Geography

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

Back in the early 1800s, lead miners in Wisconsin often lived in hillside caves they had dug, which people compared to the way badgers dig holes. These miners were called Badgers, and the name was eventually applied to all Wisconsin residents. In 1882 the first plant in the United States to produce electricity by using … Read more

Wisconsin, is the leading milk producer in the United States. Its 1.6 million dairy cows produce a year’s supply of milk for 42 million people. Wisconsin also leads the states in butter and cheese production, supplying about a fourth of the nation’s butter and a third of its cheese. In 2009 Wisconsin had about 5.6 … Read more

The Finger Lakes, in west-central New York, got their name because their long, narrow shapes look like fingers of a hand. There are 11 lakes in the group, although some people disagree on that number. The largest is Lake Seneca, at 37 miles (60 km) long and 3 miles (5 km) wide at its widest … Read more

The people called Pennsylvania Dutch are not Dutch at all, but rather descendants of the many German immigrants who settled in the central part of the state beginning in the 1700s. The German word for German is Deutsch, which was mispronounced as “Dutch.” Today, many Pennsylvania Dutch people still live in the central part of … Read more

In architecture, the keystone is the wedge shaped stone that is placed in an arch to hold the other stones in place. In 1802, at a state rally celebrating the presidential victory of Thomas Jefferson, someone made a toast to Pennsylvania that called it “the keystone in the federal union,” a reference to the state’s … Read more

In the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, New Jersey farmers played a large role in providing food to the people of nearby New York City, which may be the reason for the state’s nickname. Today, although nearly 9 out of 10 people in New Jersey live in cities, the state still has many truck farms, … Read more

About 18,000 of the Old Order Amish (pronounced Ab-mish) people in the United States live in and around Lancaster, Pennsylvania. The Amish religion is an offshoot of the Mennonite faith. People of both these denominations came to America in the early 1700s, with many settling in Pennsylvania, to escape religious persecution in Europe. The Amish … Read more

A few interesting geographic names have come from combining Delaware’s name with those of its neighbors. The strip of land that extends between the Chesapeake Bay and the Atlantic Ocean contains all of Delaware and parts of Maryland and Virginia. The popular name for the entire area is the Delmarva Peninsula, formed from DELaware, MARyland, … Read more

Delaware was the first state to ratify the U.S. Constitution, which it did on December 7, 1787. That’s why Delaware is represented first in presidential inaugurations and other national events. Delaware, Maryland, and Virginia share the Delmarva Peninsula. If you look at a map, you’ll notice that Delaware’s northern boundary with Pennsylvania is formed by … Read more

The state of Maryland was named for Queen Henrietta Maria, who was the wife of King Charles I of England. In 1632 King Charles granted the land that was to become Maryland to Cecilius Calvert, and he and his descendants ran the colony for many years. Calvert, a Roman Catholic, wanted to establish a colony … Read more

People from Sweden and Finland settled near present-day Wilmington, Delaware in 1638, calling their colony New Sweden. These settlers built log cabins much like those they had in Scandinavia. Later that century, the Dutch and then the English took over the colony. Since local forests offered a plentiful supply of logs for building, the log … Read more

Its central location has kept Baltimore, Maryland, an active port city on the Chesapeake Bay for more than 300 years. Baltimore is closer to the American Midwest than any other East Coast port, and it is just an overnight drive for a third of the U.S. population. Oceangoing ships can reach the port of Baltimore … Read more

The Chesapeake Bay is the largest estuary in the United States, and lies off the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by Maryland and Virginia. The Native Americans who once lived along the bay gave it an Algonquian name, Chesepiook, meaning “great shellfish bay.” It is the seventh oldest surviving English place-name in the U.S., and was explored … Read more

The Chesapeake Bay, bordered by Maryland and Virginia, is the largest estuary in the United States. An estuary is an arm of a sea that extends inland to meet the mouth of a river. The Chesapeake Bay contains mostly salt water, since it is part of the Atlantic Ocean. But freshwater from many rivers and … Read more

Seven U.S. presidents were born in Ohio, more than any other state except Virginia. They were Ulysses S. Grant, Rutherford B. Hayes, James A. Garfield, Benjamin Harrison, William McKinley, William Howard Taft, and Warren G. Harding. Although he was born in Indiana, William Henry Harrison was living in Ohio when he became president. Ohio’s nickname, … Read more

Traditional fishing is being supplemented by the practice of aquaculture in Maryland. Aquaculture is the practice in which growers use ponds or special tanks to raise millions of pounds of trout, striped bass, catfish, and tilapia, and lesser amounts of oysters and soft crabs each year. Overfishing and pollution have resulted in smaller fish and … Read more

In the years after the Erie Canal opened in 1825, the canals were enlarged twice and finally mostly abandoned in the early 1900s, when the New York State Barge Canal was opened in 1918 to accommodate the larger barges of the day. This new waterway was created by dredging out and damming the rivers the … Read more

Once the Erie Canal was completed in 1825, it connected New York City via the Hudson River with Buffalo, New York, which is on Lake Erie. From there, barges and boats could reach areas of the upper Midwest by way of the Great Lakes. In those days, roads were hardly more than rough trails, and … Read more

Buffalo, Syracuse, and Rochester do receive much more snow than most U.S. cities, only Juneau, Alaska, and Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan, have averaged more snow than Buffalo over the past half century. The reason is upstate New York’s proximity to the Great Lakes, whose huge expanses of open water provide ample moisture for snow and … Read more

There are very few tall buildings in between Lower Manhattan and Midtown because of the geology of Manhattan Island. Very tall buildings need a very solid foundation, and Manhattan Island’s bedrock of schist, which is a granite-like rock, is particularly solid and stable. In lower Manhattan the schist is about 80 feet (24 m) below … Read more

The latest theory on how New York was called the Big Apple is that horse-racing trainers and jockeys in the 1920s used the term to refer to New York City. Back then New York had racetracks which offered winners large purses, in other words, a big treat, or a “big apple.” The nickname was first … Read more

The five boroughs in New York City are also counties. The names of the five boroughs are: Bronx (Bronx County) Brooklyn (Kings County) Manhattan (New York County) Queens (Queens County) Staten Island (Richmond County) Queens is the largest borough in area, with 108 square miles (281 sq km), while Brooklyn (Kings County) is the largest … Read more

Henry Hudson, an Englishman, was hired by the Dutch to find a shortcut to the Pacific Ocean back in the early 1600s. When he sailed up the river now named after him, he was able to claim the land around it, today’s states of New York, New Jersey, Delaware, and part of Connecticut, for the … Read more

Cape Cod is a 65-mile (105-km) long peninsula of Massachusetts that is a popular East Coast summer vacation area. It’s easy to find on maps because of the distinctive hook at its far end. It was originally named Pallavisino by the first European to spot it, the Italian explorer Giovanni da Verrazano, in 1524. In … Read more

The Indian name for Lake Webster in Massachusetts is Lake Chaubunagungamaug. And that’s the short form. The long form is Chargoggagoggmanchauggagoggchaubunagungamaug. Translated, it means “You fish your side of the lake. I fish my side. Nobody fishes the middle.” About half the cranberries grown in the United States come from southeastern Massachusetts, Cape Cod, and … Read more

Vermont was the first state to enter the Union after the original 13 states. It was an independent republic until 1791, when it joined the Union. The original 13 states were New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia. The original 13 colonies … Read more

Massachusetts and three other states, Kentucky, Pennsylvania, and Virginia, are called commonwealths, but they are also states of the United States. There is no legal difference between the terms “commonwealth” and “state,” and they are used interchangeably. The only true U.S. commonwealth, meaning a self-governing, autonomous political unit voluntarily associated with the United States, is … Read more

Rhode Island was the first of the 13 American colonies to declare its independence from Great Britain. It did so on May 4, 1776, exactly 2 months to the day before the other 12 colonies. Rhode Island was the only one of the 13 colonies that did not attend the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia in … Read more

In 1639, the colony of Connecticut established its Fundamental Orders, which set up a government based on the will of the people. Some historians say that this document was the first ever written constitution of a democratic government and may have served as a model for the U.S. Constitution. Also, during the writing of the … Read more

Rhode Island does not have the smallest population of all the states. Rhode Island ranks 43rd among the 50 states in population, with a little more than 1 million people. States with fewer people, in order after Rhode Island, are Montana, South Dakota, Delaware, North Dakota, Alaska, Vermont, and Wyoming. Small as it is, Rhode … Read more

The smallest U.S. state has the longest official name: “Rhode Island and Providence Plantations.” Providence Plantations refers to the towns on the mainland. The island of Rhode Island, now more commonly called Aquidneck, is the largest of thirty six islands, most of which are in Narragansett Bay, that also make up the state. The city … Read more

The Empire State Building in New York City is not the tallest building in the United States. The Sears Tower, in Chicago, Illinois, is the tallest, at 1,450 feet (442 m), with 110 floors. At the time of its completion in 1974, the Sears Tower was the tallest building in the world, and it held … Read more

Connecticut is often called the Insurance State because it is the headquarters for more than 100 insurance companies. In the 1790s companies there began insuring ships and cargo that left its ports. These companies prospered, and by 1810 people could buy insurance that would cover them for “loss of life or personal injury while journeying … Read more

A person from Connecticut is called a “Connecticuter,” says Webster’s New International Dictionary, although there is no official state term to describe a person who was born in or lives in Connecticut. In the 1700s two other words were seen in print: “Connecticotian” and “Connecticutensian.” At one time, “Nutmegger” was used to refer to a … Read more

New York is called the Empire State not because of the Empire State Building, the state had its nickname long before 1931, when that famous skyscraper was built. No one knows for sure how New York got the nickname, but some historians think the name can be traced to George Washington, who once said the … Read more

New York was the capital of the United States between 1785 and 1790. George Washington was sworn in as the first president there in 1789. In 1790 Congress agreed, as part of a compromise between northern and southern leaders, to locate a permanent capital along the banks of the Potomac River. In the meantime, the … Read more