Connecticut

Also see Specific Destinations, Travel and Location Humor.

Page Toppers

There's a Little Girl in Hartford Who Saved Her Heart for Me

Connecticut Symbols

Nicknames: The Constitution State; The Nutmeg State; Land of Steady Habits; The Brownstone State; The Provisions state
Slogan: We're Full of Surprises
Motto: He who transplanted still sustains
Song: Yankee Doodle
Composer: Charles Edward Ives
Troubadour: Kevin Briody
Folk Dance: Square Dance
Animal: Sperm Whale
Bird: American Robin
Shellfish: Eastern Oyster
Insect: Praying Mantis
Tree: White Oak
Flower: Mountain Laurel
Fossil: Eubrontes Giganteus
Mineral: Garnet
Hero: Nathan Hale
Heroine: Prudence Crandall
Poet Laureate: Marilyn Nelson

Facts About Connecticut

Capital: Hartford
Residents: Connecticuters, Nutmeggers
State Name Origin: from Mohican and Algonquin words meaning "beside a long river".
Admitted to Statehood: 9 Jan 1788
Order of Admission: 5th state
Coastline/Shoreline: 185/618 miles
Length: 110 miles
Width: 70 miles
Area: 5,543 square miles
Size Rank: 48
Number of Counties: 8
Streams and Rivers: 5,830 miles
Geographic Center: at East Berlin in Hartford Co.
Mean Elevation: 500 feet
Highest Point: Mt. Frissell, 2,380 feet
Lowest Point: Long Island Sound, sea level
Agricultural Products: dairy products, poultry, forest and nursery plants, vegetables, fruit
Commercial Products: aircraft parts, helicopters, industrial machinery, metal products, electronic equipment, printing and publishing, medical instruments, chemicals, stone
Average Annual Rainfall: 35-50 inches
Average Winter High Temperature: around 22 degrees
Record Low Temperature: -32 degrees (16 Feb 1943 Falls Village)
Average Summer High Temperature: around 75 degrees
Record High Temperature: 106 degrees (15 Jul 1995 Danbury)
More information about Connecticut

Quotes

I shall always entertain a very pleasant and grateful recollection of Hartford. (Charles Dickens)

Yankee Doodle

Yankee Doodle went to town
A-riding on a pony
Stuck a feather in his hat
And called it macaroni.

Chorus:
Yankee Doodle, keep it up
Yankee Doodle dandy
Mind the music and the step
And with the girls be handy.

Father and I went down to camp
Along with Captain Gooding
And there we saw the men and boys
As thick as hasty pudding.

(repeat chorus)
There was Captain Washington
Upon a slapping stallion
A-giving orders to his men
I guess there was a million.
(repeat chorus)

Items of Interest

The first medical diploma in the United States was presented by Yale University in 1729.
The first hamburger served in the US was at Louie's Lunch in 1895. (this honor is claimed by more than one state)
About half of George Washington's troops in New York in 1776 were from Connecticut.
Connecticut is home to the oldest U.S. newspaper still being published: The Hartford Courant, established in 1764.
On January 28, 1878, 21 people in New Haven became the world's first subscribers to telephone exchange service. In February the New Haven District Telephone Company published the first telephone book ever issued. It contained only fifty names.
The Scoville Memorial Library is the oldest public library in the U.S. It began in 1771, when Richard Smith, owner of a local blast furnace, used community contributions to buy 200 books in London. Patrons could borrow and return books on the third Monday of every third month. In 1810 a Salisbury town meeting voted to authorize the selectmen to purchase another $100 worth of books, making it the first publicly supported free town library.
Cattle branding in the United States began in Connecticut when farmers were required by law to mark all of their pigs.
Connecticut is where the Polaroid camera (1934), helicopter (1939), and color television (1948) were first introduced.
In 1937, Connecticut became the first state to issue permanent license plates for cars.
The first automobile law was passed by the state of CT in 1901. The speed limit was set at 12 miles per hour.
The first lollipop-making machine was used in New Haven in 1908. George Smith named the treat after a popular racehorse.
The Submarine Force Museum in Groton is the official submarine museum of the United States Navy.
B.F. Clyde's Cider Mill in Mystic is the only steam-powered Cider Mill in the United States.
The first steel mill operating in America was opened in Simsbury in 1728.

Notable Natives

Some of these people were born here, others just lived a part of their life in the state.

Dean Acheson - statesman (Middletown)
Benedict Arnold (1741-1801) - Colonial Army captain, British spy (Norwich)
Ethan Allan (1738-1789) - patriot, Revolutionary War military officer (Litchfield)
John Brown - abolitionist (Torrington)
Phineas Tayor "PT" Barnum - showman, co-founder of Barnum and Bailey's Circus (Bethel)
Samuel Clemens aka Mark Twain (1835-1910) - author (lived in Hartford)
Samuel Colt (1814-1862) - inventor, founder of the Colt firearm company (Hartford)
Oliver Ellsworth - supreme court justice (Windsor)
Eileen Farrell - soprano
John Fitch - inventor
Charles Goodyear (1800-1860) - inventor, tire maker (New Haven)
Ella Grasso (1919-1981) - first woman elected governor of a state (Windsor Locks)
Nathan Hale (1755-1776) - patriot, Revolutionary War soldier (Coventry)
Dorothy Hamill (1956- )- Olympic gold medalist skater (grew up in Riverside)
Katherine Hepburn (1907- ) - actress (Hartford)
Doctor Samuel Higley - started the first copper coinage in America in 1737
Samuel Huntington - patriot
Charles Ives - composer (Danbury)
Mary Kies - first woman to receive a U.S. patent in 1809 for a weaving method (South Killingly)
Edwin H. Land - inventor
Annie Leibovitz - photographer (Waterbury)
Frederick Law Olmsted - landscape designer (Hartford)
John Pierpont "JP" Morgan - financier (Hartford)
Rosa Ponselle - soprano (Meriden)
Adam Clayton Powell, Jr. (1908-1972) - congressman (New Haven)
Thomas Sanford - made the first friction matches in Beacon Falls in 1834
Benjamin Spock - author, pediatrician (New Haven)
Harriet Beecher Stowe (1811-1896) - author, wrote the anti-slavery novel Uncle Tom's Cabin (Litchfield)
Eli Terry - clock manufacturer
John Thumbull - painter
Johnathon Thumball - public official
Noah Webster (1758-1843) - author of the first published dictionary in 1807 (West Hartford)

The Connecticut State Flag
The flag, adopted in 1897, has an azure blue background. Centered on the flag is a white shield with three grapevines, each with three bunches of purple grapes. Below is the state motto "He who Transplanted Sustains Us" on a white ribbon. The vines stand for the first settlements of English people who began to move from Massachusetts in the 1630's. These settlements were thought of as grapevines that had been transplanted.

You know you are from Connecticut if...

You have hiked up a big hill or small mountain at least once for a keg party.
You never went to a bar in high school.
You thought that the only highways were 91 and 84.
You thought everyone couldn't buy beer after 8 pm.
You actually thought that Hartford was big.
You or someone you know has attended UCONN.
You drive a JETTA.
You still think that the Whalers are cool.
You have been to Misquamicut and to that little hot dog place.
There is a farm within miles of your house.
You thought bars were really for people over 21
Your high school thanksgiving football game was the highlight of your school year.
You don't have an accent when you talk.
You have known at least 2 preppy rich kids from Fairfield who listen to Phish.
You love Hilton Kaderli and your mom cried when he retired.
UConn basketball rules and no one can tell you different.
You have deer in your backyard.
You didn't drink or do drugs until 10th grade.
You still don't understand why people say that Connecticut is the richest state.
Your best friend went to Central, Western, Eastern and finally Manchester Community College.
Your mom works at Travelers and your dad works at Pratt and Whitney.
You have been drunk at the Meadows and don't remember the concert.
You go to Riverside at least once a summer.
Your parents actually care about the Governor, the Patriots coming to Hartford, the lights at Christmas in Hartford & Channel 3 news.
You have a UCONN flag outside of your house year round.
You think New Jersey was a toxic waste dump.
You hang out at Denny's.
You've partied at bonfires.
You have at least one friend with a pickup.
You think everyone works tobacco in the summer.
You think Old Lyme is a shore town.
You've been to Cape Cod.
You think the Connecticut River is endless.
The town diner is the only place open after midnight.
You have at least 4 friends who drive Jeep Grand Cherokees.
You root for all the New York sports teams.
If anybody asks, you're from just outside of New York.
You've never looked at a public bus schedule.
You have both girlfriends and guyfriends with the same name as you.
You go to the diner late night to post party.
You think New Haven is the worst ghetto you've ever seen.
You can proudly tell an outsider about Nutmeg.
You weekend either on the Cape or Rhode Island at a summer home.
You have said..." I'm in a good location... Between both Boston and New York."
You can carry on a conversation about Mike Liut, Torrie Robertson, and the Brass Bonanza.
You have to explain Cow Tipping to people from out of state.
When you go to a real city, you sincerely feel bad for every homeless person you see.
You get pissed at anyone who doesn't know how to drive in the snow.
You can name all the members of the UCONN men's and women's basketball teams.
You still can't find your way in Hartford.
You hold the door open for someone and they don't say "Thank You."
You own a golden retriever or a lab.
You own real Oakley's.
You only know Westbrook and Clinton because they have good outlets.
You don't think you're a yuppie, but the rest of the country does.
You only ski in Vermont or out West.
Your mother is the head of the PTA.
There is absolutely nothing to do in the winter.
You live twenty minutes form either an Abercrombie & Fitch, J. Crew, or GAP.
You sail, or know someone who does.
You don't understand why everyone else has not been to Europe.
You can't get through the week with out a Coffee Coolata.
Your family owns more cars than legal drivers.
School attire is a North Face fleece jacket, a North Face Fleece or L.L. Bean back pack, a plaid shirt, khakis, and Doc Martins.
Summer footwear is either Reefs or Birks.
You carry your keys on a carabineer, but you don't know how to rock climb.
You feel for the homeless, but are not willing to give up the golf course land to develop a homeless shelter.
As a child you took horseback riding, golfing, tennis and swimming lessons.
You grew up wanting to be a lifeguard.
You own every DMB CD.
The state is so small you know where all the speed traps are.
You can't understand why people don't know what a "package" store is.
You went to prep school even though your public schools are awesome.
People actually wear sweaters around their necks.
You've never taken public transportation.
You know of at least one person who's house was totally trashed after a huge party.
Your mom drives a Volvo wagon.
You have at least one friend whose house was built in the 1800's.
You live in a huge colonial.
The only overcrowding is of deer in your backyard.
Your house would cost half as much in any other state.
Your wardrobe contains at least three pairs of cords and five wool sweaters.
Half of your friends are from another town because yours is so small.
You actually get these jokes and pass them on to other friends from Connecticut.