South includes the South Atlantic States: Virginia (Va.), North Carolina (N.C.), South Carolina (S.C), Georgia (Ga.), Florida (Fla.), and the Central Southeast: Kentucky (Ken.), Tennessee (Tenn.),

The South

South includes the South Atlantic States: Virginia (Va.), North Carolina (N.C.), South Carolina (S.C), Georgia (Ga.), Florida (Fla.), and the Central Southeast: Kentucky (Ken.), Tennessee (Tenn.), Alabama (Ala.), Mississippi (Miss.), Louisiana (La.), and Arkansas (Ark.)

1. Geography, Economy, and Other Features. The South is per- haps the most distinctive and colorful American region. The South has long been a region apart, even though it is not isolated by any formida­ble natural barriers and is itself subdivided into many distinctive areas: the coastal plains along the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of Mexico; the Piedmont; the ridges, valleys, and high mountains bordering the Pied- mont, especially the Great Smoky Mountains in North Carolina and Tennessee; areas of bluegrass, black-soil prairies, and clay hills West of the mountains; bluffs, floodplains, bayous, and delta lands along the Mississippi River; and west of the Mississippi.

The humid subtropical climate, however, is one unifying factor Winters are neither long nor very cold, and no month temperature averages below freezing: The long, hot growing season (nine months at its peak along the Gulf) and the fertile soil (much of it overworked or ruined by erosion) have traditionally made the South an agricultural region where such staples as tobacco, rice, and sugarcane have long flourished; citrus fruits, livestock, soybeans, and timber have gained in importance. Cotton, once the region's dominant crop, is now mostly grown in Texas, the Southwest, and California

More erratic, more sporadic, more dramatic, and locally more destructive are the region's hurricanes - large cyclonic storms generated by intense solar heating over large bodies of warm water. Because these storms are an accepted feature of the region, and weather satellites and other forecasting tools are available, preparations to withstand the greatest force of the wind and rain can be made early. Because hurricanes are so variable in occurrence and strength, settlements have spread in spite of warnings into coastal areas that are very much exposed to the dangers of a large storm.

2. The Old South. By the 1820s, the South produced and exported rice, sugar and especially cotton. The South felt no need to develop factories, and it remained rural. Crops like cotton were best grown on plantations - large landholdings. They also required a large labor force. For this, the Old South depended on slaves who were originally brought from Africa. Slavery was the basis for the South economy; it was also what, more than anything, made the South different from the I rest of the country (the other states had ended slavery by 1820). The I boundary-line between the states of the North and those of the South is the Mason-Dixon line. This is the line between Pennsylvania and Maryland as laid out by the English surveyors Charles Mason and Jeremiah Dixon (1763-67). In later times it was regarded as the line Г separating the free and slave states,

For a long time, the North and the South each developed I differently, but without conflicts. The conflicts came when the nation К began to expand west. The Southern states said the new areas should allow slavery; the Northern states disagreed. The conflict worsened, I and by 1861, eleven Southern states had seceded, or separated, from the Union and formed a new nation: the Confederate States of America i or Confederacy. The Northern states refused to accept this The war became inevitable. The American Civil War lasted four years. When I the war finally ended in 1865, the South had been devastated. The state of Virginia alone had been the scene of 26 major battles and over 400 I smaller fights. The most important long-term effect of the war was the end of slavery. Congress introduced the 13 ^th Amendment, and black ■ Americans were made citizens. The 14^th Amendment gave blacks full rights of citizenship, including the right to vote.

Dixie, also Dixieland, is the popular nickname for the U.S. southern states, especially those that were part of the Confederacy. "Dixie" was derived from the French word "dix" (ten) printed on the ten-dollar banknote that was put in circulation in bilingual Louisiana on the eve of the Civil War. Soon the name the "Land of Dixie" came into use with reference to New Orleans and the South. "Dixie" is also the name of several songs, especially those by Daniel Emmett, popular as Confederate war-songs. "Dixie Land," one of them, was considered the Confederacy national anthem.

3. Civil Rights in the South. It seemed as though the former states might be incorporated into American life on an equal basis with other citizens. But this did not happen. The main reason was racism. The last quarter of the 19th century saw a profusion of "Jim Crow" laws in Southern states that segregated public schools, forbade or limited black access to many public facilities, such as parks, restaurants and hotels, and denied most blacks the right to vote by imposing poll taxes and arbitrary literacy tests. Whites used violence against blacks. Lynching, or hanging committed by mobs, became common. The National Asso­ciation for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), known as the "N-double-A," was formed in 1909 with the goal of ending dis­crimination. It took the lead in the campaign for black civil rights.

The civil right movement gained strength in the 1950s. The Mont­gomery bus boycott, in 1955, was an important event in blacks* strug­gle for equal treatment. Buses in Montgomery, Alabama, were segre­gated. Whites sat in the front of the bus; blacks had to sit in the back. One day Rosa Parks, a black seamstress, was on her way home from work. The bus became crowded, and she was told to give her seat to a white man. This, too, was the law. Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat. She was arrested and fined. This incident angered Montgomery black community. It was time to change the law, community leaders decided. And they thought of a strategy: They would boycott - refuse to use - the buses. Since many bus drivers were blacks, this strategy was effective. The boycott lasted for over a year. In 1956, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that bus segregation was against the law of the United States.

One of the civil rights movement's great leaders was Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., minister of Montgomery Dexter Avenue Baptist Church, who advocated nonviolent protests. By the mid-1960s the civil rights movement had gotten the attention of the nation and of Con­gress. Congress had passed laws making segregation illegal and strengthening voting rights. The movement had achieved many of its goals. As southerners, black and white, shook off the effects of slavery and racial division, a new regional pride expressed itself under the banner of the "New South."

4. Virginia - the "Old Dominion State." The state is named for the Queen of England Elizabeth I (the "Virgin Queen"). The history of America is closely tied to that of Virginia, particularly during the colo­nial period. Jamestown, founded in 1607, was the first English settle­ment in North America and slavery was introduced there in 1619. The surrenders ending both the American Revolution and the Civil War occurred in Virginia.

Virginia is a state particularly proud of its role in American history. Her statesmen had a leading part in the winning of the Revolution and the framing of the Constitution. A Virginian Richard Henry Lee in­troduced (June 7, 1776) the motion for separation of the 11 colonies from England; R. Lee - general of the Confederate armies in the Civil War; a Virginian Thomas Jefferson was the author of the Declaration of the Independence; and a Virginian George Washington led the way to victory in the American Revolution. Virginia is called the "Mother of Presidents" because eight U.S. presidents were born there. Four of the first five presidents - George Washington (I^м), Thomas Jeffer­son (3^rd), James Madison (4^th), and James Monroe (5^th) - had made up the so-called "Virginia Dynasty."

The names the "Ancient Dominion" and the "Old Tobacco State" are still widely applied to the state. They originated in colonial days, when Virginia was the oldest British colony in America. Since Virginia is the most northern of the South Atlantic states located south of the Potomac River, newscasters call it "Down, Where the South Begins."

Today, the service sector provides one-third of all jobs in Virginia, generating as much income as the manufacturing and retail industries combined. Agriculture remains an important sector, and the state ranks among the top ten in a variety of agricultural products. The beautiful Shenandoah Valley (whose Indian name means "daughter of the stars") presents a broad, colorful patchwork of vineyards, apple or­chards, emerald pastures, and fields of grain. The valley that stretches for more than 200 miles was carved by an ancient sea, which left be­hind spectacular limestone formations, including the famous Natural Bridge. George Washington carved his initials on it, Thomas Jefferson bought it. The Monocan Indians worshiped it. Today, Natural Bridge is called one of the seven natural wonders of the world.

No visit to Virginia is complete without an excursion to Mount Vernon, the plantation home of George Washington for 45 years. The estate is on the Virginia shore of the Potomac River, just 15 miles from downtown Washington, D.C. Mount Vernon is important to see be­cause it has been preserved and restored as a typical eighteenth-century plantation house. You can walk through the fourteen-room mansion, faithfully painted in remarkably bright colors and furnished with origi­nal heirlooms. You'll explore history first-hand and get to know "real" George Washington. You'll share Washington's panoramic view from the window, looking across the Potomac as he and Martha did in colo­nial times. More than a dozen outbuildings are meticulously restored in Mount Vernon, including a major greenhouse, stables, slave quarters, and kitchen. History abounds here with museum exhibitions, active archaeological digs, the Slave Memorial and Burial Ground.

If you drive south from Washington, D.C. you can get to Rich­mond, the lovely capital, overlooking the falls of the James River. Other points of interest include Monticello, home of Thomas Jeffer­son; Stratford, home of the Lees; Arlington House where you can see the Robert E. Lee Memorial. In 1788, Virginia entered the Union as the 10^th state. Its motto is "Thus Always to Tyrants."

5. North Carolina - the "Old North State". North Carolina is the South's major industrial state and the nation's major producer of to­bacco and tobacco products, textiles and furniture. It is known as the "Old North State" and the "Tar Heel State." The nickname "Tar- Heel State" dates from the Civil War. When a group of soldiers re­treated during a battle, their fellow North Carolinians threatened to put tar (a state product) on their heels so they would "stick better" the next time around.

The first secret society of white men - the Ku-Klux-Klan - was founded in North Carolina in 1865. Its members dressed themselves in white sheets and wore hoods to hide their faces. They rode by night through the southern countryside, terrorizing and lynching any blacks who tried to use their civil rights. Their sign was a burning wooden cross, which they placed outside the homes of their intended victims. No secret society in the U.S. has ever equaled the power and size of the KKK of the 1920s. Nearly 5,000,000 American men belonged to the "Invisible Empire" in its heyday.

The most populous and progressive part of the state is the Pied­mont, a region of gentle slopes and low ridges. West of the Piedmont are the beautiful North Carolina mountains - Blue Ridge, Great Smokies, and others. Ascending from foothills to summit, one may pass through several different zones of climate and vegetation. The mountain country was settled after 1770 by farmers from Pennsyl­vania, Virginia, and Maryland who were looking for new land. Later the whole Asheville area became a summer retreat for wealthy Rocke­fellers, Fords, Roosevelts, and Vanderbilts.

One of the strong elements of Deep South culture is several Ameri­can Indian groups. Most of such groups were removed from the South in a ruthless manner, but significant exceptions remain. The largest of these are the Lumbee in southeastern North Carolina, remnants of the once powerful Cherokee in south-western part of the state. Raleigh is the state capital. North Carolina became the 12^th state in 1789. Its motto is "To Be Rather than to Seem."

6. South Carolina - the "Palmetto State." The palmetto, a small palm-tree with fan-shaped leaves, grows in South Carolina, especially along the coast. It has given the name to South Carolina - the "Pal­metto State" and the South Carolinians are called "Palmettoes." South Carolina is also called the "Rice State" from the enormous quantities of rice it produces each year. The "Swamp State" is applied to the state in reference to its swampy land where rice is grown. South Carolina, where the Civil War began, was the first state to secede from the Union.

Once primarily agricultural, South Carolina today has many large textile and other mills that produce several times the output of its farms in cash value. Farms have become fewer but larger in recent years. South Carolina ranks third in peach production; it ranks fourth in over­all tobacco production. Other top agricultural commodities include nursery and greenhouse products, watermelons, peanuts, broilers and turkeys, and cattle and calves. Charleston, the largest city, makes as­bestos, wood, pulp, steel products, chemicals, and machinery. The only commercial tea plantation in America is 20 miles south of Charleston on Wadmalaw Island.

Many tourists come to Charleston for a glimpse of America's true South. In the time of the American Revolution, Charleston was the most important city and port to the south of Philadelphia. The old American city charms the visitors with its pre-Civil War mansions and winding streets. You can see the old Slave Market, where people were sold like herds of cattle. You can also catch a tour boat that stops at historic Fort Sumter, where the first shots in the Civil War were fired.

Charleston takes pride in the annual Spoleto Music Festival. This event, also called the Festival of the Two Worlds, is an annual sum­mer arts festival held in Spoleto, Italy. Founded by the composer Gian- Carlo Menotti and the conductor Thomas Schippers, the festival has been held annually since 1958. It features the works of composers, singers and musicians, as well as writers, actors, painters, and sculptors from all over the world. In 1999, Francis Menotti, the founder's son, became its artistic director. The Spoleto Festival, an American version of it, also instituted by Menotti, has been held in Charleston since 1977. Although Menotti broke with the American festival in 1993, it continues to be an active musical institution under its director, the French conductor Emmanuel Villaume, who assumed his post in 2000.

The state capital is Columbia. Its mottos are "While I Breathe, I Hope," "Prepared in Mind and Resources."

7. Georgia - the "Empire State of the South." Georgia was named for George II, King of England, in 1732. In 1788, Georgia rati­fied the U.S. Constitution and became the fourth state. After World War II, the South, which had remained agricultural, experienced rapid industrialization and economic growth. There were many reasons for these changes. One of the most important was the invention of air con­ditioning! The state is the nation's largest supplier of peanuts, proc­essed food, and also ranks high in textiles, lumber, paper, cotton, peaches and tobacco production. It is known as the "Peach State." Its motto is "Wisdom, Justice, and Moderation."

A new regional pride of southerners expressed itself under the ban­ner of the "New South." If there is the New South, then Atlanta is surely its capital. Atlanta has the world's second-largest airport. It is a growing center of international trade and business. About 90 percent of the largest companies in the U.S. have offices in Atlanta. One of these, Coca-Cola, is no surprise. In 1886, Dr. John Remberton, an Atlanta pharmacist, invented the syrup for Coca-Cola. He sold it in his phar­macy for 5 cents a glass. Sales in 1886 averaged 9 glasses a day. In 1894, Coke was for the first time sold in bottles. During World War П, bottling plants were set up in Europe, Africa and the Pacific. More recently Coke has introduced variations like Diet Coke and Cherry Coke. Today, the Coca-Cola Company is the world's largest soft drink producer.

Another characteristic of the New South is improved relations be­tween blacks and whites. In this sense too, Atlanta symbolizes the New South. In 1974, Atlanta became one of the first cities in the country to elect a black man as its mayor. Not surprisingly, A tl an tans are proud of this fact. Martin Luther King, the assassinated civil-right leader, was bom in Atlanta. In the 1970s, mostly young and black people marched from the tomb of Martin L. King to condemn racism, war, and injus­tice. Of historic interest is the Atlanta Museum where you can learn new facts about Margaret Mitchell and her famous novel "Gone witb the Wind" published in 1936 and awarded a Pulitzer Prize. The book depicts the life of the southern gentry before and during the Civil War Atlanta has also become an important cultural center not only for & South but also for the world. Atlantans are proud of their city's hosting the 1996 summer Olympic Games.

8. Florida"- the "Sunshine-State." Florida is a low-lying penin­sula with a coastline second in length only to Alaska. It's flat as a piece of blotting paper. Florida was named by Ponce de Leon, the Spanish explorer, from the fact that the whole region when he saw it in 1512 was covered with flowers. Florida's nicknames are: the "Flower State," or the "Land of Flowers," the "Mockingbird State" because these birds are found chiefly in eastern and southern parts of the U.S., the "Alligator State" because numerous alligators are found in its various streams and swamps, and the "Orange State" because it has great numbers of orange-groves, in which it competes with California. Citrus production has been a particularly important contributor to Flor­ida's economy since it was first introduced to the region by Spaniards during the 16^th century. Oranges and grapefruit are the most important of the seven major citrus fruits grown in the state. Now at about 80 percent of the orange crop has been processed rather than sold as fresh oranges.

Thanks to its coastal location and tropical climate, Florida is the American state most regularly hit by hurricanes. On average a hurri­cane happens along the Florida coast every 3 years. Most cause some damage to buildings and vehicles but some, such as Hurricane Andrew in 1992, can cause devastation. Andrew was the worst hurricane in America's history and caused $26 billion worth of damage. Hurricane Katrina that occurred in 2005 caused a great damage too. Not surpris­ingly, Floridians spend a lot of money protecting their homes from hurricane damage.

Florida has been the most dramatic tourist magnet in the region. With long beaches facing both the* Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of Mexico, this state has drawn summer and winter vacationers for dec­ades. The demand for subtropical amenities has become so strong that the development of recreation resources has spread well north along the Atlantic margin.

Miami has experienced a tourist boom for years. It is a surprisingly Spanish city. It is more than a quarter Hispanic and reflects a more recent Hispanic influence. Key to the change in Miami's use of its lo­cation was Cuban immigration. In Miami's "Little Havana," you'll see Spanish-style street lights, Cuban food, factories where cigars are rolled by hand and even stores with signs saying "English spoken here." It is possible to walk around Miami for many blocks and hear no word of English. Most public signs are bilingual (written in English and Spanish). The Beach - Miami Beach - is a small strip of America linked to Miami by a few roadway bridges over Biscayne Bay. It is neither to be described as a town nor analyzed as a community; it is a phenomenon entirely of its own. It is a society devoted exclusively to providing for more than two visitors. This is its only commerce. No other industry is permitted. The beach consists entirely of hotels of all varieties. Miami Beach is also a place where presidents sometimes come to be nominated.

No picture of Florida as Vocationland is complete without visiting the Florida Keys, a series of coral and limestone islands. Key Largo, one of the islands, has huge underwater parks. You can explore this park in a glass-bottomed boat or - if you are more adventurous - by scuba diving. The water is crystal clear, and with its 40 types of corals and 650 species of fish, the park is well worth exploring! While some people look at tropical fish, others search for treasure. In the 16th and the 17th centuries, ships returning to Spain from the New World were often sunk by storms, reefs or pirates. It has been estimated that along Florida Keys there's a shipwreck about every quarter mile!

Another tourist attraction in Florida is Everglades National Park. The Everglades, or "River of Grass" as the Seminoles called it, is formed by a river of fresh water 6 inches deep, 100 miles long and 50 miles wide that flows slowly across the expanse of land of sawgrass marshes, pine forests, and mangrove islands. More than 300 species of birds live in the park as well as alligators and Florida panthers.

Not all tourist attractions depend on resources provided by nature. The construction of Disneyworld has brought millions of out-of-state visitors to south-central Florida. Walt Disney World, near Orlando, lets you experience it all: the past, the present, the future, and worlds of fantasy. In 1955, Walt Disney, U.S. motion picture and TV-producer of animated cartoons, the creator of Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck, opened Disneyland, a large amusement park in California. In 1964, he started die construction of a similar park, Disney World, in Florida.

The Disney Productions Company transformed a piece of land near Orlando into one of the world's magnificent tourist attractions. Opened in 1971, Disney World drew some 12,000,000 visitors in 1972, more than live in the state of Florida, and twice as many as the number of foreigners who toured the U.S.A. that year. Never before in Florida, in its long history of "boom and bust," had dreams of profit been more aroused than when Mr. Disney's magic Mouse appeared. In Disney's Magic Kingdom, you can go to Main Street, U.S.A., a town from around 1900, whose theater shows only silent movies. You can travel through space on Space Mountain just as several astronauts have. You can, of course, see characters from Disney movies and even have dinner at Cinderella Castle. Disney's EPCOT center is newer than the Magic Kingdom and technologically more advanced. Its Future World lets you explore the future of lifestyles, energy, transportation, food, production, the seas and the world of imagination. The EPCOT World Showcase includes miniature replicas of the U.S. and other countries. There you'll see everything from the Eiffel Tower to Japanese bonsai gardens.

But Florida is much more than Miami and Walt Disney World. Cape Canaveral, near Cocoa Beach on the Atlantic Coast, has devel­oped into one of the nation's most important space research centers. It is from here that the U.S. Apollo spaceships were launched in their flights around the Earth. At Cape Canaveral you can go to the Eastern Missile Range and tour the Kennedy Space Center to see the buildings where vehicles are assembled and astronauts are trained.

Florida entered the Union in 1845 as the 27^th state. Its motto is "In God We Trust" Tallahassee is the state capital.

9. Alabama - the Heart of the "Deep South." The "Deep South" comprises the former slavery states of the "Cotton Belt" - Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Arkansas, South Carolina and Georgia. The name "Alabama" comes from a warlike tribe of Indians, who once coming to the banks of the river said, "Alabama," which meant "Here we rest" The river came to be called the Alabama River, which in turn gave its name to the state. Alabama has two unofficial nicknames: the "Cotton (Plantation) State" because it is the central state of the "Cot­ton Belt" and the "Lizard State" since during the earlier times lizards were numerous along the Alabama's streams. The "YeUowhammer State" became the official nickname for Alabama during the Civil War because gray uniforms of the Confederate soldiers had a yellow tinge. And the state bird is a yellowhammer.

The heart of the former Confederate states, Alabama is traditionally agricultural. In the early 1800s, cotton lured hordes of settlers, mostly southerners who made their way to the state. The center of the state, named the Black Belt for its dark clay soil, became the domain of the legendary southern planter. Cotton ruled the Black Belt until boll wee­vils ravaged the fields and compelled farmers to diversify. In 1919, the town of Enterprise erected the Boll Weevil Monument to honor the tiny insect that by destroying the region's cotton crop had forced farm­ers to diversify - and prosper. Today, cotton culture has almost van­ished. The flat meadows have been transformed into grazing lands for beef and dairy. Soybeans are the big new crop. Paper, textile, chemi­cals and food processing are flowering now as cotton once did. Oil and gas finds in southern Alabama added a lucrative new element to the state's economy.

Montgomery is the state capital. Birmingham, Alabama's princi­pal industrial city, named for Birmingham, England, was founded in 1871. Today, it has become the South's largest iron-and-steel produc­ing center. Continuing as a major manufacturer of coal, iron, and steel, Birmingham is also noted for its world-renowned medical center. Ala­bama joined the Union in 1819 as the 22^nd state. Its motto is "We Dare Defend our Rights."

10. Louisiana - the "Pelican State." Louisiana was named so in honor of Louis XIV, King of France, when the territory was explored by the French. Louisiana is known as the "Child of the Mississippi River," the "Pelican State" because of the numerous pelicans throughout the state and because this bird is depicted on the state coat of arms, and the "Sugar State" because of Louisiana's numerous sugar plantations and refineries. In 1803, the vast region between the

Mississippi River and the Rocky Mountains was sold by Napoleon to the U.S.A. for 15 million dollars! "We have lived long but this is the noblest work of our whole lives," said one of the American representa­tives who signed the agreement. The Louisiana Purchase, as it was called, almost doubled the land area of the United States, giving the na­tion control of the Mississippi and the ability to expand west. Louisiana is the only American state where French is the second language.

New Orleans. One hundred miles north of the Mississippi's mouth is colorful New Orleans. As an American city New Orleans is unusual. History. For years New Orleans was more like a city of French Caribbean than of North America. It was founded by the French in 1718 and did not become part of the U.S.A. until 1803. New Orleans has taken elements from many cultures and created its own unique culture. Sightseeing. "Grand Dame of the Delta," New Orleans owes much of her charm to an exciting mix of old and new. It's very much a tale of two cities. One is contemporary New Orleans, which is the same as anywhere else in the Southern states: growing, developing, banal in appearance. Then there is the famous part, the Vieux Carre - the "Old Square." The French Quarter, or Vieux Carre, was the original city of New Orleans. Now it's a popular tourist attraction. New Or­leans' French colonial heritage is consciously maintained in the city's French Quarter. Among the points of interest in the Vieux Carre are Royal Street, the French Market, and the Louisiana State Museum. The beautiful homes of the Quarter - with their courtyards and patios, their high ceilings and large windows - were designed for comfort in a hot climate. Long a magnet for painters and sculptors, New Orleans takes pride in its nickname "Monmartre on the Mississippi." Food. When you are in New Orleans, try a cafЈ an lait (coffee with milk) with a beignet, a light pastry covered with sugar. If it's lunchtime on Monday, try red beans and rice. In New Orleans this dish is Monday tradition. On any day of the week, try boiled crawfish, which is a small and distant relative of the lobster. Just remember, there is nothing elegant about eating crawfish - often the table will be covered with newspa­pers! Another specialty is gumbo, eaten as a soup or on rice as a main course. The word "gumbo" comes from an African word for okra, a vegetable used to thicken gumbo.

Music and Festivals. New Orleans is where jazz and blues really got started. You'll find there are still many jazz clubs in New Orleans, for example, on Bourbon Street in the French Quarter. In spring you can go to the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival. There you'll hear everything from fiddlers to large jazz bands, from street musicians to local specialties, like aHigator soup and crawfish pie.

Mardi Gras (Fat Tuesday) is the city's most famous festival. In fact it is a symbol of New Orleans. French settlers brought Mardi Gras with them, and since then it has taken place the week before Lent which is the period of fasting before Easter. There are special parades organized by special groups. Even spectators dress in elaborate cos- nimes. There have always been balls during Mardi Gras, and in recent years there is a costume contest, too. One grand-prize winner was a forty-foot crawfish! In fact the event is unique in the U.S.A.

Louisiana became the 18^th state in 1812. Its motto is "Union, Jus­tice, and Confidence." Baton Rouge is the state capital.

11. Mississippi - the "Magnolia State." The other nicknames for Mississippi are the "Border-Eagle State" because the state coat of arms depicts the spread American eagle (also called the "border- eagle") on a silver circular field, and the "Groundhog State" because groundhogs were numerous in this area. The Mississippi River was named by Indians, and the state in turn was named for the river. The Indian word "Mississippi" meant "big water." The natives also called the river the "Father of Waters." One of the American Indian groups that remained culturally distinct in spite if the gradual integration of the state into Deep South culture is the Choctaw in central Mississippi.

Lovely and languorous, Mississippi is the most traditionally south­ern of all the Deep South states. Here the legendary cotton fields sprawl in the sun beside sloping green levees. Here stand cool white- columned mansions shaded by magnolias that bear huge creamy blos­soms. Mockingbirds sing deliriously from the treetops. Confederate cemeteries are still decorated with fresh flowers, and longleaf forests sweep grandly south to the splendid Gulf Coast beaches.

The Mississippi River is without doubt the most important geo­graphic feature in the eastern U.S. It runs 2,300 miles, from Minnesota to the Gulf of Mexico. At one end, bears prowl through snow; at the other, alligators lie in the sun. With its tributaries, Mississippi drains all or part of 31 states. No writer captured the Mississippi better than Mark Twain. Twain knew the river well. As a boy, he almost drowned in it nine times; as a young man he was a riverboat pilot Twain's Huckleberry Firm may be the greatest American novel ever written. It tells the adventures of Huck Finn, a runaway boy, and Jim, an escaped slave. Huck and Jim travel the Mississippi on a raft; Jim tries to reach the North. Another famous Mississippian was William Faulkner, winner of the 1949 Nobel Prize in Literature. The state capital is Jack­son. In 1817, Mississippi became the 20* state. Its motto is "By Valor and Arms.**

Arkansas - the "Land of Opportunity.** The ^u Bowie State" is another nickname given to the state because of the use of bowteknives (long, steel hunting knives) during the frontier timet, highly valued by pioneers of the Wild West and soldiers of the Southwest It could be thrown, used for stabbing and kilting animals or eating The knife was named for James Bowie, a notorious Texan revolutionary leader, though Rezin Bowie, James' brother, was considered its real inventor. In Arkansas, bowie-knives that could be shut up into handles were ironically called "Arkansas toothpicks.** Hence another nickname for the state is the "Toothpick State,** and the people of Arkantss were formerly called "toothpicks." Since Arkansans were willing their state to become a "proving ground** for the experiments of the Agricul­tural Department of the Franklin D. Roosevelt Administration, Arkan­sas was called the "Guinea-Pig State.**

To most Americans, Arkansas means the Ozarks in the state's north-western quarter, a peaceful land with steep hills and deep hoi* lows. The peace and quiet have made the Ozarks a magnet for retirees and others who simply would like a little distance from the hustle and bustle of city life. Today, the Ozarks are among the fastest growing rural areas in America.

Perhaps the most distinctive region of the state is the Timbcrtands. a region of gentle hills cloaked in dense pine forests. Spiritually, the region is more akin to the West than to the South. The north of the val­ley is known for its natural springs, both hot and cold, which became a major tourist attraction as early as the first decades of the 1800s. Veiled in vapor, the bubbling hot springs here were hallowed by local Indians for their supposed healing powers long before white settlers built the bathhouses that made the town of Hot Springs a world- renowned health spa. At Hot Springs you can enjoy the purity of bot­tled spring water that fell as rain in the mountains here some 4,000 years ago.

Cotton made this state, bringing with it enormous plantations and a slow-paced, genteel society. Now rice and soybeans have replaced cot­ton, and Arkansas produces more rice than any other state. The produc­tion of oil has now become an important element in the state's econ­omy too. Arkansas also produces more than 90 percent of the nation's supply of ore, from which aluminum is extracted.

Little Rock is the state capital. Arkansas was admitted to the Union in 1836 as the 25^th state. Its motto is "The People Rule."

13. Tennessee - the "Volunteer State." When the Mexican- American War broke out (1845-48), a great number of people from Tennessee volunteered immediately. The word "Tennessee," like most other state names, is derived from the American Indian dialects. The name the "Big Bend State" comes from the expression "the river with the big bend." which is the Indian name for the Tennessee River. The state is also nicknamed the "Mother of South-Western Statesmen" because it had given the U.S. three presidents and a number of distin­guished statesmen.

During World War II, secret work on the atom bomb under the code name of "Manhattan Project" was conducted at Oak Ridge, now the location of the American Museum of Atomic Energy. The Tennes­see Valley today is a substantial agricultural district, with fodder crops and livestock most important The capital of the state is Nashville. Today, the city of Nashville is a cosmopolitan center where universi­ties and financial institutions mingle with the machinery of state gov­ernment The city owes its world renown, however, not to the progress on which it prides itself, but to the earthy sounds of country music.

Memphis is the largest city in Tennessee and a port of entry. It was named for an ancient Egyptian city on the Nile; was the inspiration of one of the town's founders - future president Andrew Jackson. While most of West Tennessee remains agricultural, Memphis is one of the South's busiest ports and commercial centers. It is also the city where W.C. Handy gave voice to that unique brand of American music known as the blues. In the 1950s, Memphis was a center of blues music and had a radio station that played gospel, blues, and rhythm-and- blues. From Beale Street, the blues surged downriver to New Orleans, upriver to St Louis and Chicago, and thence around the world.

Elvis Presley made his career as a professional musician in Mem­phis. Elvis' mystique lives on. Each year 600,000 fans visit Graceland, his mansion in Memphis. Elvis look-alike contests are still popular. And each year there come many people who claim they have seen, not just a look-alike, but Elvis himself.

Martin Luther King, Jr., the civil-right leader, was assassinated by a sniper on April 4, 1968, after he came to Memphis to lend support to striking municipal workers.

Great Smoky Mountains National Park in Tennessee is a good place to visit. The "Place of Blue Smoke" was the name given by the Cherokee Indians to these Appalachian Highlands. The forest here ex­udes water vapor and oily residues which create a smoke-like haze that surrounds the peaks and fills the valleys. The park is one of the world's finest temperate deciduous forests.

In 1796, Tennessee entered the Union as the 16^th state. Its motto is "Agriculture and Commerce."

14. Kentucky - the "Bluegrass State." Kentucky is in the center of the Bluegrass region and is called the "Bluegrass State" from the abundant growth of bluegrass on its rich limestone soil. Kentucky's famous bluegrass is, of course, green, but its tiny buds lend a slight blue-purple cast in spring. All the Kentuckians' nicknames express the peculiarities of the state's agricultural economy. The nickname "Bears" probably alludes to the state's former nickname, the "Bear State," be­cause bears were found there in pioneer days. The word "Corn- Crackers" is applied to the poorest white people living in the moun­tainous regions of Kentucky and other southern states. The name "Red Horses" is given to Kentuckians in allusion to the famous Kentucky thoroughbreds. In May, more than 100,000 people fill Churchill Down for the annual Derby. The Kentucky Derby is a horse race for three- year-olds, run annually since 1875 on the first Saturday in May, in Louisville.

The true Bluegrass country-side is noted for many things, such as bourbon whiskey, thin-leaved tobacco, noble agriculture and one of the most melodious dialects of English spoken in the U.S.A. Cumberland Falls boasts a moonbow, a rare atmospheric phenomenon similar to a rainbow but generated by moonlight. The ethereal spectrum appears in the mist above the water. Mammoth Cave National Park in Ken­tucky, Mammoth Cave, as its name suggests, is the world's most exten­sive cave system, with 345 miles of passages. Water seeping into the cave creates stalactites, stalagmites, and white gypsum crystal forma­tions. Rare and unusual animals, such as blind fish and colorless spi­ders, demonstrate adaptation to the absolute blackness and isolation.

The capital of the state is Frankfort. Kentucky joined the Union in 1792 as the 15^th state. Its motto is "United We Stand, Divided We Fall."

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