[00:00.00]Now, the VOA Special English [00:13.74]program, WORDS AND THEIR STORIES. [00:17.04]Today, we tell about [00:20.26]more interesting nicknames [00:22.20]of American states. [00:24.61]The mid-Atlantic state of Maryland [00:28.01]is called the Free State. [00:30.40]A Baltimore newspaper first [00:33.06]called it that [00:34.10]during the nineteen twenties [00:36.13]when the manufacture [00:38.12]and sale of alcohol [00:40.09]were banned for a time. [00:42.54]Maryland said it wanted to be free [00:45.61]from this prohibition. [00:47.97]Mississippi is The Magnolia State. [00:52.27]It is named for a tree with big, [00:55.44]beautiful white flowers that grows [00:58.55]in that hot, southern state. [01:01.39]The midwestern state of Missouri [01:04.49]is called The Show Me State. [01:07.29]The people of that frontier state [01:10.13]were once famous for not believing [01:13.19]everything people told them. [01:15.83]If you visit the western mountain [01:19.07]and plains state of Montana [01:21.38] you will know why it is known [01:24.15]as Big Sky Country. [01:26.82]Nebraska is the only state [01:30.16]to have a nickname [01:31.40]that honors sports teams! [01:33.79]The state university's athletic teams [01:37.64]are nicknamed Cornhuskers [01:40.49]in recognition of one of [01:43.09]the area's chief crops. [01:45.64]The state borrowed the Cornhusker nickname [01:48.98]from the university. [01:51.03]The western desert state of Nevada [01:55.07]is called The Silver State. [01:57.76]It was once home to many silver mines [02:01.67]and towns that grew up around them. [02:04.47]Today, most of them are [02:06.96]empty "ghost towns." [02:09.51]New Hampshire, in the northeast area [02:12.75]called New England, is The Granite State [02:16.66]because of that colorful rock. [02:19.37]New Jersey is between the big cities [02:23.11]of New York, New York and Philadelphia, [02:27.01]Pennsylvania. It got its nickname, [02:30.28]The Garden State, because New Jersey [02:33.72]truck farms once provided vegetables [02:36.68]to those big cities. [02:38.87]New York, which always thinks big, [02:43.09]was called The Empire State [02:46.21]because of its natural wealth. [02:48.93]The most famous Manhattan skyscraper [02:52.12]got its name from the state. [02:54.98]It is, of course, [02:56.68]the Empire State Building. [02:59.09]If you get a chance to see a red sunset [03:03.24]over the Sangre de Cristo Mountains [03:06.40]of New Mexico, you will know why [03:09.38]that southwestern state [03:11.33]is called The Land of Enchantment. [03:15.03]North and South Carolina were one colony [03:19.52]until seventeen twenty-nine. [03:22.25]South Carolina's nickname [03:24.90]is the easier of the two: [03:27.25]It is The Palmetto State [03:30.29]because of a fan-leafed palm tree [03:33.08]that grows there. [03:34.58]North Carolina is the Tar Heel State. [03:39.67]That is because many of the men [03:42.57]who worked to gather substances [03:45.27]from trees wore no shoes. [03:48.71]They would make turpentine [03:50.97]from tar and get the black, [03:53.85]sticky tar on the heels of their feet. [03:57.17]Next week, we will finish telling [04:00.51]about the colorful nicknames [04:02.50]of American states. [04:04.86](MUSIC) [04:15.76]This VOA Special English program [04:19.15]was written by Ted Landphair. [04:21.90]I'm Barbara Klein. [04:23.67]You can find more [04:25.38]WORDS AND THEIR STORIES at 51voa.com.