New England

WilliamClaireCatie

Introduction

• New England is made up of 6 states: Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont.

• Vermont has 621,000 people and is the least populated state in New England.

• 14 million people live and work in New England year round.

People and History• The first settlers in New England wanted to farm the soil and trade

with Native Americans.• More than 70 million pounds of lobster are caught by fishermen in

New England every year.• The first settlers had to fight to survive because of starvation and

disease.• Whaling was the most important business in the seaports of

Connecticut, Maine, and Massachusetts in the early days of New England.

Land in the Area

• New England weather means warm summers and cool winters. The average temperature in the summer is 70 degrees F. In the winter the average temperature is between 20-30 degrees F.

• New England has mountains, forests, and the Atlantic Coast.

• New Hampshire’s Mount Washington is the region’s tallest peak and is part of the White Mountains.

• Every summer, the beaches of Cape Cod come alive. Vacationers enjoy swimming, fishing, and a number of other activities.

Plants and Animals

• Animals: white tailed deer, sandpipers, raccoons, porcupines, grey squirrels, crows, chipmunks, beavers, black bears, bald eagles, coyotes, blue herons, moose osprey, woodpeckers and turkey vultures.

• Plants: Pine tree, ash tree, maple tree, beech tree, hemlock tree, spruce tree, poplar tree, oak tree, cherry tree, magnolia, shrubs, vines.

Cities and Towns• Cities: Boston, MA, Providence,

RI, Portland, ME, Springfield, MA, Portsmouth, NH, Hartford, CT, and New Haven, CT

• The largest city in New England is Boston, Massachusetts.

• Boston has the first church in the U.S. that was built by free African Americans. It is called the African Meeting House.

• Providence is known for its superb restaurants and being a great waterfront district.

Rural Life

• In New England most syrup makers still hammer spouts into sugar maple trees and collect the sap in buckets. The sap is then boiled to make it thicker and it turns into syrup.

• The soil is rocky in Eastern Massachusetts and much of Maine.

• There are small farms in New England. We get potatoes from Maine. We get dairy from Vermont and New Hampshire.

• Country Fairs take place in New England. There is a popular fair in Brooklyn, CT.

• Loggers take wood from trees to make furniture and paper.

Getting Around• Boston is home to the region’s largest airport, Logan

International. Boston is a harbor city. It has bridges, tunnels, and ferries to move people in and out of the state of Massachusetts.

• The Boston subway system moves people around the city. It is

one of the nation’s biggest and best, and also the oldest.• In the days before automobiles were common, New England had

one of the nation’s most elaborate railroad system.• Boston is a very old city with narrow streets. Traffic jams have

been a problem for many years. In 1991, Boston began construction on the Central Artery and tunnel project. They put the city’s main highways underground to relieve traffic. In 2005, the Big Dig was completed.

Work in the Area

• Many breakthroughs in medicine, computers, and telecommunications have come from this part of the USA.

• In the northeast there are lots of things to do such as skiing, swimming, hunting, fishing, hiking, biking, and boating.

• Rhode Island is famous for Newport and Block Island, but two of its most important industries are jewelry making and silverware.

• A few generations ago lobster was so plentiful that a family had to work much harder to put a chicken on the table than a lobster. Today the opposite is true. Lobsters are very expensive because there are not as many of them as years ago.

• In Maine, thousands of hunters head to the state’s north woods to hunt for deer or moose. Their hope is to get a large animal.

Free Time

• Foods found in New England are: clam chowder, Boston cream pie, baked beans, BBQ ribs, Ben and Jerry’s Ice Cream, cod, lobster, vegetables, and seafood.

• Some sports in the region are track, basketball, baseball, hockey, football, skiing, snowboarding, sledding, ice skating, and snowshoeing.

• The Eastern States Exhibition in Springfield, Massachusetts is one of the largest fairs in the United States. It is called “Big E”.

Conclusion• You could spend your entire life exploring New England and not

see everything. No matter how many towns you visit, mountains you climb, or wild places you explore, there is always more to do.

• One popular way to explore New England is to travel the rivers, ponds, and streams by kayak.

• New Englanders have kept up with modern life while also holding onto their old traditions.

• The first settlers to arrive in New England were searching for an opportunity for better life for their families. Many New Englanders feel that they have found that opportunity by living here in this region.

Works Cited

• Stewart, Mark. Regions of the United States: New England: Chicago, Illinois: Raintree, 2006