Vermont

New England states (Vermont is the top left state)

Vermont ranks 49th in population in the US states.  

Montpelier is the US's least populous state capital.  Vermont's largest city, Burlington, is the US's least populous largest city of a state.

Vermont is the only New England state with no direct access to the Atlantic Ocean.  Its lowest point is about 95’-100’ (Lake Champlain), and its highest point is 4,395’ (Mount Mansfield).

Vermont is exactly half as wide (80 miles) as it is long (160 miles).

The 1763 Treaty of Paris ceded France's control of the area to the British, after which both the New York and New Hampshire colonies claimed Vermont and both governors handed out land grants there.  In 1764, King George III declared the land belonged to New York, which then demanded rent from NH's settlers.  Vermonters formed the Green Mountain Boys militia and successfully held off the New Yorkers until the Revolutionary War.  Following the Declaration of Independence, Vermonters decided Britain's claim on the land was no longer valid, and thus neither were New York's land grants.  In January 1777 they declared themselves independent.  

Ethan Allen's Green Mountain Boys capturing Fort Ticonderoga

Their constitution was the first to abolish slavery and the first to give the vote to all adult males, with or without property.  After the war, both New Hampshire and New York objected to statehood for Vermont, but VT's payment of $30,000 to NY allowed VT to become the 14th state.

1816 was the year without a summer:  12" of snow in June, heavy frosts in August and September, newly shorn sheep died and crops failed.

The northernmost point of the Civil War was St. Albans, VT, where 20 Confederate escapees from a prison camp declared the city a Southern possession, robbed 3 banks of $200,000, shot 5 and killed 1, and fled to Canada.

In 1891,  VT became the 1^st state with a tourism office: “Vermont, Designed by the Creator for the Playground of the Continent.”

The median age of VT's work force is 42.3 years - the US's highest.

Vermont is the most rural of all the states: 70% live outside cities or towns larger than 2,500.

Sugar Maple

VT's sugar maples are migrating to Canada due to several factors such as more aggressive Norway maples and the effects of climate change: excessive deer herds are surviving by eating bark; acid rain, asian longhorn beetles and pear thrips are taking a toll.  Climate change has also decreased cold periods, a problem because maples need a certain amount of cold weather to produce sap and in some years the time available to tap the trees has shrunk to 1 week.

Vermont has 19 species of bumblebee, including the yellow-banded bumblebee which has died out everywhere else and is now found only in VT.

VT mines more marble than any other state; the quarry in Danby is the largest underground quarry in the world.  VT has more slate than any other state.  Rock of Ages granite quarry is one of the world's largest.

Rock of Ages quarry

Vermont has an official state pie (apple pie).