The One Minute Geographer: Massachusetts (12): Vacationland
So, Massachusetts is a vacationland? Pick any topic of interest to tourists, and you will find dozens of sites. Massachusetts is a state like a few others, where if we created an index of attractions per square mile, it would be off the charts. There are dozens of natural and scenic areas: preserved areas of forests, swamps, salt ponds, waterfalls, glacial features, sand dunes and trails.
If you want to stay outdoors, Massachusetts has dozens of public beaches, most notably 40 miles of beach within the 45,000 acres of the Cape Cod National Seashore. There’s the 90 miles of the Appalachian Trail running through the Berkshires across the north-south width of the state in western Massachusetts. The state park system maintains an amazing number of parks for such a small state, more than 150. Six of these parks have trails more than ten miles long. There are 20 botanical gardens in the state, many associated with universities.
If you are interested in historical sites, you have come to the right place. Massachusetts has 190 National Historic Landmarks, more than any state except New York, which has 275 sites, but New York is six times as large in area. You…
