[ti:State Nicknames, Part 3] [ar:Ted Landphair] [al:WORDS AND THEIR STORIES] [by:www.51voa.com] [00:25.15]Go to 51voa.com for more... [00:10.81]Now, the VOA Special English [00:13.34]program, WORDS AND THEIR STORIES. [00:16.73]Today, we tell about [00:18.72]more interesting nicknames [00:20.76]of American states. [00:23.31]The mid-Atlantic state of Maryland [00:26.39]is called the Free State. [00:28.83]A Baltimore newspaper first [00:31.67]called it that [00:32.61]during the nineteen twenties [00:34.40]when the manufacture [00:36.20]and sale of alcohol [00:38.09]were banned for a time. [00:40.73]Maryland said it wanted to be free [00:43.92]from this prohibition. [00:46.27]Mississippi is The Magnolia State. [00:50.75]It is named for a tree with big, [00:53.79]beautiful white flowers that grows [00:56.73]in that hot, southern state. [00:59.88]The midwestern state of Missouri [01:03.97]is called The Show Me State. [01:06.41]The people of that frontier state [01:09.46]were once famous for not believing [01:12.06]everything people told them. [01:14.60]If you visit the western mountain [01:17.84]and plains state of Montana [01:20.38] you will know why it is known [01:23.32]as Big Sky Country. [01:25.77]Nebraska is the only state [01:29.41]to have a nickname [01:30.51]that honors sports teams! [01:32.71]The state university's athletic teams [01:36.86]are nicknamed Cornhuskers [01:39.76]in recognition of one of [01:42.15]the area's chief crops. [01:44.06]The state borrowed the Cornhusker nickname [01:48.10]from the university. [01:49.59]The western desert state of Nevada [01:54.04]is called The Silver State. [01:56.78]It was once home to many silver mines [02:00.36]and towns that grew up around them. [02:03.15]Today, most of them are [02:06.19]empty "ghost towns." [02:07.98]New Hampshire, in the northeast area [02:11.92]called New England, is The Granite State [02:15.67]because of that colorful rock. [02:18.06]New Jersey is between the big cities [02:22.31]of New York, New York and Philadelphia, [02:26.35]Pennsylvania. It got its nickname, [02:29.24]The Garden State, because New Jersey [02:32.78]truck farms once provided vegetables [02:35.87]to those big cities. [02:37.66]New York, which always thinks big, [02:41.89]was called The Empire State [02:44.68]because of its natural wealth. [02:47.62]The most famous Manhattan skyscraper [02:51.41]got its name from the state. [02:53.86]It is, of course, [02:56.30]the Empire State Building. [02:58.19]If you get a chance to see a red sunset [03:02.33]over the Sangre de Cristo Mountains [03:05.26]of New Mexico, you will know why [03:08.25]that southwestern state [03:10.49]is called The Land of Enchantment. [03:13.68]North and South Carolina were one colony [03:18.52]until seventeen twenty-nine. [03:21.26]South Carolina's nickname [03:23.85]is the easier of the two: [03:26.34]It is The Palmetto State [03:29.09]because of a fan-leafed palm tree [03:32.39]that grows there. [03:33.38]North Carolina is the Tar Heel State. [03:38.47]That is because many of the men [03:41.60]who worked to gather substances [03:44.34]from trees wore no shoes. [03:47.14]They would make turpentine [03:49.67]from tar and get the black, [03:52.66]sticky tar on the heels of their feet. [03:55.60]Next week, we will finish telling [03:59.59]about the colorful nicknames [04:01.68]of American states. [04:03.47](MUSIC) [04:13.94]This VOA Special English program [04:17.92]was written by Ted Landphair. [04:20.66]I'm Barbara Klein. [04:22.76]You can find more [04:24.40]WORDS AND THEIR STORIES at 51voa.com.