Fifty States and Fifty Fun Facts
Updated February 21, 2017 | Factmonster Staff 
| State | Home of |
|---|---|
| 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.
