A guide to the State of Pennsylvania

Pennsylvania is a state located on the eastern seaboard of the United States mainland. Bordered to the north by Canada and New York State, it has a coastline on Lake Erie and borders New Jersey to the east. Pennsylvania is the only one of the original thirteen colonies that does not have a direct Atlantic coastline.

History

Background
Dutch and English settlers took control of the area in the 17th Century, displacing the Delaware nation of Native Americans.
Some time later, King Charles II of England finally granted the territory to William Penn in 1681, as a means of paying off a debt of £16,000 to Penn's father. Penn, a Quaker, signed a treaty with Delaware leader Tammany, and this treaty, unusually for frontier history, was never broken. The city of Philadelphia, has been an important city in the history of the United States.
John Dickinson, a native of the city, wrote the
'Declaration of Rights and Grievances', and his 'Letters from a Farmer in Pennsylvania, To the Inhabitants of the British Colonies' were published in the Pennsylvania Chronicle between December 2, 1767, and February 15, 1768. The Founding Fathers of the United States convened in Philadelphia in 1774 for the First Continental Congress.
The Second Continental Congress, which also met in Philadelphia in May, 1775, was the body which drew up and signed the Declaration of Independence, an event which itself also took place in Philadelphia. The area was subsequently a place of significant German immigration.
These people, confusingly referred to as the 'Pennsylvania Dutch', have exerted a significant influence on the culture and history of the state. America's first nationally chartered bank, the Bank of North America, was also founded in 1781 in Philadelphia.

Geography & places of interest

Location
The map of Pennsylvania shows that the four most populous Pennsylvania cities are Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Allentown and Erie. The tourist industry centers around the history of the state, although it also benefits from the 2004 legalisation of casino gambling.
The state is also home to America's first zoo, the Philadelphia Zoo. There are some fine museums, including the Houdini Museum in Scranton, whilst the great outdoors also beckons for the more adventurous.
There are miles of woodland, which contain one of the biggest Black Bear populations in the United States. Final word
The state also produces more mushrooms than any other state in the Union, and also manages to grow a vast proportion of America's Christmas trees. The University of Pennsylvania is considered to be the first university in America, and was the site of the nation's first medical school.