An Interesting Fact About Every U.S. State

Alabama 

The Alabama Constitution is the longest state constitution in the United States, exceeding 360,000 words at nearly 500 pages. This makes it more than three times the length of the next largest state constitution (Texas).

Alaska

Alaska’s Aleutian Islands cross over the 180th meridian, which separates Earth’s eastern and western longitudes. From a geographic perspective, this means some of the Aleutian Islands are located at the easternmost reaches of the Eastern Hemisphere while others are at the westernmost points of the Western Hemisphere. Thus, Alaska manages to contain both the easternmost and westernmost points of the United States.

Arizona

With the exception of the Navajo Nation located within its borders, the state of Arizona doesn’t observe Daylight Saving Time. This has been the case since 1968, when Arizona made a permanent switch to Mountain Standard Time, no matter the time of year. It’s one of only two states that don’t observe DST; the other is Hawaii.

Arkansas

Arkansas is home to the only public diamond mine in the world, located at Crater of Diamonds State Park in Murfreesboro. The park contains 37 acres formed around 100 millions years ago by volcanic activity, and visitors to the site can keep whatever diamonds they’re able to find.

California

The tallest tree in the world is located in California’s Redwood National Park: It’s called Hyperion and measures 380.8 feet tall. In order to preserve the surrounding terrain, the park intentionally keeps the exact location of the tree a secret.

Colorado

The Centennial State is home to the highest incorporated city anywhere in the United States: Leadville, which is located 10,152 feet above sea level. You’ll also find the highest incorporated U.S. town in Alma, Colorado, with an elevation of 10,578 feet.

Connecticut 

Former Connecticut Governor Ella Grasso was the first woman — who wasn’t the wife or widow of a past governor — to be elected to the highest state office. She was first elected in 1974 and again in 1978.

Delaware

Delaware is appropriately nicknamed the “First State,” as it was the first of the original 13 colonies to ratify the U.S. Constitution. It ratified the document on December 7, 1787, predating Pennsylvania’s ratification by five days.

Florida

The Florida Everglades are the only place on Earth where alligators coexist in the wild with crocodiles. The sprawling wetland is also the only place in the United States where people can witness crocodiles in nature.

Georgia 

Coca-Cola was invented by pharmacist John Pemberton in Atlanta, Georgia, back in 1886. The syrupy mixture was originally sold at Jacobs’ Pharmacy in downtown Atlanta, where a historical marker currently stands denoting the birthplace of the popular beverage.

Hawaii

The Hawaiian alphabet consists of just 13 letters, half as many as the English alphabet. The letters are A, E, H, I, K, L, M, N, O, P, U, W, plus ‘okina, of which is often written as simply an apostrophe or single left quotation mark, and indicates a pause (more specifically, a glottal stop) in speech.

Idaho

Idaho is known not only for its local brand of potatoes, but also for the 72 types of precious and semi-precious stones that can be found within state lines. Many of these gems occur naturally only in Idaho, earning it the nickname the “Gem State.”

Illinois 

From 1885 until its demolition in 1931, the Home Insurance Building stood in Chicago, Illinois and was considered to be the world’s first skyscraper. The 10-story building stood 138 feet tall, making it the tallest building with an iron frame at the time. Two additional floors were added in 1891, bringing the finished height to 180 feet.

Indiana

The first major league professional baseball game took place in Fort Wayne, Indiana, at the Kekionga Base Ball Grounds. It was played on May 4, 1871, with the Fort Wayne Kekiongas defeating the Cleveland Forest Citys by a score of 2-0.

Iowa

Music legend Buddy Holly’s final performance took place at the Surf Ballroom in Clear Lake, Iowa, on February 2, 1959. He, Ritchie Valens, and musician Jiles Perry Richardson Jr., better known as the Big Bopper, perished in a plane crash the following day just miles away. The event is now known as “the day the music died.”

Kansas 

While former President Dwight D. Eisenhower was born in Texas, he and his family moved to Abilene, Kansas, when baby Ike was just one year of age, where he spent his formative years. The town is home to the Dwight D. Eisenhower Presidential Library and Museum, which includes both Eisenhower’s boyhood home and final resting place.

Kentucky

Kentucky’s Mammoth Cave is the longest known cave system in the entire world. To date, 426 miles of the cave have been explored — thanks in large part to Stephen Bishop, a former enslaved man and self-taught geologist, who hand-drew a map of the cave off-site from memory in 1842. Hundreds of miles more are still believed to be unexplored.

Louisiana

The Lake Pontchartrain Causeway is a 24-mile-long bridge that connects the city of Mandeville to the New Orleans metropolitan area. It’s the longest bridge in the U.S. as well as the world’s longest bridge to run continuously over a body of water.

Maine 

Maine has a geographic makeup unlike any other state, with more than 4,600 islands located off its coast. This gives the entire state a total of 3,478 miles of coastline, roughly 50 miles longer than the coastline of the state of California.

Maryland

The Maryland State House is the oldest U.S. state capitol building in continuous legislative use, with the cornerstone laid back in 1772. It’s also the only state house to have served as the nation’s capitol, which was located in Annapolis from 1783 to 1784.

Massachusetts 

Two Olympic-level sports were invented in Massachusetts. The first is basketball, which was created by Springfield resident James Naismith in 1891. The other, developed in 1895 by a gym teacher named William Morgan, came to be known as volleyball.

Michigan

In 1835, Michigan and Ohio nearly went to war over the area that makes up modern-day Toledo. Michigan ultimately ceded control in exchange for the promise of statehood as well as for territory in what’s now known as the Upper Peninsula.

Minnesota

The Mall of America in Bloomington is considered the largest mall in the entire country. It opened back in 1992 and contains more than 5.6 million square footage of retail space, welcoming around 40 million visitors annually.

Mississippi

The capital city of Jackson, Mississippi, is built atop a dormant volcano located 2,900 feet below the city. It was discovered in the early 19th century and is thought to have been extinct for at least 66 million years, with the most recent eruption having likely occurred during the Cretaceous Period (145 million to 65 million years ago).

Missouri

Missouri contains the tallest monument in the U.S., the 630-foot-tall Gateway Arch in St. Louis. The landmark opened in 1965 and is meant to commemorate St. Louis’ role in the 19th-century westward expansion of the United States. In 2018, the area was designated as Gateway Arch National Park, becoming the only national park in the United States to be located entirely within a city.

Montana 

Montana is the only state that’s exactly one time zone wide; it’s located entirely within the Mountain Time Zone. The state’s western border runs along the Pacific Time Zone, while a chunk of its eastern border runs along the Central Time Zone.

Nebraska

Nebraska’s state government is unique for being the only unicameral legislature in the country. This means that while most states have two legislative chambers (for instance, a state house and state senate) Nebraska only has one. This explains why it’s also the smallest legislative branch in the country with just 49 members. 

Nevada

According to figures provided by the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority, there are more than 150,000 hotel rooms located in Sin City. This is the highest number of any U.S. city and also puts it in the top five for the most of any city in the world.

New Hampshire 

On April 12, 1934, wind speeds of 231 mph were recorded atop New Hampshire’s Mount Washington. This was the fastest non-tornadic wind speed recorded anywhere in the world at the time, and today it remains the second fastest recorded wind speed in human history. (The fastest is 253 mph, recorded on Australia’s Barrow Island on April 10, 1996.) 

New Jersey

The spaces on a standard American Monopoly board are modeled after locations in Atlantic City, New Jersey. Board game designer Charles Darrow sold the design in 1935 to Parker Brothers, who kept those locations while marketing it to a national audience.

New Mexico

In March 1950, Hot Springs, New Mexico, officially changed its name to Truth or Consequences. This was done in honor of a radio show of the same name, whose host promised to air a 10th-anniversary episode from any town that made the name change.

New York

New York was the first state to require automobile license plates, implementing the rule for drivers in 1901. Many of the original plates were made of leather using DIY kits at home, and they often featured the owner’s initials in lieu of numbers.

North Carolina

The infamous pirate Blackbeard — whose real name was Edward Teach — met his demise off the coast of North Carolina in November 1718. His flagship, Queen Anne’s Revenge, had run aground and been abandoned earlier that year in what’s now known as Beaufort Inlet. The ship wasn’t rediscovered until 1996.

North Dakota

The town of Medora, North Dakota, held a fond place in the heart of President Theodore Roosevelt, who established Elkhorn Ranch 35 miles north of the city in 1884 when he was 26. The area is now home to Theodore Roosevelt National Park and will be the site of Roosevelt’s presidential library.

Ohio 

Northeast Ohio is home to two prestigious halls of fame: the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland, known for its distinctive pyramidal structure created by architect I.M. Pei., and the Pro Football Hall of Fame located in Canton.

Oklahoma

Cimarron County is situated at the westernmost tip of the Oklahoma Panhandle and is the only county in the U.S. that touches five states. This includes the rest of the state of Oklahoma, plus Colorado, Kansas, New Mexico, and Texas.

Oregon

A colony of the fungus species Armillaria ostoyae located in Oregon’s Malheur National Forest is believed to be the largest living organism on Earth. Nicknamed the “Humongous Fungus,” the 2,384 acres of fungi that sweep through the state’s Blue Mountains were discovered in 1998.

Pennsylvania 

The Philadelphia Zoo was the first public zoo in the U.S. The charter was originally signed in 1859, though progress was halted for 15 years due to the Civil War. The zoo finally opened its doors on July 1, 1874.

Rhode Island

Newport, Rhode Island, is home to the Touro Synagogue, the oldest synagogue in the U.S. The building was dedicated in 1763 and continues to provide services for members of the local Jewish community.

South Carolina

Morgan Island, also called “Monkey Island,” is a private island located off the coast of Beaufort that’s home to more than 4,000 free-ranging rhesus monkeys. Around 1,400 monkeys were originally placed on the island in 1979 for research purposes, and the population has continued to grow since then.

South Dakota

Despite being located in the middle of the country, South Dakota actually contains more miles of shoreline than the state of Florida. This is due to the many lakes and rivers found in the Mount Rushmore State, including the 231-mile-long Lake Oahe reservoir.

Tennessee

Having first aired in November 1925, the Grand Ole Opry is the longest-running radio program in U.S. history. The show broadcasts live country music each week from the Grand Ole Opry House in Nashville.

Texas

With more than 15 million Mexican free-tailed bats calling it home, Bracken Cave — located near San Antonio — contains the world’s largest bat colony. Millions of bats also reside under Austin’s Congress Avenue Bridge, which has become a popular tourist attraction for that reason.

Utah 

Salt Lake City is the only state capital in the U.S. whose name is more than two words long. It actually used to be even longer, as it was originally called Great Salt Lake City before dropping the “Great” in 1868.

Vermont

From 1777 to 1791, Vermont existed as an independent entity known as the Vermont Republic. During that time, it became the first independent government entity in North America to ban slavery. It joined the U.S. as the 14th state in 1791.

Virginia

Eight U.S. presidents have been born in Virginia to date — the most of any state. The list includes George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, James Monroe, William Henry Harrison, Zachary Taylor, John Tyler, and Woodrow Wilson.

Washington 

Though it’s recognized nationwide today, the first Father’s Day was celebrated on June 19, 1910, in Spokane, Washington. It wasn’t until 1972 during campaign season that then-President Richard Nixon signed a proclamation to make it a national holiday.

West Virginia

The New River Gorge Bridge is the longest steel span bridge in the Western Hemisphere, measuring 3,030 feet long. In 2020, it became the focal point of the country’s newest national park, New River Gorge National Park and Preserve.

Wisconsin

The Green Bay Packers are the only publicly owned team in any of the four major U.S. sports leagues (the NFL, MLB, NBA, and NHL). Ownership is composed entirely of shareholders, many of whom are local Wisconsinites who are also devoted fans of the franchise.

Wyoming 

The majority of Yellowstone National Park, which became the country’s first national park back in 1872, is located in Wyoming. The park features popular natural attractions such as the Old Faithful geyser, the Grand Prismatic Spring, and bountiful wildlife.