Things That Are Unique To Your State

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
221

This is the first reference to Tennessee that I saw using “find on this page” and I haven’t looked over the rest of the thread – yet – but one thing I learned only recently is that according to Wikipedia there’s only one other place on earth (unnamed in the article itself) where:

“Ebbing and Flowing Spring is a spring located in Hawkins County, Tennessee, near Rogersville, that is one of only two known springs in the world to exhibit tidal characteristics.”

If it matters, I learned of this oddity by way of an acrostic puzzle!

I regard this as a unique feature to our state, until and unless that other place is identified. I confess to not trying to track that down.

222

Bogue is a nautical term, for falling off the wind, and in Listen For a Lonesome Drum, Carl Carmer had this to say about my home area:

Over a hundred years ago, he said, a man named Caleb Bogue built a mill back in the hills and imported his employees from down around the Hudson Valley. They were a tough lot and unpopular with the naeighbors who called them, after their boss, “The Caleboguers.”

<snippage of a lurid murder story>

The Caleboguers ads a wild lot, inbred, uneducated, their tempers undisciplined by any kind of law and when a trial of one of them takes place they fill the Geneseo courtroom. They are the hillbillies of upstate.

Since many people from western NY moved west when land became available, I have no doubt that ‘Bogue’ came from Caleboguer.

As a sidetrack, Listen For a Lonesome Drum is an excellent read, he deals with the folkstories of western NY and covers stuff like the Caleboguers, that freemason murder, Oneida Colony, Fox Sisters and Spiritualism and all the lurid stories of western NY. he has a good writing style, a comfortable read without seeming to be a huge info-dump.

223

According to Wikipedia, Arizona, Oregon, Wyoming, Maine and New Hampshire all lack the office of Lt. Governor.

224

Thanks for that! When I lived in the area, Santa Fe being the only state capital without a commercial airport was one of those factoids everyone threw around. There was no Internet back then to check these things out.

Here’s another one that I think holds true, though (may have missed it above): New Mexico’s state nickname is the only one that does not follow “the such-and-such state” form, like Hawaii is the Aloha State and Texas the Lone Star State. New Mexico is the Land of Enchantment.

225

Try again. Illinois is Land of Lincoln.

226

I can see New Mexicans need to be a little better educated about these things. Hopefully, with the advent of the Internet, these things have died down.

227

Not common, but my dad played Sheepshead pretty much every weekday of his life after he retired, until he got to feeble to go to the tavern. They sat in the backroom and played for candy bars. Only he called it by its German name, which I can’t spell without looking it up.

228

…that begins with two vowels.

…whose east and west borders - the Missouri and Mississippi rivers - are 100% formed by water.

…that chooses presidential candidates by party caucus.

…that has never elected a congressman or governor who was not a white male.

…that does not allow consumers to sue for fraudulent business practices.

…that has banned pole vaulting.

…with a state monopoly on land title insurance.

…without any statewide academic standards. Local school boards formulate their own.

…that lies entirely within the natural region of the tallgrass prairie. Over 95% of its land area was once covered in high grasses.

…to have contained a fort (Fort Atkinson) built by the U.S. government to protect one Indian tribe from another.

…that maintains separate governing bodies for boys’ and girls’ high school athletics.

…where high school baseball or softball is played in summer.

…that issues local-only driver licenses, issued to senior citizens to go to designated places.

…where users prefer Bing over Google, as of last August anyway.

…where university police forces are unarmed.

…with a Gay-Straight Alliance Day (January 27).

…with a state agency federally certified to resettle refugees.

…where a convicted juvenile can be incarcerated for life.

…that did not increase its population by 50% or more from 1900 to 2000.

229

Nice list. There’s a problem with the one I quoted, though: Florida also qualifies… its eastern boundary is obviously the Atlantic, and most of its western boundary is the Gulf of Mexico. Ah, you say, but there’s a small land boundary with Alabama! Yes, that’s true, but it follows the Perdido River for the entire length of the boundary, making the total western boundary of the state formed by water.

230

OK, let’s strike water and replace it with navigable rivers. :slight_smile:

231

Wisconsin has the only non-profit, community owned, major league sports team in the United States… The Green Bay Packers.

Wisconsin has the hodag. Go Rhinelander.

Something I’m not proud of, but it’s true. Wisconsin hosts more country music festivals than any other US State. Yeah, don’t like country music… not real proud of that one.

Harley Davidson was founded in WI, and was one of only two major American motorcycle makers that survived the Great Depression.

232

Colorado, Hawaii, Kansas, Louisiana, Minnesota, Nevada, North Dakota, and Wyoming all have caucuses rather than primaries. Texas seems to have some kind of hybrid system and Washington state chooses 3/4ths of its delegates by caucus.

233

I got nuthin. Strike whatever I said about caucuses.

234

Javalina range through southern New Mexico into southwestern Texas…I think they may even have them in desert areas of southern California.

Do Oryx or Ibex range into AZ? These are exotic species that have established small populations in NM. Enough to have a hunting season for them. Those terms apparently each discribe a number of species, and I couldn’t find links that only showed the NM versions.

In NM you can order green chili on your hamburger…anywhere. (at McDs. they serve it on the side though)

Is any other state bird essentially flightless like New Mexico’s Roadrunner?

235

How about the Rhode Island Red or the Blur Hen of Delaware?

236

Well, 195 is only about a mile long, maybe 2.

Massachusetts does (or did) that too. Lower numbers were reserved for state officials. My grandfather had one of the lowest numbers you could get without being a politician. 4 thousand something.

North Carolina has the mountains (west), the coast (east) and piedmont (middle).

Southern Maine does this too, for the French Canadian tourists.

237

I think he means that middle Tennessee is actually called “Middle Tennessee”, instead of Central Tennessee or something more specific. Is piedmont known as “Middle North Carolina”?

Michigan is close with “mid-Michigan” (I’ve heard it called central Michigan, too, but never “Middle Michigan”)

In a similar vein, I don’t think anyone’s mentioned this: Michigan has a portion of the state that is even more north than Northern Michigan. The designations Southern Michigan, Mid-Michigan, and Northern Michigan all refer to the lower peninsula (mitten part) of the state. If you keep going north, you’ll be in the U.P. (Pronounced like the letters, not the word), or the upper peninsula.

When people refer to “going up north” (which they do… alot) it’s generally south of the bridge.

238

About that – isn’t just having the state divided into 2 major parts like that rather unique?

I can’t recall any other states like that.

In Minnesota, we have the Northwest Angle, but that’s a tiny little piece, not a major part of the state. And Hawaii, made up of islands, doesn’t count.

239

More people drowned in river crossings attempting to reach Oregon than any other state.

240

Interesting. Is this in the Columbia River trying to get from The Dalles to Portland or in the various rivers along the Oregon Trail?