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Though DELAWARE
has its beautiful spots - including some of the mid-Atlantic's
best beaches - its tourist boards have their work cut out. Most
of the images potential visitors have of the state are negative:
Delaware is known for the massive chemical plants of the DuPont
Corporation and Dover Air Force Base , as well as for tolerating shady
business practices - half of America's largest companies have
their official bases in this tiny state, thanks to its permissive
tax, banking and incorporation laws. The upside of this is that
there's no sales tax, which certainly makes shoppers happy.
To downplay the state's
dubious contemporary image, Delaware's promoters emphasize its
past - for example, as the first ex-colony to ratify the Constitution,
it claims the title of America's First State . Dutch whalers
established a settlement at the mouth of the Delaware Bay in
1631, and soon afterwards the Swedes built a larger colony at
present-day Wilmington . The two groups fought amongst themselves
until the British took over in 1664. Delaware was part of neighboring
Pennsylvania - Philadelphia is only ten miles north of the
present, arching state border - until hiving itself off in 1776.
Much of Delaware's fortunes
(and misfortunes) since then can be traced directly to the du
Pont family , who, fleeing the wrath of revolutionary France, set up a gunpowder mill that
became the main supplier of conventional explosives to the US
Government. After World War I, the du Ponts went public and made
millions in the stock market frenzies of the Roaring Twenties,
since which time the company has diversified, its labs inventing
such modern essentials as nylon and cellophane.
The du Ponts built huge
mansions for themselves in the Brandywine Valley north of Wilmington, near the perfectly preserved
old colonial capital, New
Castle , on the
Delaware Bay just five miles south of I-95. Further south, Dover , the capital, may not detain
you long, but beyond it the small and amiable resorts of Lewes
and Rehoboth Beach mark the northern extent of over twenty miles
of unspoiled Atlantic beaches.
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