24. The Mr. Hairy Chest contest [Back]
25. Key West [Back]
26. Outhouses (on wheels, naturally) [Back]
27. The Grand Masters Fiddlers Convention [Back]
28. California (where else?); it’s held in Eureka. [Back]
More Famous Firsts // Answers
1. Ronald Reagan [Back]
2. Atlanta, Georgia [Back]
3. The Ferris wheel, of course [Back]
4. Felix the Cat [Back]
5. John Hancock, president of the Continental Congress at the time [Back]
6. Tupperware [Back]
7. Mark Twain’s Tom Sawyer [Back]
8. “Mutt and Jeff”; the original “A. Mutt” premiered in 1907. [Back]
9. Electrocution; this occurred in New York’s Auburn Prison. [Back]
10. Jimmy Carter [Back]
11. Space [Back]
12. The famous Baltimore & Ohio [Back]
13. The first commercial radio broadcast [Back]
14. Walk in space [Back]
15. Opryland in (of course) Nashville, Tennessee [Back]
16. North Carolina [Back]
17. John F. Kennedy, born in 1917 [Back]
18. Tennessee [Back]
19. New Hampshire [Back]
20. Amelia Earhart [Back]
21. George VI [Back]
22. Boston [Back]
23. John F. Kennedy, who died young because of being assassinated [Back]
24. Norman Rockwell [Back]
25. James Madison [Back]
26. Andrew Jackson (Ah, how times have changed.) [Back]
27. The future North Carolina; her parents were part of the famous “Lost Colony” that disappeared without a trace in the 1580s. [Back]
28. Zebulon Pike, for whom Pike’s Peak is named [Back]
29. Tampa and St. Petersburg, which are only a few miles apart; the service was called the “flying boat.” [Back]
30. The University of North Carolina [Back]
31. The Pilgrims, who signed the Mayflower Compact before going ashore [Back]
32. The first transcontinental flight (with numerous stops—no nonstops in those days) [Back]
33. Virginia, at the Jamestown colony [Back]
34. It was the first talking movie—or part-talking, anyway. The landmark film (which is partly silent) marked the end of the silent movie era. [Back]
35. Sir Walter Raleigh, famous at the court of Queen Elizabeth I; Fort Raleigh, on the North Carolina coast, was named for him. [Back]
36. Automobile; the trip lasted from May 23 to August 1. [Back]
The Heart of Dixie, Alabama // Answers
1. Alabama and Auburn; the name Iron Bowl stems from its original location at Legion Field in Birmingham, center of the steel industry. Since 2000, the Bowl is held at Auburn in odd-numbered years, Alabama in even-numbered years. [Back]
2. Birmingham, which, like Pittsburgh, is now a very pretty, clean, and breathable city [Back]
3. The Cloudmont snow is manufactured. [Back]
4. Huntsville, home of NASA’s Space Flight Center and home to rocket scientist Wernher von Braun [Back]
5. Mobile, which, like New Orleans, has a rich French heritage [Back]
6. The legendary Hank Williams [Back]
7. Auto racing; the International Motorsports Hall of Fame is next to the renowned Talladega Superspeedway. [Back]
8. Tuscaloosa, home of the University of Alabama, where Paul “Bear” Bryant coached football for many years [Back]
9. George Washington Carver, who helped develop peanut and sweet potato products [Back]
10. The citizens voted to secede from the state. [Back]
The Last Frontier, Alaska // Answers
1. The Klondike Gold Rush [Back]
2. Russia [Back]
3. “O Christmas Tree,” also known as “O Tannenbaum” [Back]
4. “Mushing”—that is, dogsled racing [Back]
5. Russia, the nation that Alaska is closest to [Back]
6. Will Rogers [Back]
7. The sea otter [Back]
8. Russia [Back]
9. Juneau [Back]
10. The Aleutians [Back]
The Grand Canyon State, Arizona // Answers
1. The Fiesta Bowl [Back]
2. Hopi [Back]
3. The stunning Monument Valley (Where would John Wayne have been without it?) [Back]
4. London Bridge, center of the twenty-one-acre English Village; the bridge was brought over in 1968. [Back]
5. Dinosaurs [Back]
6. None does. The farming is all done by irrigation. [Back]
7. Phoenix [Back]
8. The Mormons; it was a guardhouse for families protecting the church’s cattle herds. [Back]
9. Mules; horses ride around the canyon, but not into it. [Back]
10. The town’s streets are too steep even for mail carriers. [Back]
The Land of Opportunity, Arkansas // Answers
1. Hot Springs; this is the temperature of the water from the park’s forty-seven springs. [Back]
2. The discovery of gold, leading to the gold rush; Fort Smith became a favorite starting place for wagons heading west. [Back]
3. Its annual Watermelon Festival, with a competition for the biggest; one winner weighed 260 pounds. [Back]
4. Frogs; it is the Frog Fantasies collection. [Back]
5. Cars; the Museum of Automobiles in Morrilton has many cars from Rockefeller’s own large personal collection. [Back]
6. The Arkansas State Fiddler’s Contest, held in September [Back]
7. Outhouses (on wheels, of course) [Back]
8. Air guns—that is, BB guns and pellet guns; the museum is run by the Daisy company, maker of such guns. [Back]
9. Pine Bluff; several days before Charleston’s Fort Sumter was fired on (the official beginning of the war), Pine Bluff locals fired on a federal gunboat and confiscated its supplies. [Back]
10. Aluminum, made from the bauxite ore that is common in Arkansas [Back]
The Golden State, California // Answers
1. The Pony Express, ending at Sacramento [Back]
2. Los Angeles [Back]
3. Disneyland [Back]
4. Berkeley, home of the main campus of the University of California [Back]
5. Death Valley (282 feet below sea level) and Mount Whitney (14,494 feet) [Back]
6. Redwoods [Back]
7. The Angels [Back]
8. Mexicali (Notice any similarity of names?) [Back]
9. Death Valley, which is mostly below sea level [Back]
10. Catalina Island, developed by the Wrigley Company [Back]
The Centennial State, Colorado // Answers
1. It became a state in 1876, the country’s centennial. [Back]
2. A foot race [Back]
3. Colorado Springs [Back]
4. The U.S. Air Force Academy [Back]
5. Skiing; since then the town has become “Ski Town U.S.A.” [Back]
6. Gold from the Colorado mines [Back]
7. The U.S. Mint—literally a moneymaking place [Back]
8. Loveland; people mail them there, hoping to get them remailed with the city’s postmark. [Back]
9. The U.S. Olympic Committee [Back]
10. Bat Masterson [Back]
The Constitution State, Connecticut // Answers
1. “Yankee Doodle” [Back]
2. Noah Webster’s [Back]
3. Carousels; it’s the New England Carousel Museum. [Back]
4. Submarines [Back]
5. Insurance; many companies are headquartered there. [Back]
6. The Whalers [Back]
7. The Gutenberg Bible, the oldest printed Bible [Back]
8. The Connecticut, appropriately enough [Back]
9. Locks; the Lock Museum of America displays many interesting antique locks. [Back]
10. It’s the nation’s oldest continuously operating amusement park. [Back]
The First State, Delawar
e // Answers
1. It was the first state to ratify the U.S. Constitution (Dec. 7, 1787). [Back]
2. Holly—American holly, to be specific [Back]
3. The ladybug, one of the few insects people actually seem to like [Back]
4. Because of the many D.C. residents who vacation there [Back]
5. DuPont [Back]
6. Three; Rhode Island, a smaller state, has five. [Back]
7. Coins and jewels taken from sunken ships [Back]
8. The Dutch, who were early settlers of the state [Back]
9. Gunpowder [Back]
10. Maryland and Virginia; DELaware, MARyland, and VirginiA yield Delmarva. [Back]
The Sunshine State, Florida // Answers
1. Walt Disney World, of course [Back]
2. Tourism—surprise! [Back]
3. Key West [Back]
4. Hernando DeSoto; believe it or not, Florida has a Hernando County and a DeSoto County. [Back]
5. Daytona Beach, where several speed records were set during the early days of the automobile [Back]
6. Universal’s Islands of Adventure, Orlando [Back]
7. Jacksonville; the city is so large because its city limits are the same as those of its surrounding county, Duval. [Back]
8. Manatee [Back]
9. Tampa, which for a time was known for making cigars; the Cigar Bowl was held from 1946 to 1954. [Back]
10. St. Petersburg [Back]
The Peach State, Georgia // Answers
1. Gone with the Wind, of course [Back]
2. The Appalachian Trail [Back]
3. Gold; it was America’s first gold rush. [Back]
4. Peachtree; there are over thirty-five variations of the name—Peachtree Street, Peachtree Circle, Peachtree Memorial Drive, etc. [Back]
5. Savannah [Back]
6. Franklin D. Roosevelt, who died there [Back]
7. Union general William Tecumseh Sherman—not one of the most beloved men in Georgia history [Back]
8. John and Charles Wesley, the founders of the Methodist movement in the 1700s [Back]
10. Turner Field in Atlanta, named for media mogul Ted Turner; the Atlanta Braves have played there since 1997. [Back]
The Aloha State, Hawaii // Answers
1. The Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor [Back]
2. Sugarcane [Back]
3. Asians, mostly Japanese; it is the only state in which white residents are not the majority. [Back]
4. Hawaii Five-O [Back]
5. “Aloha Oe” [Back]
6. Tourism, naturally [Back]
7. A goose [Back]
8. Coffee [Back]
9. James Dole (as in Dole Pineapple) [Back]
10. Black [Back]
The Gem State, Idaho // Answers
1. Potatoes [Back]
2. Its name means “gem of the mountains.” [Back]
3. Sun Valley [Back]
4. Boise, the capital [Back]
5. Tub races, what else? [Back]
6. Moscow [Back]
7. Snow sculpting [Back]
8. Salmon [Back]
9. Chariots [Back]
10. Gold [Back]
Land of Lincoln, Illinois // Answers
1. Al Capone [Back]
2. McDonald’s [Back]
3. Abraham Lincoln, naturally [Back]
4. Chicago; the Chicago Transit Authority (CTA) trains serve as both elevated transit (the “L”) and as subway transit depending on what part of the city they’re in. [Back]
5. The Mormons’s [Back]
6. Billy Graham; Graham is a Wheaton College alumnus. [Back]
7. The Magnificent Mile [Back]
8. Soccer (indoor soccer to be exact) [Back]
9. Ulysses S. Grant, eighteenth president [Back]
10. Brookfield; it’s usually just called the Brookfield Zoo. [Back]
The Hoosier State, Indiana // Answers
1. The Indianapolis 500 [Back]
2. Bicycles; the race was featured in the movie Breaking Away. [Back]
3. Purdue, home of the Boilermakers [Back]
4. Swiss—to be specific, Swiss Mennonites who were fleeing religious persecution in their homeland [Back]
5. Santa Claus [Back]
6. The University of Notre Dame [Back]
7. Popcorn; the Popcorn Festival is held in mid-September. [Back]
8. William Henry Harrison, ninth president, one-time governor of the Indiana Territory, and his grandson Benjamin Harrison, twenty-third president [Back]
9. Memorial Day [Back]
10. Daniel Boone, who happened to have a brother named Squire [Back]
The Hawkeye State, Iowa // Answers
1. Ronald Reagan, who was a sportscaster at WHO [Back]
2. Maytag [Back]