# Things That Are Unique To Your State **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [February 7, 2010, 6:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-are-unique-to-your-state/528012 "2010-02-07T06:37:28Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Alice\_The\_Goon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ed8c4c/32.png) [@Alice\_The\_Goon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alice_The_Goon)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2010, 6:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-are-unique-to-your-state/528012/1 "2010-02-07T06:37:28Z")
Michigan, the state I grew up in: Is the only state where they use the word “bogue”- it means rude or sucky in some way. Is the only state where they play the card game of Euchre. Maybe some people in like northern Ohio or something play it, but if so they got it from a Michigander. Is the only state where they call soda “pop”. Arizona, the state where I live now: Is the only state where they have saguaro cactus. Is the only state where you can get a Sonoran hot dog- a southeast Arizona delicacy found in mobile stands in parking lots around town, is a hot dog wrapped in bacon, topped with onions, tomatoes, jalapeno salsa, creme fraiche, mustard, and pinto beans, in a croissant-type bun. Is the only state (that I know of) with a “stupid motorist” law- for during those time of flash floods when dummies go around barricades and then have to be rescued from raging waters, and they get fined for that. Please correct me if I’m wrong on any of that, but more importantly, tell me something(s) about your state or more about these states that are unique. ---
**Author:** ![Negative\_Lite](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ce73a5/32.png) [@Negative\_Lite](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Negative_Lite)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2010, 6:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-are-unique-to-your-state/528012/2 "2010-02-07T06:48:54Z")
> [@Alice\_The\_Goon](#): > > Is the only state where they call soda “pop”. Pop is the most common word for soft drink. [U.S. map of soft drink words](http://www.evl.uic.edu/aej/422/GIFs/total-county.gif). My home state of Washignton is the only state not to have a street named after it in Washington, DC. Even friggin Hawaii has an alleyway. ---
**Author:** ![Alice\_The\_Goon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ed8c4c/32.png) [@Alice\_The\_Goon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alice_The_Goon)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2010, 6:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-are-unique-to-your-state/528012/3 "2010-02-07T06:57:17Z")
Wow, I didn’t know pop was so prevalent. I’ll have to send that map to my friend from Michigan who insisted to me earlier today that it’s the only place they say pop. :smack: ---
**Author:** ![slalexan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e47c2d/32.png) [@slalexan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/slalexan)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2010, 7:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-are-unique-to-your-state/528012/4 "2010-02-07T07:11:21Z")
I have only one but I think it is a good one. Though it is a bit obvious. Kansas is the only place where you can’t say “You aren’t in Kansas anymore.” ---
**Author:** ![Simplicio](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c37758/32.png) [@Simplicio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Simplicio)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2010, 7:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-are-unique-to-your-state/528012/5 "2010-02-07T07:12:21Z")
Euchre is pretty widespread in the midwest, I don’t think its unique to Michigan. Vermont is the only state without a governors mansion. I’ve heard we’re the only state whose capital city doesn’t have a McDonalds, though I don’t know if thats true. ---
**Author:** ![Duckster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/duckster/32/1244_2.png) [@Duckster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duckster)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2010, 7:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-are-unique-to-your-state/528012/6 "2010-02-07T07:55:21Z")
> [@Alice\_The\_Goon](#): > > Arizona, the state where I live now: > > Is the only state where they have saguaro cactus. > [@](#): > > The **saguaro** (_Carnegiea gigantea_), pronounced [/səˈwɑroʊ/](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:IPA_for_English), is a large, [tree](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tree)-sized [cactus](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cactus) [species](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Species) in the [monotypic](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monotypic) [genus](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genus) _[Carnegiea](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carnegiea)_. **It is native to the [Sonoran Desert](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sonoran_Desert) in the [U.S. state](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U.S._state) of [Arizona](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arizona), the [Mexican](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mexico) [state](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Political_divisions_of_Mexico) of [Sonora](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sonora), and an extremely small area of [California](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/California), U.S.** The saguaro blossom is the [state flower](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_U.S._state_flowers) of Arizona. (Bolding mine.) [Saguaro - Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saguaro) ---
**Author:** ![Kyla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/eada6e/32.png) [@Kyla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kyla)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2010, 7:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-are-unique-to-your-state/528012/7 "2010-02-07T07:59:03Z")
Michigan is the only state where people tell new acquaintances where they’re from by pointing at their right hand. (Or left hand, I guess, if they live in the UP.) ---
**Author:** ![MitzeKatze](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ad7895/32.png) [@MitzeKatze](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MitzeKatze)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2010, 8:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-are-unique-to-your-state/528012/8 "2010-02-07T08:07:56Z")
> [@slalexan](#): > > Kansas is the only place where you can’t say “You aren’t in Kansas anymore.” I live in Kansas now and this is the only unique thing I can find about this state. Well that and it’s probably the only state where you are just as likely to get slapped for any Wizard of Oz jokes. 😉 Other phrases that apparently aren’t allowed in Kansas, at least when dealing with bitchy women are: (1) “No need to call your flying monkeys” or (2) “Be gone! Before someone drops a house on you too!” ---
**Author:** ![ShibbOleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/848f3c/32.png) [@ShibbOleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ShibbOleth)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2010, 8:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-are-unique-to-your-state/528012/9 "2010-02-07T08:30:07Z")
> [@Alice\_The\_Goon](#): > > Is the only state where they play the card game of Euchre. Maybe some people in like northern Ohio or something play it, but if so they got it from a Michigander. Nah, you got it from Pennsylvania, which got it from the Germans: > [@](#): > > Euchre appears to have been introduced into the United States by the early German settlers of the State of Pennsylvania,[3] and from that state gradually to have been disseminated throughout the nation. It has been more recently theorized that the game and its name derive from an eighteenth-century Alsatian card game named Juckerspiel,[4] a derivative of Triomphe. > > … > > In the United States the only teaching of the game, except a few paragraphs in the late American editions of Hoyle’s Games, and of Bonn’s New Hand-Book of Games, is contained in The Game of Euchre; with its Laws, 32rno., Philadelphia, 1850, pp. 32, attributed to a late learned jurist[5]. > > The game has declined in popularity since the 19th century, when it was widely regarded as the national card game, but it retains a strong following in some regions like the Midwest, especially Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Minnesota, Michigan, Ohio, Wisconsin and western New York. In recent years, it has regained some popularity in the Eastern United States in the form of Bacon. It is played differently from region to region and even within regions. In Canada, the game is still very popular in Ontario, and the United Kingdom, Australia and New Zealand, all have large followings of the game. Bauer is German for farmer, btw. ---
**Author:** ![Desert\_Nomad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/desert_nomad/32/177_2.png) [@Desert\_Nomad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Desert_Nomad)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2010, 9:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-are-unique-to-your-state/528012/10 "2010-02-07T09:02:33Z")
Nevada: Legal prostitution and the longest stretch of highway in the US with absolutely no services… US Route 6 between Tonopah and Ely (about 168 miles). ---
**Author:** ![Pixiesnix](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/898d66/32.png) [@Pixiesnix](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pixiesnix)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2010, 9:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-are-unique-to-your-state/528012/11 "2010-02-07T09:09:27Z")
Arkansas has the only diamond mine open to the public, where visitors can dig and keep whatever they find. ---
**Author:** ![Mosier](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7ea924/32.png) [@Mosier](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mosier)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2010, 9:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-are-unique-to-your-state/528012/12 "2010-02-07T09:15:46Z")
Also Nevada; the most likely place you are to be taken into custody during a citizen’s arrest. Also the most likely place you are to be drugged unconscious by a stranger. Also has the most number of hotel rooms within a one mile radius (by a whole friggin’ lot). Also number 1 for foreclosure rate. Number 50 for high school graduation. Number 50 for high school test scores. Also the most likely place for you to commit suicide (unless you live here). 🙂 Just found out that doozy a few days ago in the local paper. ---
**Author:** ![Leiko](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/c5a1d2/32.png) [@Leiko](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leiko)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2010, 9:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-are-unique-to-your-state/528012/13 "2010-02-07T09:34:17Z")
> [@Negative\_Lite](#): > > My home state of Washignton is the only state not to have a street named after it in Washington, DC. Even friggin Hawaii has an alleyway. Washington hasn’t quite managed it, but it is nearly the only state in the union that grows red raspberries for processing (rather than just personal use berries). [Washington accounts for nearly 95 percent of the U.S. production of processed red raspberries, at about 70,000,000 pounds per year.](http://www.red-raspberry.org/) And it’s the only state named after a President, but everyone knows that. ---
**Author:** ![Tanaqui](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/3bc359/32.png) [@Tanaqui](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tanaqui)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2010, 10:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-are-unique-to-your-state/528012/14 "2010-02-07T10:10:38Z")
Hard to think of many things unique about Oregon. Oregon is one of only two states where you are not allowed to pump your own gas, and one of five states where there is no sales tax… but again, not 100% unique. A quick review of Wikipedia suggests that Oregon was the only state admitted into the US with a “whites only” clause written into the constitution. So uh, good job Oregon. :smack::mad: Is it the only state whose name is routinely mispronounced by outsiders? Can’t think of any others… Also according to Wikipedia, we are home to the shortest river in the world–D River, with an appropriately short name (although apparently this is disputed!) and also the largest living organism in the world, the somewhat [terrifyingly large fungus](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Armillaria_ostoyae) underneath a forest in eastern Oregon. Ooh! We’ve also got the only [transvestite/transgender mayor](http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,449111,00.html) in the US! (People have been calling him the first “transgender” mayor, but isn’t that for people who actually feel they are the opposite gender? As far as I know, this guy just likes wearing women’s clothing, like Eddie Izzard. I dunno.) Also, despite the federal government’s best efforts, Oregon was the first state to have a “Death with Dignity” law. I’m pretty proud of that. ---
**Author:** ![ShibbOleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/848f3c/32.png) [@ShibbOleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ShibbOleth)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2010, 11:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-are-unique-to-your-state/528012/15 "2010-02-07T11:01:54Z")
> [@Tanaqui](#): > > Is it the only state whose name is routinely mispronounced by outsiders? Can’t think of any others… According to the people I’ve met from Nevada, all of the rest of us mispronounce it, too. How should Oregon be pronounced? ---
**Author:** ![Sigmagirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c89c15/32.png) [@Sigmagirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sigmagirl)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2010, 1:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-are-unique-to-your-state/528012/16 "2010-02-07T13:43:34Z")
Ohio: Only state whose flag isn’t a rectangle. ---
**Author:** ![Giles](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/giles/32/60_2.png) [@Giles](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Giles)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2010, 2:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-are-unique-to-your-state/528012/17 "2010-02-07T14:00:06Z")
I’m not from Michigan, but even I can tell you some unique things about it: The capital Lansing is the only state capital that is not the county seat of the county that it is situated in. (Mason is the county seat of Ingham County). The largest city (Detroit) is the largest city in the United States that is north of Canada. And (of course) Michigan is the only state that lost a war to Ohio. (But it was a Pyrrhic victory for Ohio, which gained Toledo, while Michigan got the Upper Peninsula). ---
**Author:** ![flodnak](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/838e76/32.png) [@flodnak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/flodnak)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2010, 2:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-are-unique-to-your-state/528012/18 "2010-02-07T14:06:18Z")
If Pennsylvania’s alcohol laws (particularly concerning the sale of beer) _aren’t_ unique, then I’m surprised I haven’t whining from people from other states 😃 Basically, you can buy beer by the case or keg from a beer distributor, or you can buy a four- or six-pack of beer from a restaurant or bar that has a carry-out liquor license. You can’t buy just a single beer to be consumed off-premises anywhere in the commonwealth. ---
**Author:** ![BrotherCadfael](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@BrotherCadfael](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrotherCadfael)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2010, 2:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-are-unique-to-your-state/528012/19 "2010-02-07T14:09:43Z")
> [@Simplicio](#): > > Vermont is the only state without a governors mansion. I’ve heard we’re the only state whose capital city doesn’t have a McDonalds, though I don’t know if thats true. Both quite correct. Vermont has a unique judicial institution known as “side judges” or “assistant judges”. These are non-lawyers who hear cases in conjunction with the conventional lawyer-type judge. In rare cases, they can overrule the real judge. They also handle much of the administrivia of administering the courthouses. Vermont has almost no regulation of firearms. You can carry openly, or concealed, as you like - although people will look at you funny if you carry openly outside of hunting season. Vermont had it’s own “birther” controversy back in the nineteenth century. Chester A. Arthur was supposedly born in Fairfield, Vermont, just a few miles from Canada, to a family that was well represented on either side of the border. By 1881 there was no surviving documentation to show that he was in fact born in Vermont rather than in Quebec. His political opposition tried to make a fuss about this when he became President following the assassination of President Garfield, but were not successful in doing so. ---
**Author:** ![EvilTOJ](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ee59a6/32.png) [@EvilTOJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EvilTOJ)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2010, 2:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-are-unique-to-your-state/528012/20 "2010-02-07T14:12:13Z")
> [@ShibbOleth](#): > > According to the people I’ve met from Nevada, all of the rest of us mispronounce it, too. How should Oregon be pronounced? You say it OR-aGAIN. not ORA-GONE. We’re a polite, easy going bunch and very little upsets us, but say it wrong here and you’re likely to be stabbed. There’s some health care political ad on TV where the announcer says it the wrong way and I have to change it or mute it every time. Portland has the most strip clubs and adult businesses per capita in the nation, but that’s not really unique as a state. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-are-unique-to-your-state/528012.md?page=2)