Humans began living in what is now Massachusetts about 12,000 years ago when retreating glaciers opened up the land. Some artifacts have even been found in lakes and rivers created by melting glaciers. Thousands of years later, Indian tribes, including the Wampanoag, Mohegan, and Mohicans, lived on the land. In 1620, a ship called the Mayflower arrived on Cape Cod with settlers called the Pilgrims. These people escaped religious persecution in England and created the first permanent European settlement in New England called Plymouth. (New England is a region in the northeastern United States that was settled by people from England.) Shortly after the Pilgrims celebrated the first Thanksgiving with the Wampanoag Indians, a tribe that still exists in Massachusetts today.
Massachusetts has been the site of many historical events. In 1639, America’s first post office opened in Boston. In 1692 and 1693, false rumors led to a witch hunt in Salem, Massachusetts. And in 1876, Alexander Graham Bell demonstrated the first telephone. But Massachusetts may be most historically significant for the role its people played in the Revolutionary War. Anger erupted in 1770 after five colonists were killed by British soldiers in what became known as the Boston Massacre. Three years later, colonists disguised as Native Americans threw tea into Boston Harbor to protest high taxes from England. The event is now known as the Boston Tea Party. In 1775, the Battles of Lexington and Concord became the first battle of the Revolutionary War. The movement of British troops prompted silversmith Paul Rivera to make his famous midnight ride to warn the colonists. Five years after the end of the war, Massachusetts became the sixth US state in 1788. The name Massachusetts may come from the Massachusetts tribe, whose name can be translated as “near the big hill” or “near the hill”. It belongs to the Blue Hills southwest of Boston. The state’s alias “Bay State” may come from its many bays, or it may refer to the Massachusetts Bay Company, which was given a royal charter to colonize the land.
Geography of Massachusetts
According to itypetravel.com, Massachusetts is a New England state bordered by New Hampshire and Vermont to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the east, Rhode Island and Connecticut to the south, and New York to the west. What looks like a large hook on the east coast of Massachusetts is actually land created by glaciers that have exposed many rocky coves. This hilly, wet area, called the Coastal Lowlands, includes Cape Cod Bay, Martha’s Vineyard, and the Nantucket Islands, all of which are great for fishing, boating, and recreation. In the center of the state there are streams and plains with gentle hills. To the west, the land rises into mountains. It includes a popular fall-leaf spot called the Berkshires, as well as the highest point in Massachusetts, Mount Greylock. In the far west are the Tacon Mountains.
Wildlife of Massachusetts
Mammals such as black bears, male bobcats, eastern coyotes, elk, and white-tailed deer roam around Massachusetts. Bald eagles, wild turkeys, northern cardinals, blue jays, mourning doves, and American robins fly across the state, and tortoises, eastern ribbon snakes, and five-row skinheads appear among the Massachusetts reptiles. Eastern newts, American bullfrogs and American toads are some of Bay State’s best known amphibians. Sugar maples, eastern white pines, plane trees, and American elms (the state tree) grow in the state’s forests. Massachusetts is also filled with wild flowers like New England aster, blue violets, wild bleeding hearts, black-eyed Susan and daisy-eyed.
BOSTON
Population: 625,087 thousand people (2011)
Area: 232.1 sq. km
Founded: 1630
City status since: 1822
Time zone: UTC-5, summer UTC-4
Boston is not only the capital of Massachusetts, but also the main cultural and economic center of the entire New England region (6 states in the northeastern United States), one of the largest cities in the country. It is located on the coast of Massachusetts Bay. There are several lakes on the territory of Boston, and the Charles River flows into the ocean. See Massachusetts cities.
The history of Boston began when Puritans from the Massachusetts Colony settled in the area in 1630. A few years later, the Harvard School and College opened here, which eventually became the famous Harvard University. In 1773, it was Boston that became the starting point of the war of the American colonies for independence, when the so-called “Boston Tea Party” took place – the colonists made their way aboard English ships and threw a batch of tea into the water. After the War of Independence, the city, although it lost the status of the country’s largest city, confidently held its position as the leading commercial port of the United States. Boston was one of the most important industrial centers of the American “North” and still occupies a leading position in the clothing and leather industry of the United States.
Multinational Boston has become the cradle of many famous American families, mostly of Irish and English origin. For example, the Kennedy clan. The city has a diversified industry, is considered the technological and intellectual center of the United States.
Tourism plays an important role in the life of the city. About 20 million tourists visit Boston every year. The city has architectural sights (the old and new State Capitol, Quincy Market, the building of the public library and others) and ancient churches. The Freedom Trail, a 4-kilometer hiking trail, passes major sites in Boston’s historic downtown. The city has many interesting museums, including the Museum of Fine Arts and Boston University Museums.
Boston is also a sports city. Boston teams play in all major US professional sports leagues (baseball, hockey, American football, basketball). Regattas, rowing competitions and the famous Boston Marathon, which gathers several hundred thousand participants, are also held.
WORCESTER
Population: 182.596 thousand people (2006)
Founded: 1673
City status since: 1848
Time zone: UTC-5, summer UTC-4
Altitude: 146 m
Worcester is not only the second largest city in Massachusetts, but in all of New England. It is located in the center of the state, on the western shore of Lake Quinsinamond, and is the seat of Worcester County. The city has several nicknames: the city of seven hills, the Heart of the Commonwealth, the city of worms and simply Woo-town.
Before the arrival of European settlers, the Nipmuk Indian tribes lived in Worcester. In 1673, Daniel Gookin and John Eliot brought people here to establish a Christian settlement for whites and Indians. The first settlers were predominantly miners and fur traders. Soon the “war of King Philip” (the English monarch against the Indians) broke out, and the settlement was ravaged and abandoned. A new countdown in the history of the city began in 1705 at the initiative of Jonas Rice. Then the settlement got its name in honor of the English Worcester. And the inhabitants of the city subsequently immortalized Rice by installing a memorial stone on the site of his house.
Modern Worcester is a major regional health center. It houses a medical university and several research centers and clinics. Medical institutions are the main employers of the city.
Worcester is an old city by US standards. It has many historical sights. These include several mansions from the 18th and 19th centuries, the Unsworth and Jones factory building (1860), the Crompton Lum Works industrial complex (1860), the Mekanix concert hall (1855), the polytechnic university complex (1868), the theater ” Warner Memorial”, the building of the railway station (1911), the building of the city authorities (1898) and others.
Worcester has wonderful parks, among which the most notable are Cristoforo Colombo Park, Elm Park and Saylesbury Park with the Bancroft Tower, which is amazing for American open spaces. Built in 1900, this 17-meter tower looks like a real medieval bulwark. Interesting objects also include the Worcester Museum of Art with 35,000 exhibits and the Turtle Boy statue that crowns the Burnside Fountain.
