A country so vast and diverse as the United States is bound to be full of surprising secrets, unusual laws, and interesting tidbits. From the state that houses the world's largest ball of twine to one with a unique New Year's tradition, keep reading for weird and wonderful facts you probably didn't know about every state.
Click through this gallery to discover the quirkiest fact about every US state...
It's hard to pick just one fact for Alabama (did you know Mardi Gras actually originated in Mobile, or that Sweet Home, Alabama is a real place?) However, the Unclaimed Baggage Center (UBC) in Scottsboro is just too unique not to mention.
It's the nation's only retailer of lost luggage. After a 90-day search, the lost bags legally belong to the airline – this is when UBC swoops in and buys them to then sell in its 40,000-square-foot warehouse. Some of the weirdest items ever found by UBC include a camera from a space shuttle, an Egyptian burial mask, and a live rattlesnake.
Only granted statehood in 1959, Alaska was a late addition to America's territorial dominion. In 1867, US Secretary of State William H Seward finalized a deal to buy Alaska – all 586,412 square miles of it – from Russia for the then-eye-popping sum of $7.2 million. Alaska has since paid for itself many times over with gold and oil reserves, but at the time critics ridiculed the deal as 'Seward's Folly,' and nicknamed the state 'Seward's Polar Bear Garden.'
The saguaro is the largest American cactus and is associated closely with Arizona. Its blossom is the official state flower, but the spiny flora also takes a really long time to grow, so the state has taken extra steps to protect the plants.
Cutting saguaros down, even on your own property, can result in substantial fines or even jail time. The maximum time given for such offenses is a jaw-dropping 25 years, while fines for damaging the cactus in any way, including scratching in initials, can reach thousands of dollars.
Crater of Diamonds State Park is the only operational diamond mine in America and it's also the only one in the world that allows the public to hunt for the gems – so if you find one, you're allowed to keep it. The most valuable and largest diamonds ever discovered in the US were also found in this state park. The 8.52-carat Esperanza gem was discovered in 2015 and is estimated to be worth around a million dollars, while the largest diamond, the 40.23-carat Uncle Sam, was found here in 1924.
California's terrain is extremely varied. At 14,494 feet, the highest point in the contiguous United States is Mount Whitney, while the lowest point in the lower 48 states is the Badwater Basin (pictured) in Death Valley, which is 282 feet below sea level. What makes this extreme variation even more surprising is the fact that the two points are just 85 miles apart as the crow flies.
While there's much contention around where the cheeseburger was really invented, it was in Colorado that the term was coined. Trademarked by Louis Ballast of Denver's Humpty Dumpty Drive-In in Denver in 1935, there's even a roadside monument, opened in 1987, that's dedicated to this significant event in fast food history.
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Connecticut has an impressive track record in the publishing industry: the first US phone book was published here in 1878 and the first American cookbook American Cookery was published here in 1796. The oldest US newspaper in continuous circulation can also be found in Connecticut. First published on October 29, 1764, The Hartford Courant (then called The Connecticut Courant) was also the first to have a female publisher, Hannah Bunce Watson, in 1777.
Today it's one of the country's smallest states, and not the one most people first think of when trying to name all 50, but Delaware's place in America's story is entirely unique. It earned its nickname 'the First State' by being the first of the Thirteen Colonies to ratify the United States Constitution in 1787. Historic.
Florida's sprawling Everglades National Park is the only place in the world where alligators and crocodiles coexist in the same environment. While crocodiles can live in both freshwater and saltwater, alligators prefer freshwater, which means the Everglades is the perfect place for both reptiles to live. You probably don't want to get close enough to tell the difference, but crocs have longer, pointier snouts, while gators' snouts are shorter and more rounded.
Adopted as a state symbol in 1992, Pogo is the main character of a comic strip published in American newspapers from 1948 to 1975. Created by Walt Kelly after an inspirational visit to Okefenokee Swamp, the cartoon depicted Pogo, a friendly and funny swamp critter that offered commentary on social and political events.
Set in the Georgia section of the swamp (part of it lies in Florida), the cartoon's comments could be surprisingly pointed, with Pogo once declaring: "We have met the enemy and he is us."
The only official royal residence in the USA, Iolani Palace was home to the Hawaiian monarchy in the late 19th century. The royal residence was completed in 1882 and was a sumptuous property ahead of its time, complete with electricity and indoor plumbing. The interiors are ultra-opulent, particularly the plush Throne Room, which boasts red-velvet curtains framing vast windows, chandeliers hanging heavy from the ceiling, and a pair of gilded thrones on a raised platform.
The iconic Times Square New Year's ball drop is one of the most famous ways the world rings in the New Year, but Boise residents have found a more unique and more state-appropriate way to welcome January 1. Since 2013, thousands of spec-taters have gathered at the Idaho State Capitol every year to watch the Idaho Potato Drop, in which a giant, illuminated GlowTato is lowered from above as the clock strikes midnight. We'd expect nothing less from Idaho.
It's thought that the source of this nickname is political, rather than to do with the chilly gusts that sweep across the city from Lake Michigan. In an 1893 editorial in the New York Sun, Charles A Dana calls Chicago a "windy city" as its politicians were said to be "full of hot air."
At the time Chicago was competing with New York to host the 1983 World's Fair, and in a twist of fate the original editorial has never been located. However, there is an existing copy of an 1876 The Cincinnati Enquirer that calls Chicago "That Windy City" in the aftermath of a tornado. So we might never know the truth for sure.
The small city of Wabash made history on the evening of March 31, 1880, when the world's first electric streetlights were turned on. After Edison's invention of the light bulb in 1879, Charles F Brush came up with the idea of streetlights, but he needed a place to try them out.
After a demonstration in Cleveland, four 3,000 candlepower lamps were placed atop the Wabash County Courthouse (pictured) and around 10,000 people came to watch the spectacle. The original Brush lights are still on display at the courthouse.
Elevating passengers 189 feet, from Fourth Street to Fenelon Place in Dubuque, the Fenelon Place Elevator is dubbed the world's shortest and steepest, although the title has been contested by other funicular railways. Just 296 feet in length, the elevator was first used by local banker JK Graves in 1882.
The funicular was opened to the public in 1884 and cost five cents per ride. After several devastating fires, the current funicular opened in 1893 and is now listed in the National Register of Historic Places.
A rather unusual record, Cawker City in Kansas is home to the world's largest ball of twine. Started in 1953 by local man Frank Stoeber, the giant ball stood eight feet tall just four years after Frank started it, and he donated it to the city in 1961. Every August a twine-a-thon is held where local residents and visitors continue adding twine to the ball; currently, it's estimated to contain around eight million feet of twine.
Kentucky is well known for its bourbon, and is home to famous distilleries including Jim Beam, Maker's Mark, and Bulleit. It's also a well-known fact that barrels of bourbon outnumber people in the state by a matter of millions.
However, you might be surprised to find that buying the famous drink isn't possible everywhere in the state. A notable minority of Kentucky's counties are completely dry with no liquor sales allowed, while many more are moist, meaning alcohol is only legal in certain places. All told, alcohol is fully legal in under half the state's counties.
Stretching an astonishing 24 miles across Lake Pontchartrain, this bridge provides a direct connection between Metairie in New Orleans in the south and Mandeville in the north. The first two-lane span of the causeway took just 14 months to build and was opened in 1956, with the second parallel bridge following in 1969. For a stretch of eight miles there's no sight of land at all and motorists have been known to freeze, with police needed to escort them off the bridge.
Forests, sandy beaches, lakes, and lighthouses are all things we'd expect to find in Maine, but the state also has its own desert. Just a 20-minute drive from Portland you'll find the 40-acre Desert of Maine.
Surrounded by coastal forest, the discovery of the glacial sand dunes was the result of over-farming. As the soil became depleted of essential nutrients, the top soil erosion exposed the sand lying underneath. Turned into a tourist attraction in 1925, it's not a true geological desert as it still receives precipitation.
In a bid to improve sewage treatment plants and stop oxygen-destroying algae from blooming in Chesapeake Bay, a 2004 Maryland law, also dubbed the flush tax, was signed. The $30-a-year fee (now $60) was imposed on all Maryland residents who own a property with a building on it and applies whether they use public water and sewer systems or septic tanks. This means that Maryland residents pay $5 a month for using the toilet.
Webster Lake in Massachusetts is a charming spot, with summer cottages dotting the shoreline and lush greenery hugging its coast, but Webster Lake is not its real name. The third longest place name in the world and the longest in the United States, the lake is actually called Chargoggagoggmanchauggagoggchaubunagungamaugg. The 13-foot-deep lake has 15 letter Gs.
A village in St Joseph County with a population of just 1,200, Colon is the self-proclaimed magic capital of the world. There's a four-day Magic Festival, typically held in August, a magic-orientated history museum, a Magician's Walk of Fame (the only one in the world), and the Colon Lakeside Cemetery, which is the final resting place of 30 or so magicians.
It might be the Midwest, but it's also The Land of 10,000 Lakes (actually, 14,444). If you define shoreline as including lakes, rivers, and streams, then Minnesota's total shoreline stretches 183 miles. That's more than California, Hawaii, and Florida combined – their total reaches just 169 miles.
Named after President Theodore 'Teddy' Roosevelt, the story of the original Teddy Bear begins in Mississippi. The State Governor Andrew H Longino had invited Roosevelt to go bear hunting near Onward, Mississippi, but Roosevelt was the only hunter in the group who hadn't spotted a bear during the trip.
His assistants found and tied a black bear to a tree and summoned Roosevelt to shoot it – but he saw it as unsportsmanlike and refused. When news spread, The Washington Post published a cartoon depicting the event, and after seeing the cartoon Brooklyn candy shop owner Morris Michtom started selling stuffed toy bears called Teddy's Bear.
Missouri locals will know that one of the state's nicknames is the Cave State, and rightly so as it boasts more than 7,500 recorded caves (and that number rises every year). Several of the best caves are open for public tours, including the otherworldly Angel Showers formation in the Ozark Caverns at Lake of the Ozarks State Park, and the Lily Pad Room in Onondaga Cave (pictured).
Montana is no stranger to extreme weather and holds all sorts of surprising weather records. For example, the greatest temperature change in 24 hours was recorded in Loma, Montana between January 14 and 15, 1972, when the temperature changed by 135°F. It has also recorded the coldest temperature – a brutal -70°F at Rogers Pass in Glacier National Park – in the lower 48.
Nebraska boasts the world's only roller skating museum in state capital Lincoln, and exhibits include antique skates from the 1820s and photos of pre-war roller derbies. Unsurprisingly hosting the world's largest collection of roller skating artifacts, the museum opened in 1980 and shares its building with the official governing body of US roller sports.
We love the fact that the world's largest margarita was made in Las Vegas, but there's more to Nevada than Sin City. The state is also home to nearly half of the country's free-roaming horse population.
The Virginia Range, between Virginia City and Reno, is home to more than 3,000 wild mustangs – the inspiration behind Velma Johnston's (aka Wild Horse Annie), protest against rounding up wild horses for commercial purposes. Her efforts led to the Wild Horse Annie Act in 1959, which banned the use of motorized vehicles to hunt wild horses and burros (wild donkeys) in the US.
New England and especially New Hampshire have long been favorites for summer vacations, but no destination more so than Wolfeboro. Dubbed the oldest summer resort in America, Wolfeboro gained this title after Governor John Wentworth built his Lake Wentworth mansion here in 1768, making it the first summer country estate in northern New England.
Over the years it became a popular summer destination, especially for families from Boston. More recently Prince Rainier and Princess Grace of Monaco, Kurt Vonnegut, Drew Barrymore, and former French president Nicolas Sarkozy have all vacationed here.
You might have thought that New Jersey would have more diners than any other state, but it's actually horses where the state comes out on top. There are more horses per square mile here than in any other US state – which perhaps also explains why the United States Equestrian Team is based in Gladstone, New Jersey.
"Red or Green?" was declared an official state symbol in 1996, becoming the first official state question in the country, but can you guess what it refers to? Wanting to recognize the importance of the chili industry in New Mexico, the New Mexico State Legislature decided to use a question asked in diners up and down the state every day. Referring to either red or green chili, the question actually has three possible answers: reply "Christmas" and you'll get a mix of both.
The US postal code, or zip code, was first introduced to sort and deliver mail more efficiently, and we're accustomed to zip codes indicating specific neighborhoods. However, New York City's Empire State Building has a zip code of its own – 10118 – and turns out it's not the only one. In total there are around 40 buildings in Manhattan with a personal zip code, including the MetLife Building, 30 Rockefeller Plaza, and the Chrysler Building.
Feared by insects, admired by humans, and cultivated around the world, the Venus flytrap looks like it belongs in a tropical jungle. However, it's native to a small area of the coastal plain, mostly within a 75-mile radius within Wilmington. Facing a high risk of extinction in the wild, the famous plant was designated North Carolina's official state carnivorous plant in 2005.
An utterly irresistible event, if you ask us, the world's largest French fry feed is a must-visit. Held annually, it's the signature event of Potato Bowl USA – an American football battle between the two largest potato growing regions in the United States. The latest French fry feed record was broken in 2017, when 8,154 pounds of French fries were served to over 10,000 people.
Ohio's boundaries and constitution were approved by Thomas Jefferson in 1803 and it was welcomed to the union as the 17th state. However, the official paperwork granting Ohio statehood wasn't completed until 1953, when President Dwight Eisenhower signed and backdated Ohio's admittance to the union. It's a good reminder to check your to-do list and finish all your paperwork.
At around 200, Oklahoma has more man-made lakes than any other state in the US. You're probably wondering why, but the answer is simple: after World War II, increasing demand for water led two influential Oklahoma politicians – Senator Robert S Kerr and House speaker Carl Albert – to lobby for control over the state's natural water resources, which resulted in a boom of artificial lakes.
Sure, redwood trees are pretty impressive and blue whales are unassailable for sheer size – or are they? It turns out that the world's largest living organism occupies an area measuring as much as two and a half miles across, and can be found in the Blue Mountains in Oregon.
The Armillaria genus, which is commonly known as honey fungus, colonizes and kills a variety of trees and woody plants, spreading through the forest. The fungus is estimated to be 2,400 years old but could be as ancient as 8,650 years old, which would make it one of the oldest living organisms too.
Dead, but preserved since 1841, a unique piece of history is on display in the Rare Books department of the Philadelphia Free Library. Grip, a taxidermied black raven that was once Charles Dickens' pet, is the same bird that inspired Edgar Allan Poe's famous poem The Raven.
Dickens' pet was mentioned in his lesser-known story, Barnaby Rudge, and Poe reviewed the book and published his poem soon after. In fact, the Maryland NFL team the Baltimore Ravens are also, by extension, inspired by Grip, as the team was named in honor of Baltimore resident Poe's poem.
Believed to be the USA’s oldest tavern building, Newport’s White Horse Tavern is a real slice of history. Established in 1673 by William Mayes Senior, it then passed down to his son, who was a pirate and is still believed to haunt it today. It then served as accommodation for loyalists and British troops during the Occupation of Newport during the American Revolution, but today is best known for its clam chowder.
South Carolina's coast is dotted with countless barrier islands and marshland that stretches from Berkeley to Jasper counties. Each of these islands share landscapes and wildlife apart from one – a small barrier island off the coast of Beaufort that has an unusual population.
The 2,000 acres of Morgan Island are roamed by a colony of nearly 4,000 rhesus monkeys. The monkeys were moved to the island in the late 1970s from a research facility in Puerto Rico and have lived on the island since. Unfortunately, the island cannot be visited.
Well, there almost is. Mount Rushmore is one of the country's most famous monuments, but there's an even larger and more spectacular one in the works. The Crazy Horse Memorial is the world's only mountain carving in progress and, when finished, it'll be the world's largest sculpture, standing 563 feet. So far only the face of Crazy Horse, an Indigenous Lakota warrior, has been finished and current work continues on his outstretched arm.
No, it's not the famous Grand Canyon, nor Yosemite. According to the US National Park Service, the most visited national park in the States is Great Smoky Mountains National Park, which draws in more than 12 million visitors annually – far more than double the number of the second-most popular park (Grand Canyon NP). Most see the park from its scenic highway, while others take to its 800-plus miles of hiking trails.
If Texas were a country, it would be the 40th largest in the world. Only second to Alaska when it comes to the size of US states, Texas's epic area of 268,820 square miles means it's larger than every single country in Europe, in addition to Japan, Vietnam, New Zealand – the list is pretty long.
No joke, Utah is the Jell-O capital of the US (and probably the world). Residents of the Beehive State consume more Jell-O per capita than those of any other state in the US, so it's only natural it's the state's official snack. In fact, it's so popular that the second week of February is celebrated as Jell-O week, and during the Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City there was an officially licensed JELL-O pin celebrating the city and its love of Jell-O.
With a population of around 8,000 in 2023, Montpelier is the smallest state capital in the US. By comparison, the most populous state capital, Phoenix in Arizona, boasts around 1.7 million residents. It is also the only state capital that doesn't have a McDonald's.
Once the capital of Virginia and one of America's most important cities, Williamsburg has been turned into a living history museum that covers more than 300 acres and a whopping 89 original buildings. The 18th-century area's historic sites include the Governor's Palace, a courthouse, and several workshops. There are also four historic taverns and two art museums.
The nation's top apple-producing state, Washington has recognized the apple as one of its official state symbols. And the state has a number of records to show for its love of this juicy fruit. For example, there are about 175,000 acres of apple orchards in the state and on average 128 million boxes of apples are grown every year – that equals around 2.3 million tons of apples.
The 876-foot-high New River Gorge Bridge is one of West Virginia's most important landmarks. Featured on the state's commemorative quarter, it's the longest single-arch bridge in the western hemisphere. But it's also notable for an interesting tradition.
Every year on the third Saturday of October, the bridge is closed to traffic and hundreds of BASE jumpers parachute from the bridge. Bridge Day, as it's called, was started in 1980 and today as many as 100,000 spectators come to watch the daredevils and enjoy a great day out.
Held annually in the tiny town of Warrens, which is home to 500-or-so residents, the Warrens Cranberry Festival draws in as many as 150,000 visitors each September. Cranberries are the state's largest fruit industry in both value and size and more than 250 growers produce around 4.9 million barrels of cranberries every year – that represents 60% of the nation's crop.
To be precise, there are two sets of escalators – two going up and two going down – in all of Wyoming. A rather surprising thing for the 10th largest state in the US, it seems that escalators are not needed here. Both escalators are located in Casper, one in Hilltop National Bank and the other in First Interstate Bank. Even the airport in Jackson Hole doesn't have one as it's a single-level building.