Strange Facts About Every State

The United States is full of weird stuff. There are quirky roadside attractions, creepy haunted places and even historical sites that have their own wild secrets. In fact, there are so many things to discover, you can live in a state for your entire life and still not know all of its surprising facts and secrets. These are some of the strangest facts about every state and Washington, D.C., and even these oddities are just scratching the surface.

Multiple Guinness World Record-setting vegetables have been grown in Alaska. What makes the Last Frontier suited for growing freakishly large veggies? In parts of the state, the sun can shine for up to 20 hours a day during the summer months, giving plants the fuel to grow extra-large. Examples of this large produce include a 138-pound cabbage, a 65-pound cantaloupe, 35-pound broccoli and a record-setting pumpkin that weighed a whopping 2,051 pounds. So perhaps the best beginning gardener tip is just to live in Alaska?

One park in Arkansas is less famous for its beautiful sights than it is for its beautiful rocks. If you find a diamond while scouring the 37-acre field at Crater of Diamonds State Park in Murfreesboro, Arkansas, you are allowed to keep the gem. The volcanic crater contains a variety of rocks, minerals and gemstones, including white, brown and yellow diamonds as well as amethyst, garnet, jasper, agate and quartz. More than 33,000 diamonds have been found there since 1972, including the largest diamond ever unearthed in America, the 40.23-carat "Uncle Sam" diamond.

The state of Colorado actually once had three governors in one day. Back in 1904, Democrat Alva Adams won the gubernatorial election, but his Republican opponent, James H. Peabody, contested the election after learning that Adams had used "repeaters," or people who voted more than once. Adams, in turn, countered that Peabody had also engaged in fraudulent voting. After an investigation verified both claims, Adams was forced out of office and replaced by Peabody, under the condition that Peabody would resign within 24 hours. After resigning, Peabody was replaced by Lieutenant Governor Jesse F. McDonald. Colorado has plenty of other unique distinctions, including being one of the first two states to legalize recreational marijuana.

For a variety of reasons, Delaware has become a corporate tax haven, and more than 1 million businesses — including Coca-Cola, Disney, DuPont, GE and Google — have incorporated or re-incorporated there despite not having offices or headquarters there. With a 2019 population of about 973,000, that's more businesses than people.

Coca-Cola's logo might be recognized by 94% of the world's population, but this famous soda was invented in Georgia by Dr. John Pemberton of Atlanta in 1886. It actually wasn't a hit right away. During the first year, sales of the soda averaged only nine drinks per day, and Pemberton passed away before his invention saw soaring success. Today, Atlanta is home to the World of Coca-Cola, a museum where visitors can learn all sorts of fun facts about this beverage's storied history.

Why watch the ball drop in Times Square when you can watch the potato drop in Boise? Since 2013, thousands of "spec-taters" have gathered at the Idaho State Capitol for one of the more unique New Year's Eve traditions in the U.S. As the clock strikes midnight, a giant, illuminated "GlowTato" is lowered from above. If you can't make it to Idaho to see this, don't worry, every state has an ideal place to ring in the New Year.

In 1897 there was a bill introduced by the Indiana Legislature to round up the lengthy decimal value of pi (generally shortened to 3.14) to 3.2, after physician Edwin J. Goodwin discovered what he believed to be a new way of solving the old mathematical riddle of "squaring the circle," which is impossible. The Indiana Pi bill never became law — close call — but Hoosier pie remains one of the most iconic pies in America.

Pizza lovers may be interested to learn that Pizza Hut was actually born in Kansas. Two brothers opened the very first Pizza Hut in downtown Wichita in 1958 after borrowing $600 from their mother. They decided on "Pizza Hut" because the sign had room for only eight letters. Today, Pizza Hut is among America's favorite pizza chains.

Louisiana is home to the longest continuous bridge over a body of water in the world. The Second Lake Pontchartrain Causeway is nearly 24 miles long and connects the towns of Metairie (just outside New Orleans) and Mandeville. It's one of the most amazing bridges in the world and something you need to see to believe.

In 2004, Maryland instituted a "flush tax" of $30 per year on homeowners in order to improve sewage treatment plants. The amount has increased to $60 per year, so if you live in Maryland, you're paying $5 a month for the privilege of using the bathroom.

Michigan is the only two-part state in the country. It is made up of two peninsulas — the Upper Peninsula and Lower Peninsula — with the Straits of Mackinac separating the two. It's also the only state that borders four of the five Great Lakes. Due to this unique geography, it has the longest shoreline of every state except for Alaska. That makes for some great underrated beach towns.

Ever wonder where the term "teddy bear" came from? In 1902, President Theodore Roosevelt was hunting near Onward, Mississippi, with the state's governor and was the only one in the group who hadn't shot a bear. When one was found and tied to a tree for him to shoot, Roosevelt refused to do so. A cartoon satirizing the event appeared in the Washington Post later that year, inspiring a candy shop owner to create and sell a stuffed bear in his honor dubbed "Teddy's Bear."

The greatest recorded temperature change in 24 hours took place in Browning, Montana, on Jan. 23 and 24, 1916, according to the Guinness Book of World Records. During that span, the temperature fell from 44 degrees F to minus 56 degrees F. This extreme weather condition was a drop of 100 total degrees.

In 1940, a human skeleton was discovered in a small cave in the foothills of Nevada's Stillwater Mountains that was dubbed the Spirit Cave Mummy. More than 50 years later in the 1990s, radiocarbon dating revealed that it was in fact more than 10,000 years old, making it the oldest natural mummy ever found.

The United States is home to many amazing historic boardwalks, but the first and longest in the world is located in Atlantic City, New Jersey. The famous Jersey Shore landmark is 5.5 miles long and is where you can find an iconic Atlantic City souvenir: saltwater taffy.

We tend to think of zip codes as being the domain of neighborhoods, and for much of New York City, that's the case. But some of the city's most famous buildings actually have zip codes of their own, including the Empire State Building (10118).

One of the tiniest towns in America and the smallest incorporated town in the state of North Dakota is Ruso, which has a population of just four. There were only three inhabitants when its longtime mayor, Bruce Lorenz, died at age 86 in 2018, which caused a problem: In order to be incorporated, a community needs at least three residents. Thankfully, a nearby couple, Greg and Michelle Schmaltz, moved to the town later that year, saving it from disincorporation.

Outside of the attack on Pearl Harbor, there were other bombings of the U.S. during World War II. Boise City in the Oklahoma panhandle was also bombed on the night of July 5, 1943 — but as the result of accidental friendly fire when an American training run went off-course. Six 100-pound dummy bombs rained down on the courthouse square, leaving 4-foot craters but thankfully causing no injuries.

One of the most mesmerizing places in the world is the abandoned town of Centralia, Pennsylvania, where a coal mine fire from 1962 is still burning underground. Due to the smoke and ongoing danger from the fire, which remains fueled by abandoned mine tunnels, the state forced out all the town's residents and condemned all its buildings, although a handful of holdouts remain in this ghost town.

Believed to be the oldest living structure east of the Mississippi River, the Angel Oak is located on Johns Island outside Charleston, a U.S. island you may never have heard of. It stands 65 feet tall and provides 1,700 square feet of shade, and some of its branches are so heavy that they rest on the ground. It's estimated to be 1,500 years old.

Popular soda brand Mountain Dew can trace its roots to Tennessee. It was invented in Knoxville in the 1940s by brothers Barney and Ally Hartman as a mixer for low-quality whiskey, and the name itself is an old slang term for moonshine.

The residents of Utah consume the most Jell-O per capita in the country. It's so beloved that this retro food became the official state snack, joining a long list of unique official state foods.

The state of Virginia claims to have actually had the "First Thanksgiving" in 1619, predating the famous feast in Plymouth, Massachusetts, by almost two years. According to the Smithsonian, however, the first recorded Thanksgiving gathering held by Europeans in North America occurred even earlier in Newfoundland, Canada, on May 27, 1578. Regardless, those historic celebrations don't look a lot like the food spreads we serve today.

The nation's capital might seem like a fitting place to bury the country's presidents, but history buffs might know that only one president is interred within D.C.'s borders. Woodrow Wilson is entombed at Washington National Cathedral. Two are buried at Arlington National Cemetery, located just outside of the district: William Howard Taft and John F. Kennedy.

Australia, Hawaii, South Africa ... Sheboygan, Wisconsin? Believe it or not, this underrated American city is renowned for its great surfing, so much so that it's been dubbed "the Malibu of the Midwest." Surfers take to Lake Michigan year-round, but prime surf season is actually during the winter.