US States: Other

See also US States: Cities (for state capitals and largest cities, and the dates on which each state joined the Union), and US States: Nicknames (for state nicknames, license plate nicknames, and other nicknames

Self–governing territory of the USA: an island in the eastern Caribbean, capital San Juan

Puerto Rico

Borders, Coastlines and Shores

Questions such as "Which five US states have coasts on the Pacific Ocean?" are quite popular. It's pointless talking about this topic without a map to refer to, so here's one I nicked from Wikipedia:

The following subsections divide the states into seven groups, according to which international borders or shores they have. (Some states appear in more than one group.)

Borders with Canada (11)

	Alaska		Washington		Idaho		Montana		North Dakota		Minnesota
	Michigan		New York		Vermont		New Hampshire		Maine

Note that these are land borders. Two other states (Ohio and Pennsylvania) have borders in the middle of Lake Erie.

Shores on the Great Lakes (8)

	Minnesota		Wisconsin		Illinois		Indiana
	Michigan		Ohio		Pennsylvania		New York

Atlantic Coastlines (14)

	Maine		New Hampshire		Massachusetts		Rhode Island		Connecticut
	New York		New Jersey		Delaware		Maryland		Virginia
	North Carolina		South Carolina		Georgia		Florida

Coastlines on the Gulf of Mexico (5)

Florida

Alabama

Mississippi

Louisiana

Texas

Borders with Mexico (4)

Texas

New Mexico

Arizona

California

Pacific Coastlines (5)

California

Oregon

Washington

Alaska

Hawaii

None (14)

The following states are entirely landlocked by other US states, and have no international borders, coastlines or shores on the Great Lakes.

In this subsection, in an attempt to reflect their positions on a map, the states are listed from North to South and West to East. On the top row, the first state listed is the most northerly and the other three are slightly further south, listed from west to east. The five states on the middle row are all at a similar latitude to each other, and are listed from west to east. The states on the bottom row are also listed from west to east, but note that the fourth state is to the north of the third state (on a similar latitude to the five states on the second row) and the fifth is to the east of the fourth.

I hope this makes sense!

	South Dakota		Wyoming		Nebraska		Iowa
	Nevada		Utah		Colorado		Kansas		Missouri
	Oklahoma		Arkansas		Tennessee		Kentucky		West Virginia

General

The six states of New England (from North to South):

Maine

New Hampshire

Vermont

Massachusetts

Rhode Island

Connecticut

Bought from Russia for $7.22 million in 1867; previously made up most of what was known as Russian America		Alaska
Largest in area; longest coastline (longer than all the other states put together, according to one measure); longest border with Canada
Most northerly, most westerly, and most easterly
Valley of Ten Thousand Smokes; Mount McKinley; Aleutian Islands; Kodiak Island; includes 13 of the USA's 15 largest islands
The only US state whose name can be typed using only the middle row of a standard QWERTY keyboard
Last of the 48 contiguous states to join the Union (14 February 1912 – 39 days after New Mexico)		Arizona
Lake Havasu, and the newly–planned city to which it gives its name – where London Bridge was rebuilt between 1968 and 1971
Grand Canyon; Petrified Forest (National Park) in the Painted Desert; Monument Valley; Tombstone (famous for the Gunfight at the OK Corral, 1881)
First to rejoin the Union after the Civil War		Arkansas
Mojave Desert; Joshua Tree, Yosemite and Sequoia National Parks; Death Valley		California
Mount Wilson, Mount Palomar (Observatories)
Stanford University
Most populous; third largest in area
Has a bear on its flag (the grizzly is the "state animal"); official motto is "Eureka!"
San Quentin (opened 1852) and Folsom (1880) are the two oldest prisons in
Named after Charles I (then a colony – split in 1729)		Carolina
Aspen, Vail (ski resorts)		Colorado
Yale University; southernmost state in New England		Connecticut
New Haven, New Britain and New London are cities in
First state to ratify the constitution (hence its nickname)		Delaware
Second smallest; also the sixth least populous, but the sixth most densely populated; and has the fewest counties (3 – New Castle, Kent and Sussex; Rhode Island has five, as does Hawaii)
Ceded to the USA by Spain in 1819, in exchange for $5 million and the USA's renunciation of any rights to Texas		Florida
Second longest coastline of the 50 states (after Alaska), and longest of all the 48 lower or contiguous states
Everglades National Park, Walt Disney World (including EPCOT)
St. Petersburg is the fifth largest city in
Naples – one of the USA's wealthiest cities, with its sixth–highest income per capita and the second–highest proportion of millionaires per capita
John F. Kennedy Space Centre, at Cape Canaveral
The southernmost point of mainland USA is in
St. Augustine: founded in 1565, the oldest continuously–occupied European–established settlement in the continental USA
Most southerly; the only one that doesn't have a land border, and the only one that doesn't have a straight border		Hawaii
Union Jack on its flag
Pearl Harbor, Waikiki Beach (both on the island of Oahu)
Kalaupapa – village that served as a leper colony from 1866 to 1969
Craters of the Moon National Monument		Idaho
'Hoosier' is the official demonym for a resident of		Indiana
Dodge City (famous as a Wild West frontier town; 2010 population 27,340); Wichita is the largest city in		Kansas
Fort Knox		Kentucky
Bourbon county (which gives its name to the type of whiskey that was first produced there in the late 18th century)
Took the (anglicised) name of the huge tract of land across the mid–west, named after a French king (Louis XIV) and sold by Napoleon for 60 million francs ($11.25 million) in 1803; home of cajun music and cooking, and zydeco music		Louisiana
The only one with a single–syllable name; largest state in New England (with just over half of the total area); formerly part of Massachusetts (although over three times the size). Only borders one other state; most easterly of the contiguous 48 (nearest to the Greenwich meridian); named (probably) after a province of France (immediately south of Normandy)		Maine
Named after the wife of Charles I (Henrietta Maria); Camp David (official holiday residence of the President of the USA)		Maryland
The most populous state in New England (about 45% of the population)		Massachusetts
Cape Cod, Harvard University, Salem (famous for its witch trials of 1692–3)
Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket are the two largest islands in
Has shores on four of the five Great Lakes (all except Ontario)		Michigan
Consists mainly of two peninsulas, separated by the Straits of Mackinac
Bay City, which (unwittingly) gave its name to the Bay City Rollers, is in
Kalamazoo		Michigan
Known as the Land of 10,000 Lakes – contains at least that many glacial lakes		Minnesota
Lake Itasca, the primary source of the Mississippi River, is in
Kansas City is in		Missouri
The Missouri River rises in		Montana
Omaha is the most populous city in		Nebraska
The Great Basin, Las Vegas		Nevada
The only US state whose name refers to an English county; the only one in New England with 'New' in its name		New Hampshire
The only US state that Maine has a border with
Bretton Woods is a ski resort in
Manchester is the largest city in
First state to hold primaries in the four–year presidential election cycle
The most densely–populated US state (slightly smaller than Wales, but with three times the population); Atlantic City (the original setting of Monopoly)		New Jersey
The first atomic bomb test explosion took place (on 16 July 1945) in		New Mexico
The chapparal cock (a.k.a. the greater roadrunner) is the state bird of
Amityville; Sing Sing Prison; Lake Placid (venue of the Winter Olympics in 1932 and 1980)		New York
Cornell and Columbia universities (the largest of the eight Ivy League institutions)
The Finger Lakes (and Lake Oneida, popularly known as 'the Thumb') are a popular tourist destination in
The only one of the other 44 states that has a border with New England (borders its three westernmost states – Vermont, Massachusetts and Connecticut)
Niagara Falls		New York, Ontario
Kitty Hawk		North Carolina
Named after Charles I		North & South Carolina
Columbus, Cleveland and Cincinnati are the three largest cities in		Ohio
Tulsa		Oklahoma
Lies between Washington and California on the Pacific coast		Oregon
Second to ratify the Constitution (5 days after Delaware)		Pennsylvania
Gettysburg (pop. 7,620 in 2010) – famous for the Civil War battle of 1863, and Lincoln's address at the dedication of the Soldiers' National Cemetery there four months later
Three Mile Island; Bethlehem is a major steel city in
Smallest in area, and the second most densely populated (after New Jersey)		Rhode Island
Named (partly) from the Dutch for 'red', after the colour of its soil
Last of the original 13 to ratify the Constitution
The only US state that has two words in its name, where the first word is not 'New' or a point of the compass
Charleston – scene of the first action in the Civil War and after which the dance was named (not to be confused with the state capital of West Virginia)		South Carolina
Mount Rushmore; Badlands National Park; Minuteman Missile National Historic Site; Crazy Horse Monument (under construction since 1948)		South Dakota
Chattanooga; Lynchburg – home of Jack Daniel's whiskey		Tennessee
San Antonio (site of the Alamo), Edward's Plateau		Texas
Amarillo is the 14th–largest city in
Produces 42% of the USA's oil (according to 2021 figures)
Second–largest, by area – and the largest of the 48 contiguous ones; was the largest of all, before Alaska joined; also the second–largest in population, after California
Six of the USA's twenty largest cities are in
Bonneville Salt Flats		Utah
Rainbow Bridge – the world's largest natural bridge (span 275ft, 84m)
The 14th state (first to join the Union after the original 13 – 4 March 1791 – 279 days, or 9 months 6 days, after Rhode Island became the 13th on 29 May 1790)		Vermont
Name is from the French for "green mountain"
Named after Elizabeth I		Virginia
Arlington Cemetery; The Pentagon (near Arlington); Shenandoah National Park; George Washington Birthplace National Monument
Yorktown – scene of the British surrender in 1781, at the end of the American War of Independence (population 195 in 2010)
Mount St. Helens (erupted in 1980); Puget Sound		Washington
Hanford Reservation, where weapon–grade plutonium was produced
Green Bay (named after the arm of Lake Michigan on which it stands – home of the Packers NFL team); Winnebago is the largest lake entirely within		Wisconsin
Least populous; first to give votes to women (1869)		Wyoming
Yellowstone National Park (mainly); Grand Teton National Park, and the nearby Jackson Hole National Monument
The Black Hills are in South Dakota and

© Haydn Thompson 2017–23