Symbols of Vermont

Animal: Morgan Horse	Bird: Hermit Thrush	Tree: Sugar Maple	Butterfly: Monarch

Flower: Red Clover	Insect: Honey Bee	Song: These Green Mountains

Mineral: Talc	Stone (1 of 3): Marble	Stone: Granite	Stone: Slate

Every state has a state bird, song, flag, tree, motto, flower, etc.  We learn these important facts in elementary school.  Memories of my grandfather’s sugar shack (the wonderful place where sap from maple trees is boiled into maple syrup) make it impossible for me to forget that Vermont’s state tree is the magical sugar maple.  Personal experience and associations can give significance to these state symbols.  But I still think their existence is curious.  Are there people who find their state symbols completely meaningless?  Who decided it was necessary to declare a state insect or mineral?  Who makes these decisions and what are they based on?  Apparently in many cases people voted for what they thought best represented their state in a given category and then legislation made it official.  For the most part these decisions were made in the distant pass.  But as recently as 2007 a school teacher in Texas helped her students champion the cowboy boot as the state’s official footwear.  I think Vermont would have to go with Birkenstocks or hiking boots . . .