# American state capitals **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [June 15, 2004, 3:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-state-capitals/250477 "2004-06-15T15:04:32Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![yabob](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yabob/32/2821_2.png) [@yabob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yabob)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2004, 2:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-state-capitals/250477/61 "2004-06-21T14:38:51Z")
Side note on Montana’s capital. While I was in school, I once did a project for a class where I calculated the optimal placement of Montana’s capital based on the graph of driving distances between Montana towns weighted by their populations. I was quite surprised when Helena actually popped out. I was expecting Great Falls, since Billings and Great Falls dominate the population statistics, and places like Missoula and Butte were far closer to Great Falls than Billings. Helena trimmed enough off the distance from Billings to make up for adding distance from Great Falls. ---
**Author:** ![Duke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e8c25b/32.png) [@Duke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duke)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2004, 2:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-state-capitals/250477/62 "2004-06-21T14:49:54Z")
> [@HeyHomie](#): > > Of course, I could open up a Pit thread about how governor Rod Blagojevich is trying to move the capitol to Chicago. If by “capital” you mean “where the Governor lives,” yep, Hot Rod has already done it 😃 I know that when PA decided to move their capital to Harrisburg, the decision came down to either picking H’burg or Williamsport. H’burg won out, mainly because it was about half-way between the two major cities, Pittsburgh and Philadelphia. Funny to think that my old stomping grounds narrowly missed out on being the capital region. ---
**Author:** ![Neurotik](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/91b2a8/32.png) [@Neurotik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Neurotik)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2004, 2:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-state-capitals/250477/63 "2004-06-21T14:53:15Z")
> [@acsenray](#): > > It is interesting to note that several important people, including George Washington himself, owned land in or near the site chosen. True, but it’s also the furthest navigable point up the Potomac. Washington had already helped lay out Alexandria there a few decades earlier and Georgetown was already a thriving port town (biggest tobacco exporting city in the country by 1790). It’s not like there was nothing in the area when they decided to make it the nation’s capital. In fact, it was a pretty good choice - pretty much in the middle, a growing port center and the closest navigable point to the Ohio Valley - which became important when they opened up the C & O Canal. ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2004, 3:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-state-capitals/250477/64 "2004-06-21T15:12:20Z")
> [@Sunspace](#): > > Ottawa was chosen because Montreal, Toronto, Kingston, and Quebec City were fighting over who would become the capital of the new Province of Canada (basically Ontario and Quebec, pre-confederation, so Vancouver wasn’t an issue), and wouldn’t agree. So Queen Victoria gave it to none of them, and selected a lumber town that was roughly in the middle. Ottawa was more than a lumber town, and it’s not in the middle. As **Bookeeper** points out, the choice was heavily influenced by military reasons. In fact, the reason Ottawa existed was for military reasons - it’s at the junction of the Ottawa River and the Rideau Canal, which was built to ensure an internal water transport link between Kingston and Montreal if the Yanks invaded and blockaded the St. Lawrence. By the time Victoria made her choice, the military concerns were still substantial, given the U.S. Civil War and the possibility that the Union might turn its attention northwards. ---
**Author:** ![amarinth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3be4f8/32.png) [@amarinth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/amarinth)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2004, 3:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-state-capitals/250477/65 "2004-06-21T15:16:13Z")
> [@Cervaise](#): > > It can work the other way around, too. In my own state, Washington, when it became clear at the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century that Olympia, the city chosen for the capital (statehood: 1889), was going to be dwarfed by Seattle, which was really taking off, there were several abortive attempts to move the government from the former to the latter. Obviously, it didn’t happen (for a lot of complicated reasons), but it was more than merely a topic for idle parlor chitchat. According to “Sons of the Profits” Olympia also got the capital due to bribery (specifically of a type of oyster that can only be found in Olympia). [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-state-capitals/250477.md?page=3)