# Little-known things about your city or state **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [March 12, 2016, 6:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/little-known-things-about-your-city-or-state/748723 "2016-03-12T06:35:10Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![WildBlueYonder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/ce7236/32.png) [@WildBlueYonder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WildBlueYonder)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2016, 8:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/little-known-things-about-your-city-or-state/748723/81 "2016-03-20T20:00:58Z")
> [@JKellyMap](#): > > WildBlueYonder: Lake Michigan is a huge feature that dominates the geography of a large area. This explains the important Michigan Avenues of Chicago, Milwaukee, and likely other towns and cities near the lake. > > Further from there, sometimes it’s by chance – for example, the fourth or fifth most important street in the older part of Lawrence, Kansas is a Michigan Avenue, but it’s surrounded by streets named for other states. Sheldon mentioned Michigan Avenue on Big Bang a few years back as being a well known or well used street name–that is what I am assuming the basis of my hypothesis 😉 ---
**Author:** ![astorian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ad7895/32.png) [@astorian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astorian)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2016, 8:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/little-known-things-about-your-city-or-state/748723/82 "2016-03-20T20:14:52Z")
* * * > [@Ulf\_the\_Unwashed](#): > > Harry Byrd, senator from VA and noted independent during the seventies and early eighties, came in between. > > I DO know about the Toledo War. Then again, my best friend moved to Toledo when we were about twelve, so maybe I don’t count. In the early Seventies, James Buckley was elected to the Senate as a member of the Conservative Party (the Republican nominee was the liberal Charles Gooddell, whose son is now commissioner of the NFL). Liberal Republican Senators like Jacob Javits insisted Buckley could not caucus with them until he had few years to prove his Republicanism. Byrd and Buckley jokingly applied to have their own caucus, with Byrd as Minority Leader and Buckley as Minority Whip. ---
**Author:** ![Barking\_Dog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ccd318/32.png) [@Barking\_Dog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Barking_Dog)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2016, 8:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/little-known-things-about-your-city-or-state/748723/83 "2016-03-20T20:22:31Z")
Just outside of Fulton, TX is a massive oak tree estimated to be well over 1500 years old. ---
**Author:** ![BobLibDem](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/boblibdem/32/3149_2.png) [@BobLibDem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobLibDem)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2016, 11:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/little-known-things-about-your-city-or-state/748723/84 "2016-03-21T11:52:18Z")
> [@Athena](#): > > Michigan has an entire other peninsula that is not at all mitten-shaped that very few people know about. Indeed, it often gets [left off maps](https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.143359877237.136588.7867382237). > > (The above is only partially tongue-in-cheek. I know a lot of people here know about the UP. But one gets tired of explaining to people that there is something north of Mount Pleasant that is still Michigan, or why the term “Northern Michigan” refers to the central part of the state to most Michiganders, or that I really don’t live in Wisconsin.) At first I thought you were going for one of the [lost peninsulas,](https://www.google.com/maps/@41.7397417,-83.4616431,14z)two bits of Michigan from which you can only drive through from Ohio. Nice to see all the Michigan bits, as we all know four out of five Great Lakes prefer to border Michigan. ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2016, 1:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/little-known-things-about-your-city-or-state/748723/85 "2016-03-21T13:25:40Z")
People, including some who should know better such as cops, are always surprised at the amount of services available in Aoiz, a town with less than 3000 registered inhabitants only 20km away from the provincial capital of Pamplona. School, HS, library, branch of the Official School of Languages, Employment office, medical center, courts of law… Aoiz was made co-capital of the _merindad_ of Sangüesa in 1494; when the _merindades_ became _partidos judiciales_, it became the capital of the _partido_. ---
**Author:** ![What\_Exit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/what_exit/32/10652_2.png) [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2016, 5:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/little-known-things-about-your-city-or-state/748723/86 "2016-03-21T17:22:05Z")
> [@Doctor\_Jackson](#): > > Georgia is the largest state, in land area, east of the Mississippi River. How does Florida not count? ---
**Author:** ![Slow\_Moving\_Vehicle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slow_moving_vehicle/32/291_2.png) [@Slow\_Moving\_Vehicle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slow_Moving_Vehicle)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2016, 5:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/little-known-things-about-your-city-or-state/748723/87 "2016-03-21T17:51:00Z")
> [@What\_Exit](#): > > How does Florida not count? [Because Georgia has more land?](http://http://www.ipl.org/div/stateknow/popchart.html#statesbysize) Florida is bigger if you count by total area, but that area includes a lot of water. As you might expect in a state that’s a peninsula in a sea. ---
**Author:** ![WildBlueYonder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/ce7236/32.png) [@WildBlueYonder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WildBlueYonder)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2016, 1:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/little-known-things-about-your-city-or-state/748723/88 "2016-03-22T13:00:59Z")
> [@BobLibDem](#): > > Nice to see all the Michigan bits, as we all know four out of five Great Lakes prefer to border Michigan. Lake Erie is just a dirty old man lake so its best that it is away from Michigan’s border ---
**Author:** ![BobLibDem](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/boblibdem/32/3149_2.png) [@BobLibDem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobLibDem)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2016, 3:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/little-known-things-about-your-city-or-state/748723/89 "2016-03-22T15:02:06Z")
> [@WildBlueYonder](#): > > Lake Erie is just a dirty old man lake so its best that it is away from Michigan’s border Actually, Michigan does have a small coast on Lake Erie, it’s Lake Ontario that Michigan doesn’t touch. ---
**Author:** ![WildBlueYonder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/ce7236/32.png) [@WildBlueYonder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WildBlueYonder)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2016, 6:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/little-known-things-about-your-city-or-state/748723/90 "2016-03-22T18:20:24Z")
> [@BobLibDem](#): > > Actually, Michigan does have a small coast on Lake Erie, it’s Lake Ontario that Michigan doesn’t touch. oops boo boo on me! I should be shot! ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2016, 8:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/little-known-things-about-your-city-or-state/748723/91 "2016-03-22T20:35:12Z")
> [@Slow\_Moving\_Vehicle](#): > > [Because Georgia has more land?](http://http://www.ipl.org/div/stateknow/popchart.html#statesbysize) > > Florida is bigger if you count by total area, but that area includes a lot of water. As you might expect in a state that’s a peninsula in a sea. Explain that to the Arabs… It’s got to do with so much of it being a swamp, really, not with what’s around it. ---
**Author:** ![Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/earl_snake-hips_tucker/32/3269_2.png) [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earl_Snake-Hips_Tucker)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2016, 8:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/little-known-things-about-your-city-or-state/748723/92 "2016-03-22T20:41:44Z")
> [@Doctor\_Jackson](#): > > Georgia is the largest state, in land area, east of the Mississippi River. _ **Completely** _ east of the Mississippi. Minnesota is also east of the Mississippi. And West. ---
**Author:** ![Kimballkid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/b5a626/32.png) [@Kimballkid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimballkid)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2016, 9:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/little-known-things-about-your-city-or-state/748723/93 "2016-03-22T21:01:05Z")
Contrary to what a certain Leonardo DiCaprio movie would show, the area where Hugh Glass was attacked by the grizzly bear in what is now South Dakota is not mountainous and full of pine trees. It’s actually on a bluff overlooking a river on the wide and mostly treeless prairie. There is also a [monument](http://matthewmayo.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/SD-Hugh-Glass-Monument-26.jpg) to Hugh Glass there. ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Strangelove](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr.strangelove/32/6613_2.png) [@Dr.Strangelove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Strangelove)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2016, 10:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/little-known-things-about-your-city-or-state/748723/94 "2016-03-22T22:09:56Z")
The text on our flag–CALIFORNIA REPUBLIC–refers to a period of about 25 days in which California was an independent (though unrecognized) state. ---
**Author:** ![WildBlueYonder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/ce7236/32.png) [@WildBlueYonder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WildBlueYonder)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2016, 4:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/little-known-things-about-your-city-or-state/748723/95 "2016-03-23T16:57:54Z")
> [@Kimballkid](#): > > Contrary to what a certain Leonardo DiCaprio movie would show, the area where Hugh Glass was attacked by the grizzly bear in what is now South Dakota is not mountainous and full of pine trees. It’s actually on a bluff overlooking a river on the wide and mostly treeless prairie. > > There is also a [monument](http://matthewmayo.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/SD-Hugh-Glass-Monument-26.jpg) to Hugh Glass there. Did anyone see where on the Goldie Hawn movie called “Bird on a Wire” Racine WI is just across the bridge from Detroit…yeah. ---
**Author:** ![Doctor\_Jackson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/doctor_jackson/32/32_2.png) [@Doctor\_Jackson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Doctor_Jackson)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2016, 6:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/little-known-things-about-your-city-or-state/748723/96 "2016-03-23T18:45:49Z")
> [@What\_Exit](#): > > How does Florida not count? > [@Slow\_Moving\_Vehicle](#): > > [Because Georgia has more land?](http://http://www.ipl.org/div/stateknow/popchart.html#statesbysize) > > Florida is bigger if you count by total area, but that area includes a lot of water. As you might expect in a state that’s a peninsula in a sea. > [@Nava](#): > > Explain that to the Arabs… > > It’s got to do with so much of it being a swamp, really, not with what’s around it. Not so much that it’s swamp, but is also has tons of inland water. It’s kinda like GA is a hunk of cheddar and FL is a hunk of swiss. > [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](#): > > _ **Completely** _ east of the Mississippi. Minnesota is also east of the Mississippi. And West. Yeah, but the part east of the Mississippi is just that piddly part that’s really Canadian 😃 ---
**Author:** ![dtilque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d6d6ee/32.png) [@dtilque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dtilque)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2016, 11:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/little-known-things-about-your-city-or-state/748723/97 "2016-03-23T23:11:45Z")
> [@Totenfeier](#): > > My hometown of Roanoke, VA is the only city in the country that has a mountain, Mill Mountain, located entirely within the city limits. Portland has Mount Tabor completely within the city. OK, it’s only 600-some feet high, but to make up for that, it’s an extinct volcano. Bet your city doesn’t have one of those. As far as Great Lakes goes… Michgan borders on all the Great Lakes except for Lake Ontario Ontario borders on all the Great Lakes except for Lake Michgan Where do you think the corndog was invented? If you had guess, you’d probably say Iowa or some other Midwestern state. Or maybe Texas or Georgia or somewhere in the South. Well, you’d be wrong. It turns out it was invented in Oregon. And now Oregon has the largest [roof-corndog](http://www.oregonlive.com/washingtoncounty/index.ssf/2016/03/oregon_corndog_history_reaches.html) in the world. We’re so proud … California is going to be so jealous. ---
**Author:** ![jsquire](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ce73a5/32.png) [@jsquire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jsquire)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2016, 12:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/little-known-things-about-your-city-or-state/748723/98 "2016-03-24T00:50:44Z")
> [@Ulf\_the\_Unwashed](#): > > Harry Byrd, senator from VA and noted independent during the seventies and early eighties, came in between. I should have been more specific and said Representative. ---
**Author:** ![jtur88](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e9c0ed/32.png) [@jtur88](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jtur88)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2016, 9:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/little-known-things-about-your-city-or-state/748723/99 "2016-03-24T09:57:45Z")
The original monument-sized casting of James Earle Fraser’s iconic “The End of the Trai” is in my home town of Waupun, Wisconsin. Fraser’s original work was commissioned by Waupun industrialist Clarence Shaler. As a child, I lived for several years in the house previously occupied by Shaler. ---
**Author:** ![An\_Gadai](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/d6d6ee/32.png) [@An\_Gadai](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/An_Gadai)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2016, 11:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/little-known-things-about-your-city-or-state/748723/100 "2016-03-24T11:39:20Z")
Perhaps Dublin’s most famous resident, Molly Malone, probably never existed and the song that made her famous was first published in Cambridge, Massachusetts in the 1880s. Dublin’s name in Irish is Báile Áth Cliath (translation: "Town Of The Hurdle Ford) seemingly deriving from a settlement near the centre of the modern city called Áth Cliath, while its English name comes via the Viking Dyflin, ultimately from the Irish Duiblinn, meaning “Black Pool”, the name of a nearby settlement. Google’s EU HQ is currently in Dublin and the surrounding area has gained the nickname the “Google Ghetto”. St Michan’s Church on Dublin’s Church St has an interest crypt. Local conditions have mummified the bodies therein and you can go and have a look and touch bodies that have lain pristine for centuries. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/little-known-things-about-your-city-or-state/748723.md?page=4) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/little-known-things-about-your-city-or-state/748723.md?page=6)