Fifty States - Fifty Fun Facts

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Fifty States and Fifty Fun Facts

Alabama - George Washington Carver, who discovered more than 300 uses for peanuts.
Alaska - The longest coastline in the U.S., 6,640 miles, greater than that of all other states combined.
Arizona - The most telescopes in the world, in Tucson.
Arkansas - The only active diamond mine in the U.S.
California - “General Sherman,” a 3,500-year-old tree, and a stand of bristlecone pines 4,000 years old are the world's oldest living things.
Colorado - The world's largest silver nugget (1,840 pounds) found in 1894 near Aspen.
Connecticut - The first American cookbook, published in Hartford in 1796: American Cookery by Amelia Simmons.
Delaware - The first log cabins in North America, built in 1683 by Swedish immigrants.
Florida - U.S. spacecraft launchings from Cape Canaveral, formerly Cape Kennedy.
Georgia - The Girl Scouts, founded in Savannah by Juliette Gordon Low in 1912.
Hawaii - The only royal palace in the U.S. (Iolani).
Idaho - The longest main street in America, 33 miles, in Island Park.
Illinois - The tallest building in the U.S., Sears Tower, in Chicago.
Indiana - The famous car race: the Indy 500.
Iowa - The shortest and steepest railroad in the U.S., Dubuque: 60° incline, 296 feet.
Kansas - Helium discovered in 1905 at the University of Kansas.
Kentucky - The largest underground cave in the world: 300 miles long, the Mammoth-Flint Cave system.
Louisiana - The most crayfish: 98% of the world's crayfish.
Maine - The most easterly point in the U.S., West Quoddy Head1.
Maryland - The first umbrella factory in the U.S., 1928, Baltimore.
Massachusetts - The first World Series, 1903: the Boston “Americans” (became the Red Sox in 1908) vs. the Pittsburg Pirates (Pittsburgh had no “h” between 1890–1911).
Michigan - The Cereal Bowl of America, Battle Creek, produces most cereal in the U.S.
Minnesota - The oldest rock in the world, 3.8 billion years old, found in Minnesota River valley.
Mississippi - Coca-Cola, first bottled in 1894 in Vicksburg.
Missouri - Mark Twain and some of his characters, such as Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn.
Montana - Grasshopper Glacier, named for the grasshoppers that can still be seen frozen in ice.
Nebraska - The only roller skating museum in the world, in Lincoln.
Nevada - Rare fish such as the Devils Hole pup, found only in Devils Hole, and other rare fish from prehistoric lakes; also the driest state.
New Hampshire - Artificial rain, first used near Concord in 1947 to fight a forest fire.
New Jersey - The world's first drive-in movie theater, built in 1933 near Camden.
New Mexico - “Smokey Bear,” a cub orphaned by fire in 1950, buried in Smokey Bear Historical State Park in 1976.
New York - The first presidential inauguration: George Washington took the oath of office in New York City on April 30, 1789.
North Carolina - Virginia Dare, the first English child born in America, on Roanoake Island in 1587.
North Dakota - The geographic center of North America, in Pierce County, near Balta.
Ohio - The first electric traffic lights, invented and installed in Cleveland in 1914.
Oklahoma - The first parking meter, installed in Oklahoma City in 1935.
Oregon - The world's smallest park, totaling 452 inches, created in Portland on St. Patrick's Day for leprechauns and snail races.
Pennsylvania - The first magazine in America: the American Magazine, published in Philadelphia for 3 months in 1741.
Rhode Island - Rhode Island Red chickens, first bred in 1854; the start of poultry as a major American industry.
South Carolina - The first tea farm in the U.S., created in 1890 near Summerville.
South Dakota - The world's largest natural, indoor warmwater pool, Evans' Plunge in Hot Springs.
Tennessee - Graceland, the estate and gravesite of Elvis Presley.
Texas - NASA, in Houston, headquarters for all piloted U.S. space projects.
Utah - Rainbow Bridge, the largest natural stone bridge in the world, 290 feet high, 275 feet across.
Vermont - The largest production of maple syrup in the U.S.
Virginia - The only full-length statue of George Washington, placed in capitol in 1796.
Washington - Lunar Rover, the vehicle used by astronauts on the moon; Boeing, in Seattle, makes aircraft and spacecraft.
West Virginia - Marbles; most of the country's glass marbles made around Parkersburg.
Wisconsin - The typewriter, invented in Milwaukee in 1867.
Wyoming - The “Register of the Desert,” a huge granite boulder covering 27 acres with 5,000 early pioneer names carved on it.

1 Measured from the geographic center of the United States.

http://www.factmonster.com/ipka/A0770175.html

We get NASA and Maryland gets an umbrella factory. Hehe.

^that's nothing. general sherman for the win.

I know----how pathetic is THAT, right? LOL

Interesting list you have, Campin Cat. Right now I cannot argue any of the entries except perhaps the one on California. This tree's age may be less.

Oh----I don't know what it's suppose to be, then----I just "copied and pasted" it from the site, I put in my OP.

It's very interesting CC! A lot of that stuff I didn't know.

^^ Cool----THANKS!! Good to see you, Friend!!

Good to drop by to WP a short while daily when I get the chance and see my friends here. Nearly my bedtime already.

I've seen various links where e.g. they may say what each state is best at and worst at, will try to find it again sometime to share on here.

less than this, definitely......



anyway, another tree from around that same area, a pinus longaeva specimen may have a claim to the oldest non-clonal organism at around 5064 years.

Pando (i spread) is a clonal colony of aspen at around 80,000 years old or more, and even it may not be The Oldest. though something like that is gonna be disputed no matter what......old sh!t

Fun fact: I first read the thread's title as "Fifty Shades - Fifty Fun Facts".

Edit: another fun fact: I typed "Fun fact" as "Gun fact" at first.

I'm dyslexic & make mistakes like that alot