Louisiana

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Louisiana sits above the Gulf of Mexico at the mouth of the Mississippi River, bordered by Arkansas to the north, Mississippi to the east and Texas to the west. Originally colonized by the French during the 18th century, it became U.S. territory as part of the historic Louisiana Purchase in 1803, and was admitted to the union in 1812. Louisiana’s capital city is Baton Rouge. It is also home to the historic port city New Orleans, which is famous for its unique cuisine, jazz and spectacular Mardi Gras festival.

Date of Statehood: April 30, 1812

Capital: Baton Rouge

Population: 4,533,372 (2010)

Size: 51,988 square miles

Nickname(s): Pelican State; Sportsman’s Paradise

Motto: Union, Justice, Confidence

Tree: Bald Cypress

Flower: Magnolia

Bird: Eastern Brown Pelican

Interesting Facts

In 1803, Thomas Jefferson doubled the size of the United States by purchasing the Louisiana Territory—828,000 square miles of land between the Mississippi River and the Rocky Mountains—from France. Louisiana was the first of 13 states, or parts of states, to be carved out of the territory in 1812.

Due to slow communications, the Battle of New Orleans was fought two weeks after the Treaty of Ghent was signed on December 24, 1814, ending the War of 1812 between the United States and Great Britain.  General Andrew Jackson, who led between 6,000 and 7,000 troops to victory, emerged from the battle a national hero.

At 34 stories high and 450 feet tall, the Louisiana State Capitol is the tallest of all state capitol buildings. On September 8, 1935, Senator Huey Long—who had been instrumental in convincing the public to construct the new building in 1935—was assassinated in one of its corridors.

Louisiana is home to a wide diversity of cultures. Two prominent ethnic groups are Cajuns, descendants of a French-speaking group of Acadians from Canada, and Creoles, people with a mixed French, Spanish, Caribbean, African and/or Indian background.

Hurricane Katrina hit landfall in southeastern Louisiana on August 29, 2005, as a Category 3 storm. The most destructive natural disaster in U.S. history, it resulted in more than 1,800 deaths—over 1,500 of which were in Louisiana—and close to $100 billion in damages.


Kentucky

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Kentucky was granted statehood in 1792, becoming the first U.S. state west of the Appalachian Mountains. Frontiersman Daniel Boone was one of Kentucky's most prominent explorers and many immigrants followed the trail he blazed through the Cumberland Gap, known as the Wilderness Road. Although it sided with the Confederacy during the Civil War, the population was deeply divided, and many Kentucky residents fought for the North. Known primarily as an agricultural area into the 20th century, Kentucky is also a major U.S. coal producer and site of the U.S. military bases Fort Knox and Fort Campbell. It is also known as the home of the legendary Kentucky Derby horse race and bluegrass music, pioneered by Kentucky native Bill Monroe.

Date of Statehood: June 1, 1792

Capital: Frankfort

Population: 4,339,367 (2010)

Size: 40,411 square miles

Nickname(s): Bluegrass State

Motto: United we stand, divided we fall

Tree: Tulip Poplar

Flower: Goldenrod

Bird: Cardinal

Despite the fact that there were no battles fought within the state, more than half of all Americans killed in action during the War of 1812 were from Kentucky.

In late August of 1888, nine members of the Hatfield family were tried and convicted at the Pike County Courthouse in Kentucky for a raid on Randall McCoy’s home, in which his son and daughter were killed, his wife was beaten unconscious and his home was burned to the ground.  The long-running feud between the Hatfields of West Virginia and the McCoys of Kentucky claimed a dozen members of the two clans. In 2003, the families signed a formal truce, putting an official end to the hostilities.

The "Happy Birthday to You" melody was the creation of sisters Mildred and Patty Hill in 1893. While working at Louisville Experimental Kindergarten School, the duo created a song for teachers to sing to students entitled “Good Morning to All.” In 1924, Robert Coleman first published the “Happy Birthday to You” lyrics along with the tune. It is now one of the most popular songs in the English language.

The United States Bullion Depository in Fort Knox contains the largest gold reserve in the world. In 2011, the holdings were worth more than $260 billion.

The annual three-day Hillbilly Days Festival attracts more than 100,000 people to Pikeville. The event began in 1977 as a way to celebrate Appalachian culture while raising money for the Shriners Hospitals for Children.

Kansas

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Kansas, situated on the American Great Plains, became the 34th state on January 29, 1861. Its path to statehood was long and bloody: After the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854 opened the two territories to settlement and allowed the new settlers to determine whether the states would be admitted to the union as "free" or "slave," North and South competed to send the most settlers into the region. This quickly led to violence, and the territory became known as "Bleeding Kansas." Kansas has long been known as part of America's agricultural heartland, and is home to the major U.S. military installation Fort Leavenworth. In 1954, it became a battleground of the civil rights movement when the landmark Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka case was decided in the Supreme Court, ending the doctrine of "separate but equal" in public schools. Kansas is also known for its contributions to jazz music, barbecue and as the setting of L. Frank Baum's classic children's book The Wizard of Oz.

Date of Statehood: January 29, 1861

Capital: Topeka

Population: 2,853,118 (2010)

Size: 82,278 square miles

Nickname(s): Sunflower State; Wheat State; Jayhawk State

Motto: Ad astra per aspera  (“To the stars through difficulties”)

Tree: Cottonwood

Flower: Wild Native Sunflower

Bird: Western Meadowlark

Interesting Facts

Fort Riley was established near the Kansas River in 1853 to protect settlers and trade along the Oregon and Santa Fe Trails. In 1866, the 7th Cavalry organized at the fort under General George Armstrong Custer, who later led the regiment in the infamous attack on Sioux and Cheyenne tribes at the Battle of Little Bighorn in June of 1876.

When French astronomer Pierre Janssen first discovered the element he called helium on the sun in 1868, it was believed to be one of the most rare elements. It wasn’t until 1905, when faculty members at The University of Kansas in Lawrence began experimenting with gas from a newly drilled well in Dexter, that helium was identified as a common element found on Earth.

Kansas is the leading producer of wheat in the United States. Referred to as “The Wheat Capital of the World,” Sumner County produced 9 million bushels in 2009.

Meade's Ranch in Osborne County, Kansas, is the Geodetic Center of North America—the point of reference by which all property lines and boundaries in North America are surveyed. Identified in 1901, this triangulation station for the United States, Canada and Mexico is also known as the North American Datum.

Although the origin remains unclear, the terms “jayhawk” and “jayhawker” were originally used to describe raiders and looters during the period of unrest following the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854 when settlers of the Kansas Territory were left to decide the issue of slavery. It was later used solely as a label for free-state proponents, and eventually became associated with all Kansans.

Iowa

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Iowa was admitted to the union as the 29th state on Dec. 28, 1846. As a Midwestern state, Iowa forms a bridge between the forests of the east and the grasslands of the high prairie plains to the west. Its gently rolling landscape rises slowly as it extends westward from the Mississippi River, which forms its entire eastern border. The Missouri River and its tributary, the Big Sioux, form the western border, making Iowa the only U.S. state that has two parallel rivers defining its borders. Iowa is bounded by the states of Minnesota to the north, Wisconsin and Illinois to the east, Missouri to the south, and Nebraska and South Dakota to the west. Des Moines, in the south-central part of the state, is the capital. The state name is derived from the Iowa Native American people who once inhabited the area.

Date of Statehood: December 28, 1846

Capital: Des Moines

Population: 3,046,355 (2010)

Size: 56,273 square miles

Nickname(s): Hawkeye State

Motto: Our liberties we prize, and our rights we will maintain

Tree: Oak

Flower: Wild Rose

Bird: Eastern Goldfinch

Interesting Facts

A culture known as the Effigy Moundbuilders inhabited northeastern Iowa between 1400 and 750 B.C. The more than 200 mounds of earth that remain within Effigy Mounds National Monument—several shaped like animals such as bears, birds and bison—were believed to have been used for ceremonial purposes or to track celestial events.

Sergeant Charles Floyd was the only member of the Corps of Discovery to die during the Lewis and Clark expedition exploring the unchartered West. On August 20, 1804, he succumbed to infection caused by a ruptured appendix. A 100-foot obelisk marks his final resting place in Sioux City.

When the Winnebago Indians were forced to leave their homeland in Wisconsin in 1840, the U.S. government offered the tribe protection on their new temporary land in Iowa from other tribes and illegal settlers. Completed in 1842, Fort Atkinson was the only fort built by the United States to protect one Indian tribe from another.

Since 1972, Iowa has kicked off the presidential primary process by holding the nation’s first caucuses. When a largely unknown Jimmy Carter became the frontrunner in the 1976 Democratic caucus, the national attention he received ultimately helped him to win the presidency—and solidified the importance of the Iowa caucuses.

Iowa is the largest producer of corn in the United States. In 2011, famers harvested more than 2.3 billion bushels.

Indiana

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Indiana sits, as its motto claims, at “the crossroads of America.” It borders Lake Michigan and the state of Michigan to the north, Ohio to the east, Kentucky to the south, and Illinois to the west, making it an integral part of the American Midwest. Except for Hawaii, Indiana is the smallest state west of the Appalachian Mountains. After the American Revolution the lands of Indiana were open to U.S. settlers. The influx of white immigrants brought increased war with the Native American tribes. The conflicts continued until the 1811 Battle of Tippecanoe, which was won by General, and future president, William Henry Harrison. With a name that is generally thought to mean “land of the Indians,” Indiana was admitted on Dec. 11, 1816, as the 19th state of the union. Its capital has been at Indianapolis since 1825.

Date of Statehood: December 11, 1816

Capital: Indianapolis

Population: 6,483,802 (2010)

Size: 36,417 square miles

Nickname(s): Hoosier State

Motto: The crossroads of America

Tree: Tulip

Flower: Peony

Bird: Cardinal

Interesting Facts

Many families throughout the state of Indiana provided shelter for runaway slaves both before and during the Civil War. In particular, the farming community of Newport (now Fountain City) became known as the "Grand Central Station of the Underground Railroad" due to Levi and Catherine Coffin’s role in helping more than 2,000 runaway slaves make their way north to freedom.

Bedford, Indiana, is known as the “Limestone Capital of the World.” Admired for its light color and ease of cutting, Indiana limestone was used in the construction of the Empire State Building in New York City, the Pentagon and National Cathedral in Washington, D.C., as well as several state capitols.

The Indianapolis Motor Speedway hosted the first Indianapolis 500 mile race on its 2.5-mile track on May 30, 1911, two years after it opened. Equipped to seat an audience of more than 250,000, the Speedway is the world’s largest spectator sporting arena.

Although authorities claimed the county jail in Crown Point was “escape proof,” notorious bank robber John Dillinger successfully broke free from his cell on March 3, 1934, by threatening guards with a fake pistol carved from wood. Using the sheriff’s car to make his getaway, Dillinger crossed the Indiana-Illinois border, setting off a federal manhunt that led to his death by FBI agents on July 22nd.

In August of 1987, more than 4,000 athletes from 38 nations met in Indianapolis for the Pan American Games after both Chile and Ecuador reneged as host due to financial reasons.

Santa Claus, Indiana, receives hundreds of thousands of letters addressed to the Christmas legend every year—each of which is responded to individually.

Illinois

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The first Europeans to visit Illinois were the French explorers Louis Jolliet and Jacques Marquette in 1673, but the region was ceded to Britain after the French and Indian War. After the American Revolution, Illinois became a territory of the United States, and achieved statehood in 1818. Located on Lake Michigan, and connected to the eastern ports via the Erie Canal, Chicago became a booming metropolis, and even the fire of 1871 could not stunt its growth. In the second half of the 19th century the great need for workers in the mills, rail yards and slaughterhouses made Chicago a popular destination for immigrants and freed blacks. During Prohibition Chicago became synonymous with bootleg liquor and gangsters like Al Capone.

Date of Statehood: December 3, 1818

Capital: Springfield

Population: 12,830,632 (2010)

Size: 57,916 square miles

Nickname(s): Prairie State; Land of Lincoln

Motto: State Sovereignty, National Union

Tree: White Oak

Flower: Violet

Bird: Cardinal

Interesting Facts

In 1858, incumbent Democratic Senator Stephen A. Douglas and Abraham Lincoln—for the most part unfamiliar at the time—engaged in a series of debates throughout Illinois for the state’s Senate seat. Although Lincoln lost the race, his warning against a nation divided between free and slave-holding states drew the attention of the nation, and he was elected president only two years later.

What began as an ordinary fire in Patrick and Catherine O’Leary’s barn on October 8, 1871, quickly turned into what became known as the Great Chicago Fire, which devastated roughly 18,000 buildings, left close to 100,000 inhabitants homeless and killed between 200 and 300 people.

On May 4, 1886, after weeks of protests in which workers were demanding an eight-hour workday, a bomb was thrown during a demonstration at the Randolph Street Haymarket. Eight officers were killed and 60 were injured, spurring a public cry for justice. Although the bomber was never identified, eight anarchists were tried and convicted of murder in what is often referred to as a grave miscarriage of justice.

The World's Columbian Exposition of 1893 in Chicago attracted 27 million visitors during its six-month operation—more than 40 percent of the United States’ total population at the time. Among the many inventions exhibited there was the first Ferris wheel, built to rival the Eiffel Tower that had been built for the Paris Fair in 1889. The 250-foot diameter wheel carried 36 cars with up to 60 riders each.

When an angry mob formed outside of the city jail in Springfield on August 14, 1908, seeking revenge against two black men accused of separate crimes against whites, policemen escorted the prisoners out the back door to safety. In the violent riot that ensued, buildings were destroyed and looted and two unrelated black members of the community were lynched. The appalling event led to the formation of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) a few months later.

Illinois has the largest recoverable bituminous coal reserve of any state in the United States--close to 1.2 billion tons.

Idaho

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Bordered by the Canadian province of British Columbia to the north and the U.S. states of Montana and Wyoming to the east, Utah and Nevada to the south, and Oregon and Washington to the west, Idaho is twice as large as the six New England states combined.  With an abundance of scenic mountains, lakes, rivers and outdoor attractions, the state draws more than 20 million tourists eachyear. Idaho produces more potatoes and trout than any other state in the nation, and is known as the “Gem State” for the 72 types of precious and semi-precious stones it produces—some of which are exclusive to the state. Its state capital, Boise, is also its largest city with more than 200,000 residents.

Date of Statehood: July 3, 1890

Capital: Boise

Population: 1,567,582 (2010)

Size: 83,568 square miles

Nickname(s): Gem State

Motto: Esto perpetua  (“Let it be perpetual”)

Tree: Western White Pine

Flower: Syringa

Bird: Mountain Bluebird

Interesting Facts

Meriwether Lewis and members of the Corps of Discovery entered Idaho for the first time in 1805, making it the last of the U.S. states to be explored by European-Americans. Along with a reconnaissance team, William Clark attempted to find a passage across the Salmon River in August, but was deterred by the churning rapids and steep rock walls. The river is often referred to as “The River of No Return.”

The state seal of Idaho is the only state seal in the United States designed by a woman. In 1891, Emma Edwards Green, who had previously attended art school in New York, entered and won a competition sponsored by the First Legislature for the State of Idaho with her depiction of a miner, a woman signifying justice and various state natural resources.

Carved by the Snake River, Hell's Canyon is North America's deepest river gorge—even deeper than the Grand Canyon—with a width of ten miles and a depth of 7,913 feet below He Devil Peak in the Seven Devils Mountains.

Idaho’s State Capitol, constructed between 1905 and 1920, is the only capitol building in the nation to be heated by geothermal water from a source 3,000 feet below the ground. In operation since 1982, the water system currently heats about 1.5 million square feet within the Capitol Mall complex.

Author Ernest Hemingway, who won a Pulitzer Prize for The Old Man in the Sea in 1953 and who was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature the following year, died of a self-inflicted shotgun wound in his home in Ketchum on July 2, 1961. A memorial, exhibit and festival held near Sun Valley pay tribute to the renowned author’s accomplishments and time spent in Idaho.

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