And Vermont has a beluga skeleton. I say ‘a skeleton’, because the official state fossil is just the one skeleton hanging up somewhere in the University of Vermont.
Vermont has THE jughandle - an intersection by the University of Vermont. It is, as far as I know, the only one in the state, hence the definite article.
We also speak of THE Interstate, rather than I-89. To be fair, there is another one, I-91, on the other side of the state, but this is only an issue at White River Junction, where the two cross. Everywhere else in the state, you only speak of “the Interstate”.
Missouri is also the only state to have a city named Springfield.
I’ve always remembered the proper pronunciation as Or-ih-gun, because Americans like their guns enough to pronounce a word different from how they spell it.
Acer saccarum (the sugar maple) grows only in Canada and the eastern US. Vermont of course makes the very best maple syrup. Sometimes contested by Canada or NYS, but as a Green Mountaineer, I know better.
But Texas has the biggest state fossil, of course 
Here’s a list of all 40 fossiliferous statey goodness.
My childhood home (in Georgia) has a hoosier in the kitchen. It’s named, appropriately enough, after the Hoosier Manufacturing Co. in Indiana.
My mother frequents antique malls.
Does any other state regularly use landmark-based directions and descriptions instead of north, south, east, and west?
Hawaii uses Windward, Leeward, mauka (toward the mountain) and makai (toward the ocean) pretty extensively, from everyday conversations to radio traffic reports.
It’s common to hear traffic heading east on the main highway described as “H-1 town-bound” or “the 'Ewa side of the building” instead of “the side facing west.”
The famous Benson Bubblers of Portland. Bubbling away since 1912, more or less.
http://www.portlandonline.com/water/index.CFM?c=48918
Huh. I actually got that from googling. What kind of world is this if you can’t trust what you find on the internet??:rolleyes:
West Virginians also use their hand to show people where they live.
I can recall people saying it in the late 90s but only in reference to heroin withdrawal.
Wisconsin has the largest native population of lake sturgeon in the world. People patrol during spawning season and will do bad things to somebody that tries to take roe.
Neither are unique to Michigan.
I learned Sheepshead in Indiana.
Speak for yourself. Jersey Rules! (Though I am a transplanted Hoosier.)
Not unique to NJ.
(Bolding mine) It seems, in fact, that you are sure this one isn’t!
Also, there are jughandles in PA.
Not unique to Texas. (See 6th bullet point)
Not unique to Illinois. I like it.
Is this similar to the hook turns (right hand turns from left hand lane) in Victoria?
Not really. Jug handles are basically getting off the road in the right lane, then making a clockwise loop for 270 degrees back to the cross street you just passed.
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.
New Hampshire is the only state that has a section of interstate that is only one lane.
Until recently, New Hampshire’s Mt Washington held the official record of the highest recorded wind speed in the world.
I believe Vermont is the only state that outlaws commercial billboards.
Vermont has the most colleges per capita, although the greater Boston area has the most amount of colleges and students in the country.
I don’t know if Michigan is the only one, but I don’t know of any other states that have declared a person’s voice to be a natural resource (Aretha Franklin).
No, Maine has a 495 and a 295, as well as 95. A few years ago they mixed them up, and switched 295 to be part of 95, and part of what was 95 became 295.
ETA: just checked it. what was 495 is now 95. and there is a 195 also.
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.