50 Astonishing Facts About Every State: Part 1

Reader’s Digest has a whole bunch of these articles which are interesting but perhaps not all are “astonishing” …lol

Alabama

The only state whose official drink is an alcoholic beverage (Conecuh Ridge Alabama Fine Whiskey, originally distilled by legendary moonshiner Clyde May).

Alaska

The state is known for fishing, mining, and oil, but its latest industry is peonies. Peony farms blossomed from zero in 2000 to more than 200 in 2014 and currently, they grow around 1.5 million stems a year.

Arizona

The state that produces enough cotton each year to make two T-shirts for every American (that’s 599 million tees).

Arkansas

Famous for its diamond trade, Arkansas is the only state where tourists can search for diamonds in their original volcanic source. At Arkansas’ Crater of Diamonds State Park, tourists can dig through fields maintained by the park and are allowed to keep any diamonds they discover. The park also offers a complimentary identification and registration of the gems.

California

If it were a country, it would have the eighth-largest economy in the world, beating out Italy, Russia, and India.

Colorado

Although Congress intended the state to be a perfect rectangle, its surveyors wandered a bit off course. A tiny kink in the western border disqualified it from rectangle purity.

Connecticut

The first phone book was published in New Haven in February 1878, containing just 50 names. Similarly, Connecticut’s Hartford Courant is the country’s oldest continuously published paper, per Mental Floss.

Delaware

The state with the most generous laws regarding company ownership has been the model for Cayman Islands and other offshore tax havens.

Florida

The remains of an 8,000-year-old human civilization were found buried in a peat bog here. The bodies were so well preserved that human brain tissue was found in a woman’s skull with her DNA still intact.

Georgia

Just outside Atlanta, the picturesque community of Serenbe requires each of its 200-plus homes to include a porch.

Hawaii

The only state covered entirely by its own time zone, Hawaii-Aleutian, also doesn’t observe daylight saving. 

Idaho

Boise celebrates the New Year by dropping a 16-foot-tall steel-and-foam potato in the state capital. Every year, thousands of “spec-taters” gather to watch.

Illinois

In 1887, engineers began to reverse the flow of the Chicago River to stop pollution from contaminating the city’s water supply. The reversal was complete in 1900.

Indiana

At 8 p.m. on March 31, 1880, Wabash became the first city in the world to be lit by electricity—via four “Brush lights,” invented by Clevelander Charles F. Brush.

Iowa

The world’s largest painted ball resides in Alexandria: The 4,000-pound baseball with a 14-foot circumference is the creation of Michael Carmichael, who began the project more than 50 years ago after dropping a ball in paint; he now adds another coat or two every year.

Kansas

It’s the state that was proved to be—quite literally—flatter than a pancake. Scientists tested the flatness of the state against the topography of a pancake. On a zero- to-one scale of perfect flatness, Kansas was flatter, with a score of 0.9997. The pancake scored only 0.957. But it’s worth noting that Kansas isn’t the flattest U.S. state. That title goes to…Florida.

Kentucky

Underground vaults at Fort Knox hold one of the largest stockpiles of gold in the country. Not many people have seen the stash, though—and some even question whether the 27.5-pound bars, worth $6 billion, truly exist.

Louisiana

A last-second home-team touchdown at Louisiana State University in 1988 sent the fans into such a frenzy that the victory registered as an earthquake on a local seismograph.

Maine

Maine is the loneliest number: the single state whose name is just one syllable, the lone state that borders precisely one other state, and the only state whose official flower, the pinecone, is not a flower.

Maryland

It’s the wealthiest state in the country, as measured by median household income.

Massachusetts

Sixteen of the top 25 windiest U.S. cities are located here. It’s a good thing Boston has the T to protect people from cold and windy weather. In fact, Boston established the country’s first subway system in 1897, per Mental Floss.

Michigan

The Great Lake State offers the highest recycling refund in the country—10 cents per bottle or can. Unfortunately, a Seinfeld episode alerted out-of-staters to Michigan’s generosity, sparking a scheme that costs the state millions every year.

Minnesota

This Land of 10,000 Lakes technically has more than 11,000. Oddly enough, you’d be wrong if you said that state had the most lakes. It’s neighbor Wisconsin has over 15,000, but both of those pale in comparison to Alaska, with more than 3 million lakes.

Mississippi

Dashing hatmaker John B. Stetson made his western creation at Dunn’s Falls after the Civil War, forever changing cowboy style.

Missouri

Thanks to St. Louis and snacks popularized at the 1904 World’s Fair, Americans can now throw back giant quantities of Dr. Pepper, cotton candy, iced tea, waffle cones, and frankfurters.

SOURCE: READER’S DIGEST