The US state Vermont has many symbols, some officially codified by legislation (mineral, flower, bird, beverage, pie, mammal, song, insect, tree, and fish), and several unofficial symbols. These unofficial symbols of Vermont include maple syrup; the Eastern White Pine (Pinus strobus), which was worn as a badge by the Green Mountain Boys and appears on the Vermont coat of arms and Vermont Military Crest; and the White-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) also appearing on the state's coat of arms. The number 14 figures prominentally in the state's history and lore. The Vermont Republic lasted for fourteen years, the pine tree on the Great Seal of Vermont has fourteen branches, the state has fourteen counties, and Vermont was the fourteenth state in the Union.
Vermont's state song is "These Green Mountains," composed by Diane Martin and arranged by Rita Buglass Gluck. This song was officially designated as the state song on 22 May 2000. This song replaced "Hail to Vermont!," which was written by Josephine Hovey-Perry and made the state song in 1938. However, "Moonlight in Vermont" remains an unofficial favorite.
The state bird is the hermit thrush (Catharus guttatus). This was adopted in 1941. The bird was only designated after debate in the legislature; though the hermit thrush is found in all of 14 counties and has a distinctive sweet call, it leaves the state during the winter for its yearly southward migration. Many legislators favored the blue jay (Cyanocitta cristata) or the crow.
The Red Clover (Trifolium pratense) was designated as the state flower in 1895. The red clover is often seen in the countryside of Vermont hosting the state insect – the Western honey bee (Apis mellifera), designated by Act 124 of the 1978 biennial session of the Vermont General Assembly. A natural companion and frequent visitor to the state flower, the honey bee was chosen for its agricultural benefits, and for being a "social" insect and representing the unity side of Vermont's state motto Freedom and Unity.
Vermont has two official state fish as of 1978: the cold-water fish, the brook trout (Salvelinus fontinalis) and the warm-water fish, the walleye (Sander vitreous vitreous).
The state tree is the sugar maple (Acer saccharum), effective in 1949. The sugar maple is the source of maple syrup, Vermont's most famous export.
The Morgan horse became the state mammal in 1961. The Morgan horse is a horse breed originally from Vermont, and named for Justin Morgan. The state maintains standards and develops bloodlines for the breed at the University of Vermont's Morgan Horse Farm at Weybridge.
The state amphibian, adopted by the legislature in 1997, is the Northern Leopard Frog (Rana pipiens).
Vermont has also designated an official state mineral (talc), pie (apple pie), soil ("Tunbridge Soil Series"), beverage (milk), gem (grossular garnet), and fossil (the beluga skeleton at the University of Vermont's Perkins Geology Museum).
The state reptile is the painted turtle. The state rocks are granite, marble, and slate.
Vermont is distinct for being among only three U.S. states with both a state seal and a coat of arms. Vermont is the only U.S. state to have a heraldically correct blazon describing its coat of arms.
Famous quotes containing the words list of, list, vermont, state and/or symbols:
“Shea—they call him Scholar Jack—
Went down the list of the dead.
Officers, seamen, gunners, marines,
The crews of the gig and yawl,
The bearded man and the lad in his teens,
Carpenters, coal-passers—all.”
—Joseph I. C. Clarke (1846–1925)
“I am opposed to writing about the private lives of living authors and psychoanalyzing them while they are alive. Criticism is getting all mixed up with a combination of the Junior F.B.I.- men, discards from Freud and Jung and a sort of Columnist peep- hole and missing laundry list school.... Every young English professor sees gold in them dirty sheets now. Imagine what they can do with the soiled sheets of four legal beds by the same writer and you can see why their tongues are slavering.”
—Ernest Hemingway (1899–1961)
“In order to get to East Russet you take the Vermont Central as far as Twitchell’s Falls and change there for Torpid River Junction, where a spur line takes you right into Gormley. At Gormley you are met by a buckboard which takes you back to Torpid River Junction again.”
—Robert Benchley (1889–1945)
“Reporters for tabloid newspapers beat a path to the park entrance each summer when the national convention of nudists is held, but the cult’s requirement that visitors disrobe is an obstacle to complete coverage of nudist news. Local residents interested in the nudist movement but as yet unwilling to affiliate make observations from rowboats in Great Egg Harbor River.”
—For the State of New Jersey, U.S. public relief program (1935-1943)
“My image is a statement of the symbols of the harsh, impersonal products and brash materialistic objects on which America is built today. It is a projection of everything that can be bought and sold, the practical but impermanent symbols that sustain us.”
—Andy Warhol (1928–1987)