Things That Are Unique To Your State

[Miss_Woodhouse]

Idaho is the only state to not yet be mentioned in this thread.

BTW, we also serve fry sauce in restaurants. My family chooses which fast food place to go to based on who’s got fry sauce and lemonade. Ketchup and soda just aren’t good enough.

Idaho is the home of the first nuclear power plant located in Atomic City (not kidding. It’s really called that.) It’s a very interesting tour if your ever in the area. This state will also be the home of the first nuclear power plant to be built in the US in several decades. Slated for completion in 2013.

We also have the deepest canyon in the US: Hell’s Canyon.

We’re the only state named after a practical joke. The word was made up by some miner who claimed it was Indian and we were stuck with it before anyone figured out he made it up.

We may have the lamest state song. I haven’t heard most of the rest of them, but I’m still pretty confident I’m right about that one. (It’s worse that God Bless the USA.)

[Darth_Nader]

@Miss_Woodhouse

We’re the only state named after a practical joke. The word was made up by some miner who claimed it was Indian and we were stuck with it before anyone figured out he made it up.

Was he really, da ho?

[matt_mcl]

@Sunspace

As far as I can tell, the entire southern boundary of Ontario is over water which is not part of the ocean.

The southern border of Ontario is not all in water. After all, Lake of the Woods is in the Lake Winnipeg/Hudson Bay watershed, and Lake Superior is in the St. Lawrence/Atlantic watershed, so there has to be at least one height of land between them, such as here (appropriately the “Height of Land Portage Historical Marker”).

According to the Canada/US International Boundary Commission Ontario’s boundaries with the United States run 2700 kilometers on water and only about one kilometer on land.[6] The 80-rod Height of Land Portage is a significant part of the land border; the remainder is along two other portages, Watap Portage (100 rods) a short distance to its east, and Swamp (or Monument) Portage (~ 72–80 rods) to the west in the BWCA and Quetico Provincial Park.[7][8][9]

ETA: Oh, my:

In the latter part of the Eighteenth Century it was used by voyageurs of the French-Canadian fur brigades as their main route from Grand Portage on Lake Superior to the pays d’en haut, the “upper country” beyond the height of land separating the Great Lakes from the fur country in the Northwest.[…]
Voyageurs coming to for the first time to the pays d’en haut were initiated after crossing the portage. Each newcomer would be sprinkled with a cedar bough dipped in water, and be made to swear that he would never kiss another voyageur’s wife without her consent and would not allow another novice to pass that way without undergoing similar rites. Concluding the ceremony with a gunfire salute and drinks of “high wine” (a type of rum), the new Homme du nord or Nor’wester and his company would resume their journey.

[nachtmusick]

@blondebear

California is the only place where the Giant Sequoia occurs naturally.

Well, let’s not be too modest. California has more plant diversity than any other state, and is more diverse than any other area of comparable size in the US, regardless of state boundaries. The Giant Sequoia is the poster child for a flora that humbles every other region. California is unique in that it features tall mountain ranges, expansive deserts, long coastlines, vast plains, and primeval forests.

[Siam_Sam]

@Darth_Nader

Where’s Caliornia?

Somewhere near Oreon and Neada, I think.

[Sunspace]

@matt_mcl

The southern border of Ontario is not all in water. After all, Lake of the Woods is in the Lake Winnipeg/Hudson Bay watershed, and Lake Superior is in the St. Lawrence/Atlantic watershed, so there has to be at least one height of land between them…

Not necessarily. There could be a lake with two outlets.

@matt_mcl

…such as here (appropriately the “Height of Land Portage Historical Marker”).

Bother.

In fairness, that’s 1/2700 of the boundary, and you have to zoom really far in on Google Maps to see it.

@matt_mcl

ETA: Oh, my:

In the latter part of the Eighteenth Century it was used by voyageurs of the French-Canadian fur brigades as their main route from Grand Portage on Lake Superior to the pays d’en haut, the “upper country” beyond the height of land separating the Great Lakes from the fur country in the Northwest.[…]
Voyageurs coming to for the first time to the pays d’en haut were initiated after crossing the portage. Each newcomer would be sprinkled with a cedar bough dipped in water, and be made to swear that he would never kiss another voyageur’s wife without her consent and would not allow another novice to pass that way without undergoing similar rites. Concluding the ceremony with a gunfire salute and drinks of “high wine” (a type of rum), the new Homme du nord or Nor’wester and his company would resume their journey.

I had no idea. That’s really interesting. Pity it shoots my hypothesis down.

[CanvasShoes]

We can’t get directly to any other state by driving. Most (75% IIRC) of our communities can’t be accessed by road. We’re the BIGGEST (sorry Texas, if we cut Alaska in half, you’d still be the third largest :D).

Oh darn, strike my first one, HI can’t drive to another state either!

[CanvasShoes]

@Ruby Sees

@Jack_Batty

Maine is also the only state that consists of only one syllable.

I believe Maine is also the only state with only one interstate, that even Hawaii and Alaska have the three digit ones in addition to the 2 digit ones. At the very least, Maine is the only continental state to only have one.

We only have one intrastate highway . (no interstates if I’m understanding the term correctly? Interstate goes from one state to another, intra is only within that state itself?). A few years back someone decided to give it a bunch of fancy numbers depending upon which side of Anchorage it was on. Before that it was Alaska Hwy 1.

It’s always had different names depending on where it was, Seward going south, The Glenn out of Anchorage going north, I think it’s the Parks north of Palmer/Wasilla going north, but it’s only been recently that they did the whole Hwy 1, 2, or 3. And it’s all mainly the same road. Though it does split going to Seward and Kenai, and also north depending upon whether you’re going to the border or to Fairbanks.

Hwy 1 goes from Anchorage and south to the peninsula, and IIRC 2 goes north of Anchorage to Fairbanks, and where it splits off to go to the Alcan border it’s 3? I could have the last two backward, and for all I know there may be a 4 and 5 somewhere north also.

I just went down to Slow-dotna (Soldotna) in May and I don’t remember it being a 3 digit number though, just Highway 1 (one) or whichever. Next time I head south I’ll check

[CanvasShoes]

@NinjaChick

@Siam_Sam

Correct. I’ve lived in both places, and Texas was an indepenedent nation from March 2, 1836 to December 29, 1845 (knowledge that was beaten into my head as a schoolchild in West Texas.)

However, Hawaii, the last place I lived in the US, is the only state with a royal palace, Iolani Palace in Honolulu. And the only state with an active volcano, the Big Island’s Kilauea, which has been continuously erupting for 27 years now.

Washington would like a word with you regarding active volcanos.

Ahem…
We don’t have the largest, but we have the most.

[SmartAlecCat]

Well, not totally unique, but interesting things in Maryland:
Duck pin Bowling and
Snowballs.

We also have an interesting state sport: Jousting.

[Siam_Sam]

@CanvasShoes

@Ruby Sees

I believe Maine is also the only state with only one interstate, that even Hawaii and Alaska have the three digit ones in addition to the 2 digit ones. At the very least, Maine is the only continental state to only have one.

We only have one intrastate highway . (no interstates if I’m understanding the term correctly? Interstate goes from one state to another, intra is only within that state itself?). A few years back someone decided to give it a bunch of fancy numbers depending upon which side of Anchorage it was on. Before that it was Alaska Hwy 1.

Hawaii has three interstates, as Cecil has pointed out and which always caused us no end of mirth while we were living there. They basically tie together all of the military bases spread across Oahu and must have the interstate designation to qualify for federal funds. Handy fior civilians to use, though. The link to Cecil’s column says there is none in Alaska. I’m not sure what is meant above about the digits. The three in Hawaii are the H-1, H-2 and H-3.

Ah, and I see now there is an H-201: “Despite being designated an Interstate in 1989, until recently the route was a hidden Interstate signed only as Route 78. Interstate signs started appearing in mid-2004.” So there are four interstates there.

[Musicat]

Wisconsin…the only state where cheese curds, booyah and beer go together.

And we sing about it.

[alphaboi867]

@Morbo

…Smoking isn’t much better. No statewide ban, the 2nd lowest cigarette tax in the US, and St. Louis was listed by Forbes as “the best city for smokers.” In your face, Kansas City!

Isn’t Missouri also the only state where’s it’s illegal for employers to discriminate against smokers (providing they don’t smoke at work)?

[Tim_T-Bonham.net]

@alphaboi867

Isn’t Missouri also the only state where’s it’s illegal for employers to discriminate against smokers (providing they don’t smoke at work)?

I thought some of the tobacco-growing states (Virginia, the Carolinas, etc.) had similar laws protecting nicotine addicts.

[Zeldar]

@Sampiro

@Cub_Mistress

Tennessee has three Grand Divisions :East, West and Middle. Judging from other’s responses when I say I’m from Middle Tennessee, other states don’t have a Middle section.

What’s distinctive about Tennessee’s East, West, and “Midsection” is that the histories of them are the histories of three different states almost, including the population and the side they supported in the war and the geography, etc…

Alabama uses “Central” which I would suspect most states use instead of Middle, but then we divide by North, South, and Central since that’s the geographic division (oversimplified but north=mountains and tall hills/central=hills and pastures/south=flat and Gulf Coast). I would imagine more states divide NS than EW.

Having spent my first 18 years in Alabama and forming my impression of how a state’s topography works based on the N-S orientation of high to low ground as it is in Alabama and Georgia and Mississippi, it was disorienting to learn Tennessee’s E-W way of doing it. Then I learned that the other states in the eastern USA straddling the Appalachians share the E-W (or W-E) feature with Tennessee, like Kentucky, Virginia, Maryland, North Carolina, and South Carolina.

What’s fun to observe is the collection of “high points” in the Southeast, as can be seen on this map or the one at the bottom of this page.