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According to the official web site of the state of Tennessee, the nickname the Volunteer State comes from the record number of volunteers the state provided during both the War of 1812 and the Mexican War. 50states.com is a bit more specific, and says that the name honors the bravery of the soldiers from Tennessee who served under General Andrew Jackson in the Battle of New Orleans, a U.S. victory during the War of 1812. The site also offers some lesser-known nicknames for Tennessee: the Big Bend State (from the Indian name
for the Tennessee River) and the Hog and Hominy State (for its corn and pork products). To find the names for other states, we searched on the phrase "U.S. state nicknames" and quickly found a handy reference list at Netstate. We picked out a few that we found interesting, but unfortunately, Netstate doesn't explain where these nicknames came from. For that, we turned to the states' official web sites and, in some cases, historical web sites. Here's what we found: Missouri is called the Show Me State, but there's little agreement on where the slogan first came
from. One popular legend is that it comes from a speech by Missouri's Congressman Willard Duncan Vandiver who said in 1899: "Frothy eloquence neither convinces nor satisfies me. I am from Missouri. You have got to show me." New Jersey is called the Garden State, although the state's governor vetoed a bill to put this nickname on the state's car license plates in 1954 (the bill was passed anyway). The nickname seems to date from 1876 when one Abraham Browning gave an address naming New Jersey as a prosperous garden state. Oklahoma is called the Sooner State. A "Sooner" was originally someone who had illegally crossed the border of Oklahoma's Unassigned Lands before they
were opened for settlement in 1889. The negative connotations changed to positive by the 1920s, when "Sooner" meant progressive and enterprising. Pennsylvania is called the Keystone State, which comes from the architectural term for the center stone in an arch that keeps the whole structure in place. In the early 1800s, Pennsylvania was referred to as "the keystone in the federal union" and as "the keystone in the democratic arch." These are just a few of the curious monikers for some of our 50 states, and many have more than one. Visit Netstate for a complete list and to brush up on your knowledge of state symbols, including official songs, flowers, and
even insects!
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