Located in the Great Lakes region, between Delaware, Maryland, West Virginia, Ohio, Lake Erie and Ontario, the Canadian province of Ontario, New York and New Jersey, Pennsylvania is one of the 13 original founding states of the United States. Its nickname, the Keystone State, derives from the fact that it forms a geographic bridge both between the Northeastern states and the Southern states, and between the Atlantic seaboard and the Midwest. It is bisected diagonally by ridges of the Appalachian Mountains. To the northwest is the Allegheny Plateau, underlain by sedimentary rocks of Mississippian and Pennsylvanian age, which bear natural gas and petroleum. In 1859, near Titusville, was drilled the first oil well in the U.S. into these sediments. Timber and dairy farming are also sources of livelihood for Pennsylvania. Along the shore of Lake Erie in the far northwest are orchards and vineyards. The state bird is Ruffed Grouse, the state flower is Mountain Laurel, and its motto is "Virtue, liberty, and independence".
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