Nicknames: America's 50 States (Third of Four Parts)

Free State.  A Baltimore newspaper first called it that during the nineteen twenties when the manufacture and sale of alcohol were banned for a time.  Maryland said it wanted to be free from this prohibition.

The Magnolia State.  It is named for a tree with big, beautiful white flowers that grows in that hot, southern state.     

The Show Me State.  The people of that frontier state were once famous for not believing everything people told them.

Big Sky Country.

Cornhuskers in recognition of one of the area's chief crops.  The state borrowed the Cornhusker nickname from the university.

The Silver State. It was once home to many silver mines and towns that grew up around them. Today, most of them are empty "ghost towns."

The Granite State because of that colorful rock. 

The Garden State, because New Jersey truck farms once provided vegetables to those big cities.

The Empire State because of its natural wealth.  The most famous Manhattan skyscraper got its name from the state.  It is, of course, the Empire State Building.

The Land of Enchantment.

The Palmetto State because of a fan-leafed palm tree that grows there.  North Carolina is the Tar Heel State.  That is because many of the men who worked to gather substances from trees wore no shoes. They would make turpentine from tar and get the black, sticky tar on the heels of their feet.