Massachusetts Trivia & Tidbits - Page 13

Looking for Massachusetts trivia? Try our list Massachusetts little know facts, tidbits and trivia.

During the Civil War, a pair of forts were built at Long Point on the tip of Cape Cod. Dubbed “Fort Useless” and “Fort Ridiculous” by the locals, the forts never fired a shot in battle.

first appeared: 8/25/2002

The Hoosac tunnel on the Boston & Maine Railroad runs 4.82 miles under the Berkshire Mountains. The tunnel took 22 years to complete and was North America’s longest tunnel when it opened in 1875.

first appeared: 8/18/2002

Former commercial fisherman Howard Blackburn, who had lost all his fingers to frostbite, made a solo trip across the Atlantic in 1901 aboard the Gloucester-built sloop, Great Republic.

first appeared: 8/11/2002

Since 1972, a popular overnight destination for youth groups has been sleeping aboard the World War II battleship USS Massachusetts at Battleship Cove in Fall River.

first appeared: 8/4/2002

Smith College in Northampton (pop. 28,978), a pioneering school in the education of women, was opened in 1875 through the generosity of Hatfield native Sophia Smith (1796-1870), who left nearly $400,000 for the school’s founding.

first appeared: 7/28/2002

Tanglewood in Lenox (pop. 1,667) became the Boston Symphony Orchestra’s summer home following its first concert there in August of 1938. It now attracts more than 350,000 visitors a year.

first appeared: 7/21/2002

Forty-four scientists associated with the Marine Biological Laboratory, founded in 1888 in Woods Hole (pop. 925), have been awarded Nobel prizes for their work in medicine, physiology, or chemistry.

first appeared: 7/14/2002

During the Civil War, Boston Harbor’s Gallops Island was used as the quarters of the 54th Regiment, which was the inspiration for the movie Glory.

first appeared: 7/7/2002

The 117-foot-tall tomb of Abraham Lincoln in Springfield, Ill., is constructed of granite quarried from Quincy.

first appeared: 6/30/2002

Mount Greylock, the state’s tallest peak (at 3,487 feet), is named after Chief Graylock, head of the Waronoke tribe of the Pocumtuck Confederacy of central Massachusetts in the mid-1600s.

first appeared: 6/23/2002

Crane Paper in Dalton (pop. 6,892) has been making paper for U.S. currency since 1844. Much of the fiber used in today’s currency paper is denim.

first appeared: 6/16/2002

The Boston Pilgrims played the Pittsburgh Pirates in the first World Series in 1903. Boston won, 5 games to 3, in the best-of-nine series.

first appeared: 6/9/2002

Nathaniel Hawthorne’s name is linked to three homes, all places where he spent time: Salem’s House of Seven Gables, Concord’s Old Manse, and Tanglewood Cottage in Lenox.

first appeared: 6/2/2002

The first church built by free African-Americans in this country, the African Meeting House, opened in 1806 on Joy Street in Boston. The building today is a museum.

first appeared: 5/26/2002

The battleship Massachusetts, docked at Fall River and open to visitors, allows youth groups to sleep in Navy bunks in the crew quarters and eat chow served Navy-style.

first appeared: 5/19/2002

The American Sanitary Plumbing Museum in Worcester was created by former plumber Charles Manoog. The 3,000-square-foot museum displays wooden shower fixtures, some of America’s oldest “water closets,” tin sinks, old tubs, and a variety of pipes.

first appeared: 5/12/2002

Nathaniel Hawthorne’s novel The Blithedale Romance (1852) is based on the utopian experiment at Brook Farm in West Roxbury (pop. 4,426). The short-lived venture in cooperative living (1841-47) failed after a fire destroyed its central building.

first appeared: 5/5/2002

Opened on Oct. 22, 1914, The Mohawk Trail (Route 2)—from Greenfield to Williamstown—was one of the first motor roads in America to be called “scenic.”

first appeared: 4/28/2002

A popular eatery in Ipswich (pop. 4,161), the Clam Box, is shaped just like its namesake—a take-out clam box with its top flaps open (a roof hides behind the flaps).

first appeared: 4/21/2002

America’s first county fair was organized in Pittsfield in 1811 by Elkanah Watson. A farmer, Watson helped establish the Berkshire Agricultural Society a year earlier.

first appeared: 4/14/2002

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