Maryland is a great place to visit on the coast.  The home of the Naval Academy is found in Annapolis, and was founded in 1845.  Maryland is full of naval tradition.  It was also kind enough to give up some of its land to form Washington, DC.  As one of the nation’s leading states in seafood production, Maryland is a prominent producer and processor of blue crabs, and soft clams.  The coastal area is beautiful in all seasons.  Sixteen, of the twenty-three counties, in the state border the ocean.

Boasting many historical sites, and professional sports teams, Maryland is full of culture.  The forests of Maryland cover nearly 2.7 million acres or just over 40% of the states land surface.  You can find the loblolly pine on its eastern shores.

Maryland is great to learn about.  Here are some of the facts they did not teach you in school.

• Samuel F.B. Morse reportedly received the first telegraph message in Bladensburg, in 1844, before his famous “What Hath God Wrought” message between Baltimore and Washington. His telegraph wire had been strung along the railroad right of way. Ezra Cornell, founder of Cornell University, lived in Bladensburg and is said to have invented the telegraph pole.

• The town of Garrett Park declared the first nuclear free zone in the United States in 1982, thus affirming a tradition of peacefulness that began back in 1898 when it became illegal to harm any tree or songbird within the town limits.

• Channel 67 broadcast the state’s first public television programs on October 5, 1969.

• Maryland was first to enact Workmen’s compensation laws in 1902.

• Fort Meade near Laurel became a base because a train engineer delivering soldiers to Meade knew only one Meade, the one in Maryland. He was not aware of Fort Meade, Florida. The confusion happened so often a second base was built in Maryland in an attempt to avoid the confusion.

The more you look, the more interesting the facts get.  One fact is true, Maryland is a great state to live in.