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US Trivia

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California, Arizona, New Mexico, Nevada, Utah, western Colorado, and southwestern Wyoming comprised the territory taken from Mexico following the Mexican War in 1846.

California's state tree is the redwood, which can grow up to 370 feet tall.

Chicago is home to the world's largest population of Poles outside of Warsaw, Poland.

Chicago, Illinois, was nicknamed the "Windy City" because of the excessive local bragging that accompanied the Columbian Exhibition of 1893.Chicago has actually been rated as only the 16th breeziest city in America.

Located in Cochise County in southern Arizona, the city of Tombstone is probably the most famous and most glamorized mining town in all of North America. According to legend, prospectors Ed Schieffelin and his brother Al were warned not to venture into the Apache-inhabited Mule Mountains because they would only "find their tombstones." Thus, with a touch of the macabre, the Schieffelins named their first silver strike claim Tombstone, and it became the name of the town.

Louisiana is nicknamed the "Pelican State." Its state bird is the pelican.

Maine is the only U.S. state that adjoins only one other state.

Many cities in our country bear the names of other countries. The U.S. city of Mexico can be found in the states of Indiana, Maine, and Missouri.

Meadowcroft Rock Shelter in Washington County Pennsylvania is the earliest documented place of human habitation in the Western Hemisphere. Studies done by anthropologist, Dr. James Adovasio, in the summers of 1973, 1974, and 1975, found evidence of early civilizations. Carbon dating revealed the remains were from human habitants living in the area 16,240 years ago.

Meramec Caverns is the largest commercial cave in the state of Missouri. Missouri is also known as the “Cave State,” as it is home to more than 6,000 surveyed caves. Over the centuries, local tribes of Indians used Meramec Caverns as shelter. In the 1700s, French miner Jacques Renault founded one of the Cavern's greatest natural resources, saltpeter. This substance was used exclusively for the manufacture of gunpowder. Local legend claims the cave was used as a station on the "Underground Railroad" to hide escaping slaves. In the early 1870s, Jesse James and his band hid in the Caverns on many occasions because it afforded a safe hideout for men and horses after train and bank robberies.

Colorado's capital of Denver is the largest metro city in a 600-mile radius – an area almost the size of Europe.

Daily average yield of an oil well at full production in Alaska's Prudhoe Bay field is 10,000 barrels. In the other 48 states, the average is only 11 barrels.

Death Valley in southern California is the lowest point in the United States at 282 feet below sea level. The highest point in the contiguous 48 states is also in California: Mount Whitney, which is 14,491 feet above sea level.

Denver has the nation's largest city park system, with more than 200 parks within city limits and 20,000 acres of parks in the nearby mountains – an area larger than all of Manhattan Island.

Devils Tower in Wyoming, the world-famous, nearly vertical monolith rises 1,267 feet above the Belle Fourche River. Known by several northern plains tribes as Bears Lodge, it is a sacred site of worship for many American Indians. Scientists are still undecided as to what exactly caused the natural wonder, although they agree that it is the remnant of an ancient volcanic feature.

Diamond Head Crater is Hawaii's most famous landmark. The United States Army built a trail up the crater in 1908, and added bunkers during World War II. The trail passes through an old gun emplacement.

During the nineteenth century, Michigan was a key stop on the Underground Railroad, and many runaway slaves decided to make their homes there. Currently, 14 percent of Michigan's population is African American.

Miami Beach, Long Beach, Huntington Beach, Palm Beach, Pacific Beach, Hermosa Beach, Redondo Beach — there are scores of U.S. coastal cities and towns with "beach" in their names. Surprisingly, there's only one city in the United States named merely "Beach." It is found in North Dakota, which is a land-locked state.

Miami, Florida, is the most southerly major city in the continental United States, sitting about two degrees north of the Tropic of Cancer.

Michigan was the first U.S. state to have road-side picnic tables.

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