# The most boring U.S. state **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [December 22, 2019, 10:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-boring-u-s-state/845262 "2019-12-22T22:57:09Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Kovitlac](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/2bfe46/32.png) [@Kovitlac](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kovitlac)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2019, 5:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-boring-u-s-state/845262/61 "2019-12-23T17:29:52Z")
> [@Slow\_Moving\_Vehicle](#): > > [What,](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wind_River_Range#/media/File:GreenLakesWY.jpg)[are](https://www.flickr.com/photos/clinteverett/33783493438) [you](https://gypsyguide.com/tour/yellowstone-grand-teton/) [kidding](https://www.alamy.com/stock-photo-river-rafting-shoshone-river-red-rock-canyon-cody-wyoming-usa-23314830.html) [me](https://www.outsideonline.com/2329411/why-its-time-rethink-climbing-ban-devils-tower)? > > My vote is Kansas. Never been there, but some geographers published an IgNobel study that compared the topological profile of Kansas and a breakfast pastry, and proved that Kansas is, indeed, flatter than a pancake. I don’t get why flat = boring. I suppose lots of people find mountains exciting, and that’s cool and all, but why is the first listed reason for a state being boring, “because it’s flat”? And if you’re not talking literal mountains, well… I live in Iowa, a state not exactly known for it’s peaks, and my city is exceedingly hilly. Trust me, with our winter ice and sludge, hills are LAST thing I want to deal with on my morning commute. Although I suppose one could argue that sliding backwards down a hill into the car behind you isn’t exactly a dull event, either. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2019, 5:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-boring-u-s-state/845262/62 "2019-12-23T17:30:16Z")
> [@snowthx](#): > > I see a lot of comments about Delaware, but what about Rhode Island? I mean, there isn’t even an island with that name. Sure there is. [Aquidneck Island](https://www.britannica.com/place/Rhode-Island-Rhode-Island) is the “Rhode Island” of “Rhode Island.” ---
**Author:** ![Kovitlac](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/2bfe46/32.png) [@Kovitlac](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kovitlac)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2019, 5:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-boring-u-s-state/845262/63 "2019-12-23T17:32:06Z")
> [@nightshadea](#): > > heh just dont look “mexican” in iowa My area has a huge Mexican population. You’re almost expected to look Mexican in some parts, lol. Maybe you mean more central or east Iowa. ---
**Author:** ![Kovitlac](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/2bfe46/32.png) [@Kovitlac](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kovitlac)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2019, 5:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-boring-u-s-state/845262/64 "2019-12-23T17:34:39Z")
Too many people seem unfamiliar with Omaha and are voting for NE. I think having one of the best-rated zoos in the country should disqualify a state from being ‘too boring’. ---
**Author:** ![Kovitlac](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/2bfe46/32.png) [@Kovitlac](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kovitlac)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2019, 5:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-boring-u-s-state/845262/65 "2019-12-23T17:36:04Z")
> [@snowthx](#): > > Any state that contains mountains is immediately off the list. > > I see a lot of comments about Delaware, but what about Rhode Island? I mean, there isn’t even an island with that name. On the map it looks like some land neither Massachusetts or Connecticut wanted (and that’s saying something). Why? They look nice, but not everyone cares about skiing or climbing. I’d rather visit a beach, personally. You can have a pretty view and still be boring for most people. ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2019, 5:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-boring-u-s-state/845262/66 "2019-12-23T17:47:03Z")
> [@pulykamell](#): > > Sure there is. [Aquidneck Island](https://www.britannica.com/place/Rhode-Island-Rhode-Island) is the “Rhode Island” of “Rhode Island.” Yup. We got counties and towns that don’t really exist, an island that does exist but people think it doesn’t, food you can’t get anywhere else (and sometimes don’t want to), our state house is a copy of the Capitol Building in DC, Mr. Potato Head statues scattered around the state, and a big blue bug watches over the highway for us. You can call us stupid, but we are not boring. ---
**Author:** ![thorny\_locust](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thorny_locust/32/431_2.png) [@thorny\_locust](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thorny_locust)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2019, 5:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-boring-u-s-state/845262/67 "2019-12-23T17:59:47Z")
No place is boring if you’re actually paying attention to it. (Probable exception for prison cells and places of that sort.) Driving on a modern interstate, though, can get pretty boring. You can’t touch anything, you can’t smell anything, you can’t hear anything except cars and whatever you’re playing on the sound system, and usually all you can see is highway and carefully graded highway right-of-way. Doesn’t mean there’s nothing in the whole rest of the state, just because they razed a strip of it in order to put the road in. ---
**Author:** ![Bullitt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bullitt/32/5725_2.png) [@Bullitt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bullitt)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2019, 6:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-boring-u-s-state/845262/68 "2019-12-23T18:37:15Z")
Last month I was in Boring, Oregon. Just driving through… ---
**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:** [December 23, 2019, 6:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-boring-u-s-state/845262/69 "2019-12-23T18:41:32Z")
I’ve driven through Kansas and Nebraska, Kansas is the more boring state. It is close though between the pair. ---
**Author:** ![Bullitt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bullitt/32/5725_2.png) [@Bullitt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bullitt)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2019, 6:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-boring-u-s-state/845262/70 "2019-12-23T18:49:35Z")
Yes, they both are. Also, the Central Valley of California on I-5 between Santa Nella and Grapevine is very boring. Map: [Google Maps](https://goo.gl/maps/PxcAaNFwrmeUz4HE8) ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2019, 7:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-boring-u-s-state/845262/71 "2019-12-23T19:35:18Z")
Delaware is boring, but it’s small. Time has to be a factor in boredom; it’s an essential element. You can see all of Delaware in ten minutes. You don’t have time to get REALLY bored. Kansas is very boring, but I’ll have to throw my vote to Indiana. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2019, 7:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-boring-u-s-state/845262/72 "2019-12-23T19:42:02Z")
So we need to calculate boredom per square mile? ---
**Author:** ![Bullitt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bullitt/32/5725_2.png) [@Bullitt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bullitt)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2019, 7:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-boring-u-s-state/845262/73 "2019-12-23T19:47:43Z")
West Texas, like Ozona to El Paso on I-10, is very boring. Map: [Google Maps](https://goo.gl/maps/P2je7gD4B2R4vasr5) ---
**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:** [December 23, 2019, 7:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-boring-u-s-state/845262/74 "2019-12-23T19:56:34Z")
> [@RickJay](#): > > Delaware is boring, but it’s small. Time has to be a factor in boredom; it’s an essential element. You can see all of Delaware in ten minutes. You don’t have time to get REALLY bored. > > Kansas is very boring, but I’ll have to throw my vote to Indiana. I was coming in to make this very point. Connecticut, too - both are small enough that the initial “Hey, I’m in one of those weird dinkyass states!” excitement doesn’t wear off before you’re through. Indiana’s another good choice, but I have childhood memories of visiting my grandmother in North Carolina, and remember how interminably long and dull Ohio is, from the outskirts of Cleveland until you reach the Ohio River. (Where the tedium was relieved by an old suspension bridge to Covington, Ky, that used to feature in my nightmares. But that’s a subject for another thread.) ---
**Author:** ![KneadToKnow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kneadtoknow/32/3999_2.png) [@KneadToKnow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KneadToKnow)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2019, 8:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-boring-u-s-state/845262/75 "2019-12-23T20:06:58Z")
> [@Dewey\_Finn](#): > > So we need to calculate boredom per square mile? Alaska’s gonna win that. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2019, 8:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-boring-u-s-state/845262/76 "2019-12-23T20:11:15Z")
Except I think we need to allow for population density. So a highly dense small state like Connecticut is going to have far more boredom per square mile than Alaska. ---
**Author:** ![Kron](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kron/32/12444_2.png) [@Kron](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kron)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2019, 8:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-boring-u-s-state/845262/77 "2019-12-23T20:16:47Z")
> [@ekedolphin](#): > > Wyoming: Nothing there but bugs and oil rigs. And when you’re traveling through it, make sure you have bug-cleaning windshield wiper fluid in your car. You’re gonna need it. We at least have lovely scenery. If mountains without people gets you going, anyway. ---
**Author:** ![Kron](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kron/32/12444_2.png) [@Kron](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kron)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2019, 8:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-boring-u-s-state/845262/78 "2019-12-23T20:23:02Z")
> [@kitap](#): > > Delaware. Has there ever even been a book or movie set in Delaware? I can’t hear the name Delaware without thinking about [Wayne’s World](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TK_FiRm6ZK8). ---
**Author:** ![Arrendajo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e0b2c6/32.png) [@Arrendajo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Arrendajo)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2019, 8:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-boring-u-s-state/845262/79 "2019-12-23T20:32:18Z")
Of the states I’ve driven through, Nebraska takes the cake. East-west it just goes on forever with the same monotonous flatness in all directions. There is Omaha, with Henry Doorly Zoo and the SAC/Aerospace museum, so the state is not without its attractions. But outside of the Omaha/Lincoln pocket, it is a vastness of sameness. It was very disorienting when I moved to Nebraska, having grown up in the western U.S. I was used to keeping myself oriented by the mountain ranges and knowing which direction the Pacific Ocean was. In Omaha there were no mountains and equidistant between the oceans. It was months before I could reliably point to north. ---
**Author:** ![BrickBat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ac91a4/32.png) [@BrickBat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrickBat)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2019, 8:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-boring-u-s-state/845262/80 "2019-12-23T20:39:23Z")
> [@Kron](#): > > I can’t hear the name Delaware without thinking about [Wayne’s World](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TK_FiRm6ZK8). Always thought that was one of the funnier parts of WW. Clever humor. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-boring-u-s-state/845262.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-boring-u-s-state/845262.md?page=5)