he commanded Apollo 14 and, at 47 the oldest of the moonwalkers, hit two golf balls across the lunar surface with a makeshift six-iron.

Which New Hampshire social studies teacher was chosen from more than 11,000 applicants for NASA's Teacher in Space Project?

Christa McAuliffe. She planned to teach two lessons from orbit, but Challenger broke apart 73 seconds after launch in 1986; her backup, Barbara Morgan, finally flew in 2007.

The 1944 conference that created the IMF and World Bank was held at which New Hampshire resort?

Bretton Woods. Some 730 delegates from 44 nations spent three weeks at its grand hotel, and the fixed-exchange-rate system they designed carried the resort's name until it broke down in 1971.

Dartmouth College, New Hampshire's Ivy League school, is located in which town?

Hanover. Founder Eleazar Wheelock moved his school for Native American students up from Connecticut because New Hampshire's royal governor offered the land and a charter.

Which programming language was created at Dartmouth College in 1964 by John Kemeny and Thomas Kurtz?

BASIC. Its two designers wanted every student, not just the scientists, to be able to use the college computer; the first program ran at 4 a.m. on May 1, 1964.

Which New Hampshire-born statesman won the Dartmouth College case before the Supreme Court in 1819?

Daniel Webster. A Dartmouth graduate, he persuaded the justices that New Hampshire could not turn his private college into a state university, a ruling that came to shield corporate charters everywhere.

Robert Frost farmed for years in Derry, New Hampshire, but in which city was the poet actually born?

San Francisco. He was eleven when his father died and the family came east, and decades later a collection he titled New Hampshire won the first of his four Pulitzers.

Which New Hampshire-born editor wrote 'Mary Had a Little Lamb' and lobbied Lincoln for a national Thanksgiving?

Sarah Josepha Hale. She campaigned for 17 years and wrote to five presidents in turn before Lincoln finally proclaimed the national holiday in 1863.

In 1833 Peterborough, New Hampshire, became the first American town to fund which service with taxes?

Public library. The small town was lending free books two decades before the Boston Public Library, the first big city library paid for by taxes, opened its doors in 1854.

Which invention did Dean Kamen's New Hampshire company unveil in New York's Bryant Park in December 2001?

Segway. Its balancing trick was borrowed from the iBOT, a self-balancing wheelchair Kamen had built first; production of the scooter ended in 2020.

Which boot and outdoor-wear brand has its corporate headquarters in Stratham, New Hampshire?

Timberland. The firm was the Abington Shoe Company until 1978, when it renamed itself after the waterproof yellow boot that had come to make up most of what it sold.

Which SNL cast member of 1990-95 grew up in New Hampshire's largest city from age six?

Adam Sandler. He was seventeen when his brother pushed him onto a comedy-club stage for the first time; Saturday Night Live hired him as a writer in 1990 and put him on screen a year later.

Which late-night host and Saturday Night Live alumnus grew up in Bedford, New Hampshire?

Seth Meyers. Born in Illinois, he became the show's head writer and wrote the sketch that introduced Tina Fey's impression of Sarah Palin.

The New Hampshire Fisher Cats are the Double-A affiliate of which Major League Baseball team?

Toronto Blue Jays. The club came north from Connecticut in 2004 and took its name from the fisher, a forest weasel that, whatever locals call it, is no cat and catches no fish.

Which scenic White Mountains drive links Lincoln and Conway?

Kancamagus Highway. It is named for the last sagamore of the Penacook confederacy, who moved north around 1690 to get away from the fighting with the colonists.

Which New Hampshire-raised alpine skier won six Olympic medals, the most of any American skier?

Bode Miller. He grew up deep in the woods in a log cabin with no electricity or indoor plumbing, and went on to win Olympic gold in 2010 and two overall World Cup titles.

Which English explorer named the Isles of Shoals, off the New Hampshire coast, after himself in 1614?

John Smith. The Jamestown veteran charted the coast in 1614 and called them Smith's Isles; that name faded, but the one he gave the whole region, New England, has lasted.

The Treaty of Portsmouth, brokered by Theodore Roosevelt in 1905, ended which war?

Russo-Japanese War. Roosevelt steered the month of talks from a distance and never once came to Portsmouth, yet the peace won him the 1906 Nobel Peace Prize.

Despite its name, the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard is actually located in which state?

Maine. The yard sits on an island on the far side of the Piscataqua River, and New Hampshire went all the way to the Supreme Court to claim it, losing in 2001.

What was Portsmouth, New Hampshire, called before it took its present name in 1653?

Strawbery Banke. Settlers are said to have named it for the wild berries by the river, and the name returned in the 1950s when local preservationists saved the old neighbourhood and turned it into a museum.

Which town was New Hampshire's capital for 14 years after records were seized from Portsmouth in 1775?

Exeter. The town also claims a second birth: by one account, abolitionist Amos Tuck gathered a secret meeting at a local hotel in 1853 that launched the Republican Party.

What gilded figure has topped the dome of New Hampshire's State House since 1818?

An eagle. The wooden original faced left, as an eagle of war; the copper replica that took its place in 1957 has its head turned to the right, to stand for peace.

Whose mills on New Hampshire's Merrimack River were once the world's largest cotton textile plant?

Amoskeag Manufacturing Company. At its peak some 17,000 people worked there, and its denim went west to Levi Strauss, who stitched it into his riveted blue jeans.

The University of New Hampshire's main campus, home of the Wildcats, is in which town?

Durham. The college started out attached to an older school elsewhere, then moved in 1893 because a local farmer left his land and his fortune to the state to pay for it.

New Hampshire is the only U.S. state without a law requiring what?

The seat belt law covers only drivers and passengers aged 17 and under; the state also declines to require motorcycle helmets for adults.

New Hampshire Motor Speedway, the 'Magic Mile' that hosts NASCAR Cup Series racing, is in which town?

Loudon. The Magic Mile was laid over an old motorcycle road course that a new owner bought in 1989 and rebuilt, in under a year, as a 1.058-mile oval.

Which famously reclusive author moved to Cornish, New Hampshire in 1953 and died there in 2010 at age 91?

J. D. Salinger. He moved there two years after The Catcher in the Rye, and after a 1965 novella in The New Yorker he kept writing but refused to publish another word.

Where did the Supreme Court put New Hampshire's western border in 1933?

The Vermont side at the low-water mark. So the river between the two states belongs to New Hampshire almost bank to bank, and their attorneys general must retrace the line together every seven years.

What was the unrecognized mini-nation run by settlers in what is now Pittsburg, New Hampshire, from 1832 to 1835?

Republic of Indian Stream. Canada and the United States both claimed the land, so its settlers declared themselves independent until New Hampshire took control; an 1842 treaty confirmed it as American.

Which sled dog breed is New Hampshire's official state dog?

Chinook. The whole breed descends from one sled dog of that name, born in 1917 on Arthur Walden's farm in Wonalancet, who later went to Antarctica with Admiral Byrd.

Why did I-93 through Franconia Notch need an act of Congress?

It is only one lane in each direction. Conservationists fought a four-lane freeway through the notch for years, and the narrow parkway finished in 1988 was the compromise.

Which New Hampshire seaside state park was named one of four US 'Superstar' beaches in 2011?

Hampton Beach State Park. A national environmental group gave the title to four beaches whose water had passed every quality test for three years running.

Which southwestern New Hampshire peak gave geomorphology its word for an isolated peak?

Mount Monadnock. Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote a long poem about it, and Henry David Thoreau kept coming back to climb it.

Which New Hampshire county covers the state's northern tip?

Coös. It is the biggest of New Hampshire's ten counties and also the emptiest, with about 31,000 residents, fewer than any other.

Which is New Hampshire's only nuclear power plant, built on its short Atlantic coast?

Seabrook Station. More than 1,400 protesters were arrested at its building site in a single 1977 sit-in and held in National Guard armories around the state.