69 Fun Facts About US Geography

What is the largest state in the United States by area?

It has more total area than Texas, California and Montana combined, and also contains the four largest US cities by area, including its capital Juneau.

How many Great Lakes are there?

Superior, Michigan, Huron, Erie and Ontario are counted separately, though Michigan and Huron are hydrologically a single body of water joined at the Straits of Mackinac.

Which state is nicknamed the Buckeye State, after a native tree?

The Ohio buckeye's shiny brown nut is said to resemble a deer's eye, and it is also the mascot of the state's flagship university.

The Grand Canyon is located in which US state?

The Grand Canyon is located in northwestern Arizona. Carved by the Colorado River, it is about 277 miles long and up to 18 miles wide.

What is the capital of California?

Sacramento became California's permanent capital in 1854 after the city offered its county courthouse to house the legislature; earlier sessions had met in San Jose, Vallejo and Benicia.

Which river is the longest in the United States?

The Missouri rises in the Rockies of southwestern Montana and runs 2,341 miles before joining the Mississippi north of St. Louis, edging out the Mississippi's 2,340 miles.

Mount Rushmore is located in which US state?

Mount Rushmore is located near Keystone, South Dakota. The sculpture features the faces of George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt, and Abraham Lincoln.

Which state consists of two peninsulas separated by the Straits of Mackinac?

Michigan: the heavily forested Upper Peninsula juts east from Wisconsin, while the more populous Lower Peninsula stretches north from Ohio and Indiana; the five-mile Mackinac Bridge has linked them since 1957.

What is the smallest US state by area?

Rhode Island is the smallest US state at just 1,545 square miles. Despite its small size, it has over 400 miles of coastline.

Yellowstone National Park is primarily located in which state?

Wyoming holds about 96% of Yellowstone, which occupies a roughly square parcel of volcanic complex jogging slightly past the state's northwestern corner into Montana and Idaho.

Which two US states do not share a border with any other state?

Alaska and Hawaii are the only US states that do not share a land border with any other US state. Alaska borders Canada, and Hawaii is an island chain in the Pacific.

What is the highest point in the United States?

Denali in Alaska rises 20,310 feet, the highest point in the United States and North America; its summit was first reached in 1913 by Hudson Stuck's party, with Walter Harper the first to stand on top.

Which state is known as the Empire State?

New York: the nickname, in use by the 1820s and often traced to George Washington, reflects the state's political and economic dominance, and it lent its name to Manhattan's Empire State Building, finished in 1931.

The Mississippi River empties into which body of water?

It empties into the Gulf of Mexico about 100 miles downstream from New Orleans; the Mississippi basin drains about 40 percent of the contiguous United States.

Which is the second-most populous city in the United States?

Los Angeles counted 3.9 million residents in the 2020 census, second only to New York City, and is the largest city in the Western United States.

Which US state contains the geographic center of the contiguous 48 states?

The geographic center of the contiguous United States is located near Lebanon, Kansas. The geographic center of all 50 states (including Alaska and Hawaii) is near Belle Fourche, South Dakota.

What is the capital of Texas?

Austin has been the capital since 1839, when the Republic of Texas moved its government there; it is the second-most populous state capital after Phoenix and the southernmost in the lower 48.

Which Great Lake is the largest by surface area?

Lake Superior, at about 31,700 square miles, is roughly the size of South Carolina and is the largest freshwater lake in the world by surface area.

Until Congress renamed it in 1956, the ground the Statue of Liberty stands on went by what name?

Bedloe's Island, named for early owner Isaac Bedloe, became Liberty Island by act of Congress in 1956; Bartholdi chose it because every ship entering New York Harbor had to pass it, and it had been federal land since 1800.

Which US territory is located in the Caribbean Sea?

The US Virgin Islands (St. Thomas, St. John, and St. Croix) are located in the Caribbean Sea. The other territories listed are all in the Pacific Ocean.

Which US state has the most national parks?

California has nine: Yosemite, Death Valley, Joshua Tree, Sequoia, Kings Canyon, Redwood, Lassen Volcanic, Channel Islands and Pinnacles; Alaska is second with eight and Utah third with five.

Which hot desert, the only place giant saguaro cactus grows wild, straddles the US–Mexico border?

The Sonoran Desert covers much of southern Arizona and the Mexican states of Sonora and Baja California, wrapping around the northern Gulf of California; the saguaro cactus grows wild nowhere else.

Which state has been nicknamed the Keystone State since 1802?

Pennsylvania, the geographic middle of the original thirteen colonies and the site of the founding documents signed in Philadelphia, was first toasted as the 'keystone in the federal union' in 1802.

The Appalachian Mountains reach their southern end in which state?

Alabama: the Appalachians run roughly 1,500 miles from Newfoundland to the Talladega Mountains of central Alabama, where Cheaha Mountain, the state's highest point at 2,407 feet, stands near the system's southern end.

Which US state was the last to join the union?

Hawaii became the 50th state on August 21, 1959; Alaska, the 49th, had been admitted in January of that same year.

What is the deepest body of fresh water in the United States?

Crater Lake in Oregon is the deepest lake in the US at 1,943 feet deep. It was formed about 7,700 years ago when the volcano Mount Mazama collapsed after an eruption.

Which four states meet at a single point called the Four Corners?

The Four Corners is the only point in the United States where four states meet: Utah, Colorado, Arizona, and New Mexico. It is marked by a monument managed by the Navajo Nation.

What is the capital of Florida?

Tallahassee became the territorial capital in 1824, roughly midway between the older capitals of St. Augustine and Pensacola, and was the only Confederate state capital east of the Mississippi never captured during the Civil War.

Badwater Basin in Death Valley, the lowest point in North America, sits how many feet below sea level?

Badwater Basin lies 282 feet (86 m) below sea level; its salt flats sometimes flood into a shallow temporary lake after heavy rain, and Mount Whitney, the highest point in the lower 48, is only about 85 miles away.

Which US state borders just one other state?

Maine's only land neighbour is New Hampshire; the rest of its border runs along Canada and the Gulf of Maine.

In what year did Rhode Island voters drop 'and Providence Plantations' from the state's official name?

Voters approved the change in November 2020, after a 2010 referendum on the same question had failed badly; the full name went back to the 1663 royal charter and appears in the US Constitution.

Which river forms most of the border between the United States and Mexico?

The Rio Grande, called the Río Bravo del Norte in Mexico, forms the Texas–Mexico boundary from El Paso to the Gulf, about 1,250 miles of the roughly 1,950-mile border.

What is the most visited national park in the United States?

Great Smoky Mountains has been the most visited national park every year since 1944, drawing more than 12 million visitors in 2024, far ahead of the Grand Canyon — helped by charging no entrance fee.

Which state capital has the smallest population?

Montpelier, Vermont counted 8,074 residents in the 2020 census, the fewest of any state capital; Pierre, South Dakota, with about 14,000, is next smallest.

Which US state is home to Mammoth Cave, the longest known cave system in the world?

Mammoth Cave in central Kentucky has over 420 miles of surveyed passageways, making it the longest known cave system in the world. It was established as a national park in 1941.

Which of the fiftieth state's islands is the largest, with Hilo as its county seat?

Usually called the Big Island, it is the largest island in the whole United States and the third largest in Polynesia after New Zealand's two main islands.

The Continental Divide runs primarily through which mountain range?

The Rocky Mountains carry the Continental Divide along a line of high peaks from Montana south to New Mexico, at a far higher elevation than America's other hydrological divides.

Which US city is known as the Windy City?

Chicago: the nickname was in print by 1876, in a Cincinnati Enquirer headline, and the city has collected others too, including Chi-Town, the Second City and the City of the Big Shoulders.

Which is the longest Interstate highway, at about 3,020 miles?

I-90 runs about 3,020 miles from Seattle to Boston, the longest route in the Interstate system; I-80, from San Francisco to Teaneck, New Jersey, is second at about 2,900 miles.

Which US state contains the Everglades?

The system begins near Orlando with the Kissimmee River, which drains into the shallow Lake Okeechobee, whose overflow creeps south as a river 60 miles wide.

Mount St. Helens, the volcano that erupted catastrophically in 1980, is in which state?

Washington: Mount St. Helens stands in Skamania County in the Cascade Range; the 18 May 1980 eruption killed 57 people and sent ash as far as Idaho and Montana.

Which state was an independent republic from 1836 to 1845 before joining the Union?

Texas entered the Union as the 28th state on 29 December 1845, and the single star on its flag recalls the Republic of Texas of 1836–1845.

Which is the only US state whose local subdivisions are called parishes rather than counties?

Louisiana's 64 parishes reflect its French and Spanish Catholic heritage, when civil divisions followed church parishes; Alaska, the only other state without counties, uses boroughs.

Point Barrow, the northernmost point of the US, lies near which city, known as Barrow until 2016?

Utqiagvik, the former Barrow, adopted its Inupiaq name in December 2016; Point Barrow, about nine miles northeast of town, lies roughly 1,290 miles from the North Pole.

Theodore Roosevelt National Park preserves a stretch of badlands in the west of which state?

North Dakota: Roosevelt first came to the Little Missouri badlands to hunt bison in 1883 and later ranched there; losing most of his cattle in the brutal winter of 1886–87 helped shape his conservation politics.

Which state contains the headwaters of the Mississippi River?

Lake Itasca in Clearwater County is the traditional source; the name was coined by Henry Schoolcraft from the Latin 'veritas caput', meaning true head.

What is the driest state in the United States by average annual precipitation?

Nevada sits in the rain shadow of the Sierra Nevada, so most of the state is desert or semi-arid and dominated by the Great Basin.

Which narrow body of water separates Alaska from Russia?

The strait is about 51 miles across at its narrowest, and the two Diomede Islands in the middle — one Russian, one American — are just 2.4 miles apart.

Which state has the highest population density in the US?

New Jersey packs about 1,260 people per square mile of land, the highest of any state, and is the only state in which every county is classed as urban by the Census Bureau.

Founded in 1610, which is the oldest state capital in the United States?

Santa Fe, founded by the Spanish in 1610, is the oldest state capital and also the highest, at about 7,200 feet in the foothills of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains.

Which state's highest point, Mount Washington, recorded a 231 mph wind gust in 1934?

Mount Washington, at 6,288 feet the highest peak in the Northeast, stands in New Hampshire's White Mountains; its observatory clocked a 231 mph gust on 12 April 1934, a surface wind record that stood until 1996.

Which state has the lowest mean elevation in the nation, with a high point of only about 448 feet?

Delaware's mean elevation is about 60 feet, the lowest of any state; its high point, the Ebright Azimuth benchmark at 448 feet, sits just south of the Pennsylvania line north of Wilmington.

Which small island west of Key West is the southernmost point of land in the contiguous US?

Ballast Key, a few miles west of Key West at 24.52° N, is the southernmost point of land in the contiguous US; the island, long privately owned, made a cameo in the 1989 Bond film Licence to Kill.

Which state capital, hemmed in by mountains and an icefield, has no road to the rest of its state?

Juneau's cars arrive by barge or on Alaska Marine Highway ferries; no road connects it to the rest of North America, as avalanche risk and steep terrain make one impractical.

Which of these state capitals is not served by an interstate highway?

Pierre, South Dakota is one of only four state capitals with no interstate — the others are Juneau, Dover and Jefferson City; the nearest, I-90, passes about 30 miles to the south.

Mount Mitchell, the highest peak in the United States east of the Mississippi River, is in which state?

Mount Mitchell, 6,684 feet, rises in North Carolina's Black Mountains northeast of Asheville; it is named for Elisha Mitchell, the professor who measured it and died in an 1857 fall while defending his claim.

Which is the largest county by area in the contiguous United States, at over 20,000 square miles?

San Bernardino County, California covers 20,105 square miles — bigger than nine states — stretching from the Los Angeles suburbs to the Nevada and Arizona lines; only some Alaska boroughs are larger.

Which state has two panhandles, one between Ohio and Pennsylvania and one reaching toward Washington, DC?

West Virginia: Wheeling sits in the Northern Panhandle, wedged between Ohio and Pennsylvania, and Harpers Ferry in the Eastern Panhandle, whose easternmost county, Jefferson, is counted in the Washington metropolitan area.

Which region spanning parts of Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa and Illinois escaped the last glacial period's ice sheets?

The Driftless Area takes its name from the missing glacial drift — the silt, gravel and rock the ice sheets left everywhere around it — and its deep river valleys and bluffs are typified by Wisconsin's Coulee Region.

The Cumberland Gap lies near the tripoint of which three states?

Kentucky, Virginia and Tennessee meet near the Cumberland Gap, which Thomas Walker, a Virginia physician, brought to settlers' attention in 1750.

How many counties does Texas have, the most of any state?

Texas has 254 counties, the most of any state, ahead of Georgia's 159; at the other end of the scale Delaware has just three.

Which two states each border eight other states, more than any others?

Missouri and Tennessee each touch eight states: both are bounded by Kentucky and Arkansas and by each other, with Missouri also meeting Iowa, Illinois, Oklahoma, Kansas and Nebraska.

Besides the Great Lakes, what is the largest natural freshwater lake entirely within the lower 48?

Lake Okeechobee covers about 730 square miles — too wide to see across — yet averages only about nine feet deep; the Kissimmee River supplies most of its water.

Which state's Lake Pend Oreille hosts a US Navy submarine acoustic research station?

Lake Pend Oreille in northern Idaho, about 1,150 feet deep, hosts the Navy's Acoustic Research Detachment at Bayview, which tests scale-model submarines in its deep, quiet water.

Mount Elbert, the highest summit of the Rocky Mountains, stands in which state?

At 14,440 feet it is second only to Mount Whitney in the contiguous US, and Colorado has more than fifty other fourteeners.

Which of the Great Lakes lies entirely within the United States?

Lake Michigan is the odd one out; the other four Great Lakes each form part of the border with Canada.

Which is the only populated U.S. territory located in the southern hemisphere?

American Samoa lies about 14° south of the equator; its Pago Pago Harbor, overlooked by 523-metre Rainmaker Mountain, is among the rainiest harbors in the world.

Which Arizona city is usually ranked the driest and sunniest in the United States?

Yuma, in the Sonoran Desert near the California and Mexico lines, averages about three inches of rain a year and over 4,000 hours of sunshine; Maui's Big Bog, at about 404 inches, is among the wettest spots in the US.

In what year did Congress return Virginia's share of the federal district, including Alexandria?

Congress voted the retrocession on 9 July 1846 and Alexandria's voters approved it that September; the returned land is now Arlington County and the city of Alexandria, leaving the District with only Maryland's donation.