Karen Hill

Padre Island runs along the South Texas coast, and is the longest barrier island in the world. The U.S. National Park Service has designated nearly 70 miles (113 km) of the 130-mile (209-km) island as Padre Island National Seashore. Barrier islands are one of four basic types of islands; the others are continental, oceanic, and … Read more

Texas is the second largest state in the U.S. in total area, land and water combined, after Alaska. In comparing the land area of various U.S. states, the vastness of Texas terrain stands out, showcasing its prominence in the nation’s geography. Texas contains 267,277 square miles (694,920 sq km), but Alaska is much larger, with … Read more

Discover the topography of Texas as we delve into its landscapes. From vast plains to hidden peaks, explore the diverse geography shaping the Lone Star State’s unique character. Key Takeaway: Texas boasts a varied terrain, encompassing flat expanses and rugged mountains, providing a captivating blend of landscapes for nature enthusiasts. Most parts of the state … Read more

The King Ranch in south Texas is the biggest ranch in the United States, and is one of the largest working ranches in the world. It covers 1,300 square miles (3,380 sq km), an area bigger than Rhode Island. The ranch is located between Corpus Christi and Brownsville. Even though it is best known as … Read more

The Garden of the Gods is the name of a public park in Colorado that features a natural collection of dramatically shaped red sandstone rock formations. The name of the park came from two surveyors in 1859 who suggested that it would be a good place for a beer garden, and fit for the gods … Read more

Colorado, which has an average elevation of 6,800 feet (2,073 m), has the highest average altitude. Alaska’s average elevation is just 1,900 feet (579 m). This is because many parts of Alaska lie at or near sea level. But the lowest spot in Colorado is still 3,350 feet (1,021 m) above sea level, near the … Read more

Carlsbad Caverns has three major levels, the deepest of which is more than 1,000 feet (305 m) under the earth. Explorers have mapped 30 miles (48 km) of caves and corridors in the main cavern, 3 miles (5 km) of which are open to visitors. The Big Room features a 255-foot (78-m) high ceiling and … Read more

Denver, Colorado is not located in the Rocky Mountains. The mountains begin to rise about 15 miles (24 km) west of Denver, which lies on fairly flat land. Even so, the city sits 1 mile (1.6 m) above sea level, just because the land itself is so elevated because of the nearby mountainous terrain. Denver … Read more

Texas leads the United States in several ways. It produces more cotton than any other state. Texas produces more beef cattle and sheep than any other state. And it produces more oil and natural gas than any other state, it contains a fourth of the known U.S. oil reserves. Texas has about 5 billion barrels … Read more

The design of the New Mexico state flag features a red zia on a field of gold. The zia symbolizes the Sun and reflects the beliefs of the ancient Zia Pueblo Indians. They believed that four was a sacred number, and each of the four sets of four lines radiating from the center circle represent … Read more

About two thirds of the border between the United States and Mexico is marked by the Rio Grande. In all, the Rio Grande is 1,760 miles (2,834 km) long. It begins as a stream high in Colorado’s Rocky Mountains and travels through New Mexico and Texas into the Gulf of Mexico. Along the way, its … Read more

There are no active volcanoes, but Capulin Mountain is an impressive example of an extinct volcano that blew its top about 62,000 years ago. The event was quite recent from a geologist’s point of view. Capulin Mountain stands 8,182 feet (2,494 m) above sea level and rises about 1,300 feet (396 m) above the surrounding … Read more

There is just one diamond mine in the United States, in Murfreesboro, Arkansas. Visitors can hunt for and keep any diamonds they find there. Diamonds were discovered in 1906 in Crater of Diamonds State Park, and by 1933, about 100,000 were found. The 1,000 year old Ka-Do-Ha Indian Village and museum is also located in … Read more

The city of Texarkana in Texas straddles the border of Texas and Arkansas. Although it has two city governments, one in each state, it has just one post office. Its address reads “Texarkana, Arkansas-Texas.” Also known as AR Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA), Texarkana was founded in 1873 on the junction of two railroads. The Texarkana … Read more

The Emerald Mound along the Natchez Trace Parkway in Mississippi is the remains of a ceremonial mound built about 700 years ago by Native Americans. It was part of a town that once sat here, one of many similar settlements in the Mississippi Delta area. The Emerald Mound stands 35 feet (11 m) high and … Read more

The Hot Springs in Arkansas are really hot, about 147° Fahrenheit. The world famous Hot Springs in the Ouachita Mountains are made up of 47 separate springs that put out about 1 million gallons (3.8 million 1) of steaming water a day. Hot Springs is now a national park, but back in the early 1800s … Read more

In Louisiana, Creoles are people who generally live in the southern part of the state whose ancestors were among the original French and Spanish settlers. The term Creole was first used to refer to those who were born in the colony, as opposed to colonists born in France. Cajuns are those whose ancestors came from … Read more

The Port of South Louisiana, outside New Orleans, Louisiana, is the nation’s busiest port and the world’s third busiest, when measured by tonnage handled. The port is huge, extending 54 miles (87 km) along the Mississippi River. More than 4,000 oceangoing vessels call there each year. Most shipments leaving the port are corn, wheat, and … Read more

Small ships can make it up the Mississippi from New Orleans all the way to Minneapolis, Minnesota, about 1,800 miles (2,898 km) north. The river is 9 to 100 feet (2.7 to 31 m) deep most of the way, and at one point, north of Clinton, Iowa, it is 3.5 miles (5.6 km) wide. The … Read more

More than 500 salt domes have been discovered along the Gulf Coast, from Texas to the Florida panhandle. They are mostly made of pure salt, or halite, and were formed over millions of years from thick beds of salt several miles below the Earth’s surface. Because the salt walls will not allow fluid or gas … Read more

New Orleans is sinking, and some scientists are predicting that the city could be underwater within a century. Today more than two-thirds of the city is already about 8 feet (2.4 m) below sea level. This sinking, or subsidence, is happening because the city of New Orleans was built on the soft silt of the … Read more

Back in 1889, on the first day people were allowed to lay claim to free government land in Oklahoma, some of the 50,000 eager settlers tried to stake their claims before the noon starting gun. They were called Sooners, they arrived a little too soon. The U.S. government purchased this land, about 3 million acres … Read more

Oklahoma is home to about 272,000 Native Americans, who make up almost 8 percent of the population. Many are descended from the 67 tribes that lived there when the state was Indian Territory. These tribes included the Cherokee, Choctaw, Chickasaw, Creek, Seminole, Osage, Cheyenne, Sac and Fox, Delaware, Apache, and Pawnee. The southwestern states is … Read more

A delta is a flat plain that often lies at the mouth of a river. It is created when a river slows as it enters a lake or an ocean, leaving behind deposits of silt, clay, sand, and gravel, which taken together are called alluvium. The Mississippi Delta is called a bird-foot delta because several … Read more

The state capitol building in Oklahoma City is the only capitol building in the world to have a working oil well on the grounds. The well is often called Petunia No. 1 because it was drilled into a flowerbed after the capitol was built. The capitol building itself is also a little unusual because the … Read more

Bayous are common sights in the southern states, and are commonly found in the Gulf Coast region of the southern United States. They are shallow, marshy creeks found in flat areas with poor drainage. The Mobile Delta in southern Alabama has many swamps and bayous. The word Bayou was first used in Louisiana and comes … Read more

Key is another way of spelling cay, they’re pronounced the same way, from the Spanish word cayo, which means a small island made up largely of coral or sand. The Florida Keys stretch from Biscayne Bay southwestward off the southern tip of the state for about 150 miles (242 km). Key Largo is the largest, … Read more

Color is one way geologists classify soil. Red soil can mean that there are iron oxides present, the case in Alabama and much of the South. The Cereal Belt in the Tennessee Valley and the counties beyond have the richest soils which are the red clays and dark loams of the river valley. In places … Read more

The southern tip of Florida is less than 100 miles (161 km) from the island nation of Cuba. Ever since Cuba became a Communist nation in the early 1960s, some of its citizens have tried to escape political oppression by sailing on small boats to the United States. Many Cubans have settled in the cities … Read more

The Everglades are swampy grasslands that cover southern Florida. Everglades National Park, which covers only a fifth of the Everglades region, was established to preserve this unusual ecosystem, for example, it is the only place in the world where alligators and crocodiles live together. The park covers 2,342 square miles (6,090 sq km). It is … Read more

St. Augustine, Florida, is the oldest city in the United States. St. Augustine was founded in 1565 by a Spanish explorer, Pedro Menendez de Aviles. It is more than 40 years older than either Santa Fe, New Mexico, or Jamestown, Virginia. St. Augustine lies in a region of Florida known as “The First Coast”, and … Read more

Almost all the orange juice we drink in the United States is processed in Florida. The state of Florida grows 80 percent of all oranges and grapefruit in the United States. The second largest industry in Florida is agriculture, and citrus fruit, especially oranges, are a major part of the economy. Florida’s economy has historically … Read more

The huge body of water in the southern part of Florida is Lake Okeechobee, Florida’s largest lake. It is second only to Lake Michigan as the largest body of freshwater wholly within U.S. boundaries. Lake Okeechobee covers about 680 square miles (1,768 sq km). Like Wisconsin, Florida can be called a land of lakes, some … Read more

The longest cave system in the world is the Mammoth–Flint Ridge cave system in central Kentucky, also known as Mammoth Cave. The Mammoth–Flint Ridge cave system is more than 350 miles (563 km) long. Explorers are still discovering new passages in Mammoth Cave. The cave was formed over the past 10 million years by slightly … Read more

A bluish haze that looks like smoke often covers the Great Smoky Mountains, also called the Smokies or Great Smokies. These mountains are part of the Appalachian Mountains and lie between Knoxville, Tennessee, and Asheville, North Carolina. The Appalachian Trail and the Blue Ridge Parkway both wind through these mountains. Some of the peaks reach … Read more

Reelfoot Lake in Tennessee was created by fairly recent earthquakes. The huge New Madrid earthquakes of 1811 and 1812, the strongest ever in the United States, caused a section of land near the Mississippi River in the northwestern corner of Tennessee to fall in. The waters of the Mississippi quickly rushed in to fill the … Read more

Yes, unofficially, there once was a state named Franklin in the U.S. For a short time, a part of what is now eastern Tennessee was known as Franklin, but it never officially became a U.S. state. Its founders, who were in such a remote region that they felt the need to band together to protect … Read more

The Cape Hatteras Lighthouse in North Carolina is one of the tallest in the United States at 210 feet (64 m) above sea level. It had to be moved inland in 1999 to save it from falling into the sea. Now the landmark rests a safe 1,600 feet (488 m) from the Atlantic Ocean. When … Read more

Cape Hatteras lies at the southeastern end of Hatteras Island, part of a string of 70 barrier islands that lie about 30 miles (48 km) east of the North Carolina coast. Over the past four centuries, at least 230 and perhaps as many as 2,200 ships have been wrecked in these waters because of storms, … Read more

The Lost Colony refers to one of the first groups of English settlers to arrive in America. The first group established a colony on Roanoke Island, off the North Carolina coast in 1585, but they had a rough time and returned to England a year later. Another group came to the same spot in 1587. … Read more

A series of ancient beaches and sand dunes called sand hills, some of them 30 miles (48 km) wide, runs from southwestern Georgia across central South Carolina and into south-central North Carolina. The sand was left behind millions of years ago by a receding sea. The sand hills are quite deep and cover 8,760 square … Read more

One of North Carolina’s earliest products was tar. The term “tar heel” is said to have come from North Carolina soldiers who were left to fight a Civil War battle alone, after other members of the Confederate forces retreated. The North Carolinians said they would put tar on the heels of those who retreated so … Read more

Stone Mountain is a 700-foot (213-m) high dome shaped granite hill near Atlanta, Georgia. It is thought to be the largest mass of exposed granite in the world, measuring about 2 miles (3.2 km) long and 1 mile (1.6 km) wide. The monadnock was formed 300 million years ago when hot liquid rock, called magma, … Read more

The Rock Eagle effigy mound is an ancient Indian sculpture depicting a large bird that was found near Eatonton, Georgia. Anthropologists think it is about 6,000 years old and was used in religious ceremonies. The Rock Eagle effigy mound was carved onto a milky white quartz rock and measures 102 feet (31 m) from head … Read more

Georgia, which is the largest state in land area east of the Mississippi River, is the leading U.S. producer of peanuts, which Georgians call goobers. Pecans are another important crop in Georgia. Georgia also has large deposits of marble, and marble slabs from quarries there have been used to build several state capitol buildings and … Read more

Florida is the fourth most populous state in America. In 1980 Florida had 9.7 million people; about 18 million people lived there in 2009. One reason for its popularity is its warm year round climate, which makes it an attractive retirement destination for people who no longer want to put up with cold, snow, and … Read more

More U.S. presidents were born in Virginia than in any other state. The eight presidents were George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, James Monroe, William Henry Harrison, John Tyler, Zachary Taylor, and Woodrow Wilson. The largest city in Virginia is not its capital, Richmond, but Virginia Beach. It had a population of 425,257 in 2000, … Read more

More than 4,603 tons (4,176 metric tonnes) of gold bullion sits in vaults at Fort Knox, Kentucky. That’s about $6 billion worth of gold bullion. It is all owned by the federal government. Fort Knox is also known as the United States Bullion Depository. The gold is stored as bars that are a little smaller … Read more

The center span of the New River Gorge Bridge In West Virginia is 1,700 feet (518 m) long, and it was the longest steel arch bridge in the world for many years. Located near Fayetteville, the New River Gorge bridge took the title away from the Bayonne Bridge in New Jersey when it was completed … Read more

The Natural Bridge in Rockbridge County, Virginia is a 90-foot (27-m) wide, 215-foot (66-m) high stone formation that really is a bridge. U.S. Route 11 runs directly over it. It was once part of a limestone cavern, but millions of years ago the soft rocks that made up the roof of the cavern collapsed. Some … Read more

Until 1863, the area that is now West Virginia was part of the state of Virginia. In 1861, at the beginning of the Civil War, most of the people living in the western part of Virginia did not want to secede from the Union with the rest of the state. For years the western Virginians … Read more

The grass in the region around Lexington Kentucky isn’t really blue, but its blossoms are, giving the grass a blue tone when it is in bloom. Kentucky is known as the “Bluegrass State” because of the native bluegrass that is present in many of the pastures throughout the state. Kentucky is also famous for Bluegrass … Read more

About 10 million years ago a volcano erupted in the Rocky Mountains more than 1,000 miles (1,610 km) to the west. The eruption sent tons of volcanic ash into the Nebraska area and buried alive hundreds of ancient animals, in particular, rhinoceros, deer, three-toed horses, and camels. Their skeletons were preserved by volcanic materials. You … Read more

The Great Plains is defined as the vast grassland region in central North America that extends from northern Canada into New Mexico and Texas in the United States. It also covers parts of Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, Colorado, Kansas, and Oklahoma. The Great Plains is one of the most important wheat growing areas … Read more

The District of Columbia is not a state, although many of its residents would like it to be. That’s because they do not have a voting representative in the U.S. Congress, and because Congress has final authority over many aspects of their local government. Officially the District of Columbia is a territory of the United … Read more

The city of Washington was planned in detail before the first building was constructed, a rarity among world cities at that time. In the late 1700s, northern and southern leaders disagreed strongly about where to build a new permanent national capital, but they finally reached a compromise and agreed on a location along the Potomac … Read more

Back in the years before the Civil War in the mid-1800s, pro-Union guerrilla fighters who roamed throughout Kansas and Missouri were called Jayhawkers. Jayhawkers opposed those who wanted Kansas to be admitted to the Union as a slave state. No one is sure where the term comes from; some sources cite a mythical bird called … Read more

Capitol Hill is a rather low hill, only 88 feet (29 m) above sea level, near the center of Washington, D.C. The Capitol, which has 540 rooms, rises another 300 feet (91 m). It is surrounded by six congressional office buildings, the Library of Congress (which is the largest library in the world, housing more … Read more

Captain John Smith led a group of English colonists to establish a permanent settlement in America in May 1607. They chose a spot on a peninsula, which has since become an island, in the James River and named their community after King James I of England. The settlers had a rough time from the start, … Read more

Virginia was the first American colony, dating back to 1584. For many years it was the largest colony and later the largest state in population. In the 1600s and 1700s Virginia consisted of huge amounts of land to the west, extending all the way to the Mississippi River. This territory was later divided into the … Read more

Aquifers are like huge underground lakes, geologists define them as being a layer of water-bearing rock through which groundwater travels. The Ogallala Aquifer, also known as the High Plains Aquifer, supplies Nebraska and several other states with water for homes, farms, and industry. Almost all of Nebraska sits above this huge aquifer, which extends from … Read more

In 1874, while on a military expedition, Custer’s men found gold in the Black Hills in South Dakota. It didn’t take long for the word to get out and attract thousands of gold hunters to the area. This led to a conflict with the resident Native American tribes, called the Black Hills War, in which … Read more

The Black Hills is a mountain range that lies in western South Dakota and northeastern Wyoming. These mountains are called black because they look so dark when viewed from a distance, an effect created by dense pine forests and deep valleys. The highest peak in the range, Harney Peak, is 7,242 feet (2,520 m) high. … Read more

Mount Rushmore is located in the Black Hills of South Dakota. This amazing sculpture, one of the largest in the world, of the heads of George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt, and Abraham Lincoln was begun in 1927 and took the sculptor 14 years to complete. Not far away, a huge sculpture is being carved … Read more

Gold still produced in South Dakota, and the Homestake Mine was in operation until 2002. Back then the Homestake Mine was the largest and deepest gold mine in North America, producing more than $1 billion in gold. South Dakota continues to be one of the leading gold producers in the United States. The mine is … Read more

Minnesota’s license plate reads “Land of 10,000 Lakes,” but it really has almost 12,000 lakes. And with more than 15,000 lakes, Wisconsin, especially the northern part, is a water lover’s paradise. Lake Winnebago is the largest, covering 215 square miles (559 sq km). Like so many other lakes in this part of the world, these … Read more

Michigan is the only state to be made up of two widely separated parts, called Peninsulas. The Lower and Upper Peninsulas are connected by the 5 mile long long Mackinac (pronounced Mackinaw) Bridge, across the Straits of Mackinac. Michigan is surrounded by lots of water. It touches four of the five Great Lakes and has … Read more

Archaeologists believe that Native Americans carved pictures of people, deer, elk, turtles, spearthrowers, and other designs into areas of rock in southwestern Minnesota between 5,000 and 2,500 years ago. About 2,000 images can be seen in outcrop of red Sioux quartzite bedrock that juts out of the middle of a wide prairie. More than 50 … Read more

Iowa’s soil is especially fertile and ideal for growing crops. The state has more than 100,000 farms, making it third in number of farms behind Texas and Missouri. Farmland occupies all but 8 percent of the land in Iowa; the only state with a higher percentage of farmland is Nebraska. One of 10 people in … Read more

The Gateway Arch, which sits on the Mississippi riverfront, was constructed in the early 1960s as a monument to the American pioneers who settled the western frontier. The giant stainless steel arch rises 630 feet (192 m) and is the tallest man-made monument in the United States. Visitors can ride trams through the arch to … Read more

Iowa has an official state rock, the geode. A geode is a round, hollow stone that, when carefully broken in half, reveals an interior of sparkling mineral crystals, usually quartz, that have grown inside. Geodes are found in great numbers in Iowa, especially in the southeastern part of the state. Geodes also are common in … Read more

The state of Missouri has about 1,450 caves. Most lie below the Ozark Mountains in southern Missouri, where they were formed by underwater streams carving away the rock. Southern Missouri rises to the Ozark Mountains, a dissected plateau surrounding the Precambrian igneous St. Francois Mountains. The Bootheel region of Missouri was the epicenter of the … Read more

The Santa Fe Trail started in Independence, Missouri, near Kansas City. The Santa Fe Trail was the 780 mile long (1,256 km long) route that settlers, cattlemen, and traders followed southwest through Kansas and either Colorado or Oklahoma to Santa Fe, New Mexico, beginning in 1821. In the early days of the trail, the area … Read more

Unravel the debate over the correct pronunciation of Missouri, exploring the historical and regional factors influencing this linguistic peculiarity and shedding light on the intricacies of regional pronunciation. People in Missouri have been debating this question since the late 1800s, and people can’t seem to agree. Either way is correct, according to most dictionaries. Missouri … Read more

Farms and ranches cover 90 percent of North Dakota’s land. One of every four people there works in an agriculture related job. North Dakota is the nation’s leading producer of sunflower seeds and flaxseed; it’s also a major wheat producer. Missouri is one of two states in the nation that is bordered by eight other … Read more

North Dakota leads all the states in the number of coal reserves. Most of the coal is lignite, though, which does not produce as much energy as other types of coal. The state also began producing crude petroleum when reserves were discovered near Tioga in 1951. Farmers in North Dakota produce enough wheat each year … Read more

The area of these two states was once known as the Dakota Territory, named after the tribe of Sioux Indians who lived there. Few other people settled there until the railroads began building track into the area. In the mid-1800s the U.S. government began to offer free land to settlers, who soon realized how rich … Read more

The most devastating flood in recent American history hit the upper and middle Mississippi Valley between late June and mid-August 1993. Flood records were broken along the Mississippi River and most of its tributaries from Minnesota to Missouri. The states worst hit were Iowa, Minnesota, Illinois, and Missouri. A wet fall and winter had caused … Read more

Yes its true that Native Americans are the largest minority in both North and South Dakota. They represent about 4 percent in North Dakota and 7 percent in South Dakota, making them the largest minority group in each state. In the late 19th century, white settlement intensified in South Dakota after a gold rush in … Read more

Geographic advantages made Ohio an ideal place for making various products. First, it has important minerals used in manufacturing, especially coal. It also has ample supplies of water. Second, products could be easily transported to other parts of the country via Lake Erie and the Erie Canal as well as by other canals, railroads, and … Read more

The prehistoric Indians archaeologists call the Mound Builders lived in the area that is now the Mississippi and Ohio River Valley areas of the United States from 800 B.C. to A.D. 500. These people built some 6,000 burial mounds, forts, and other earthen structures, some of which survive today. One of the most impressive is … Read more

No one knows for sure why people from Indiana called Hoosiers. The term has been in use since at least the 1830s, but there are lots of amusing theories. For example, early pioneers in the state supposedly answered a knock on the door by saying, “Who’s yere?” Then there’s the theory that the name came … Read more

There really is a town named Santa Claus in the state of Indiana. And its post office receives half a million packages, letters, and cards for remailing with the town’s postmark during the winter holiday season. Indiana is the smallest state in land area of any state west of the Appalachian Mountains except Hawaii. Indiana … Read more

Between 1973 and 1996, the Sears Tower was the tallest building in the world, but today it is just the tallest building in North America. The Sears Tower is 1,450 feet (442 m) high and has 110 stories. However, it does have the highest occupied floor (1,431 ft (436 m)) of any building in the … Read more

The highest point in Illinois, Charles Mound, near Apple River, rises only 1,235 feet (376 m) above sea level. During the last Ice Age, glaciers spread across the region and flattened it. But those same glaciers left behind materials that became the fertile soils that have made Illinois a leading agricultural state. The Chicago River, … Read more

No one is sure why Michigan is called the Wolverine State. One theory is that valuable wolverine pelts were often brought to local trading posts, but some authorities say that isn’t true because wolverines may have never lived in the area. Wolverines are voracious animals, and one story goes that the Indians in the area … Read more

Murphysboro, Illinois, holds the sad record of being the U.S. city to have the most people killed in a tornado. In March 1925 a total of 234 people died in and around Murphysboro in the most destructive tornado ever in the United States. Known as the Tri-State Tornado of 1925, it set several other U.S. … Read more

Battle Creek, Michigan, produces more cereal that anywhere else, and is nicknamed the Cereal City. Breakfast cereals were invented as a kind of health food a century ago for John Kellogg’s patients in a Battle Creek hospital. The two men who commercialized the idea in the early 1900s were Kellogg’s brother and a man named … Read more

“UP” refers to Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, the stretch of land north of the main part of the state, called the Lower Peninsula. A peninsula is defined as land that projects into a body of water from the mainland. People who live in this remote and scenic part of the state often refer to themselves as … Read more

Detroit area automotive plants make more cars and trucks than anywhere else in the world. The world’s first automobile factory was built in Detroit in 1900 by R. E. Olds, who had produced a steam driven car in Lansing in 1886. Henry Ford established the Ford Motor Company in Detroit in 1903, and General Motors … Read more