Vermont, USA
The Green Mountain State (14)
Capitol: Montpelier
Admitted into Union: March 4, 1791
State Flower: Red Clover
State Tree: Sugar Maple
State Bird: Hermit Thrush
Population: 0.6 million

Unique: The theory that “no two snowflakes are alike” was proven by Wilson Bentley in Jericho in the 1880s. Obsessed with them since childhood, Bentley discovered how to photograph individual flakes, capturing over 5,000 images before he died in 1931. The photos captivated the world with their beauty and detail. Our Vermont Sledder will capture your heart with its warm, wooly ways.

Skier’s delight: Vermont has one of the highest number of ski resorts in the U.S. The first ski tow in the US was built in Woodstock in 1934. Vermonter C. Minot Dole founded the National Ski Patrol in 1938.

How sweet it is! Vermont is the nation’s largest producer of maple syrup—over 500,000 gallons a year. It takes 40 gallons of maple sap to make one gallon of syrup. Much of that sap is still gathered by horse and sled through deep snow in late winter.

Liberty for all: Vermont was the first state admitted to the Union after the ratification of the U.S. Constitution and (in 1777) the first state to outlaw slavery.

Hold-outs: With a population under 9,000, Montpelier is the smallest capital in the U.S. It’s also the only one without a McDonald’s restaurant. Until 1996, Vermont was the only state without a Wal-Mart.

Got moo? Vermont is the second smallest state in population, and more people live in rural areas than urban ones. In ratio of bovines to people, Vermont has the densest dairy cow population, which produces about half the milk consumed in New England.

Pralines and Pork: Ben & Jerry's ice cream company is the second largest employer in the state. It not only supports family farms and countless causes, it donates ice cream waste to local hog farms. The pigs reportedly like every flavor but Mint Oreo.

Long haul: In 1903, on a $50 bet, Burlington native Dr. Horatio Jackson became the first to cross the US by car. He traveled for 65 days with a mechanic and a dog in a two-cylinder open-top. There were no paved rural highways and only weak fuel pumps then, so steep hills had to be tackled in reverse. Jackson won the bet, but never collected on it.

Hold the bubbles: In Vermont it is illegal to whistle underwater.

Patriot in (Mom’s) arms: U.S. President Calvin Coolidge, born in Plymouth in 1872, was the only president born on the Fourth of July.

Not-so-native son: American poet Robert Frost, whose work explores life in New England, spent part of his adult life teaching and writing in Vermont. His famous poem Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening depicts a still, quiet, and distinctly rural setting that would be quite familiar to a Vermonter of his time.
Famous Vermonters: Sherman Adams, Trey Anastasio, Chester Alan Arthur, Orson Bean, Calvin Coolidge, Thomas Davenport, John Deere, George Dewey, John Dewey, Stephen A. Douglas, James Fisk, Wilbur Fisk, Ralph E. Flanders, Horace A. Tabor, Justin Morrill, Richard Morris Hunt, William Morris Hunt, Elisha Graves Otis, Moses Pendleton, Patty Sheehan, Joseph Smith, Thaddius Stevens, Ernest Thompson, Rudy Vallee, Henry Wells, Brigham Young