Massachusetts was the 6th state accepted into the Union, on February 6, 1788.

• The state bird is the Chickadee.
• The state motto is: "By the sword we seek peace, but peace only under liberty".
• The state was named after local Indian tribe whose name means "a large hill place".
• The state nickname is the Bay State.
• It is the birthplace of U.S. Presidents John Adams, John Quincy Adams, John Fitzgerald Kennedy, and George Herbert Walker Bush.
• The state song is "All Hail to Massachusetts". The state tree is the American Elm

Massachusetts is a state rich in folklore. Below are a few stories from Massachusetts.

• Sam Hyde
  Old Sam Hyde tells a tall tale and earns himself a glass of cider.
  
• The Telltale Seaweed
  An overnight stay in an abandoned Cape Cod house reveals a ghost.
  
• The Twist-Mouth Family
  Find out what a college education is good for!
  

More Massachusetts folktales, including The Fatal Glass Eye, Tom Dunn's Dance, The Lady in Black, The White Deer, Captain Paddock and Crookjaw and more, are retold by S.E. Schlosser in Spooky New England.