Image: joe daniel price / Moment / Getty Images
About This Quiz
You're finally visiting that old friend from college who moved to the other side of the country. They want you to fly into the capital, and they'll pick you up from the airport. Would you know what city you were flying into, or would you end up halfway across the state? It's a good thing there's Google, but it's got to be a little hit to your pride not to be able to match each state to its capital through memory alone. Are you going to let your ego take that hit, or do you have every state and capital memorized?
From sea to shining sea, the United States might be just that, united, but that doesn't mean each state isn't unique in its own right, most evident by the capitals that serve as important political and cultural centers for their respective states. These capitals weren't just randomly selected. Their locations were strategically planned to best benefit their state. To have a full grasp of the country, it's necessary to dive into each of these state capitals and at least find out where they are. This quiz is here to help.
When you're ready to dive back into some geography, get started and see if you can get a perfect score.
Oklahoma
North Dakota
Wyoming
Wyoming was the first state to elect a female governor when Nellie Tayloe Ross gained the governorship in 1925 after the death of her husband, William Bradford Ross. She was the 14th governor of the state and remains the only female governor from Wyoming.
Utah
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Massachusetts
Before becoming the sixth state of the United States of America, Massachusetts was one of the 13 British colonies located in North America. The colony was officially chartered by the English crown in 1692, though the territory was much larger when it was originally chartered.
Maine
North Carolina
Connecticut
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Georgia
Alabama
Alabama is well known for its Marshall Space Flight Center, though it's not located in Montgomery but in Huntsville. It's at that flight center that workers constructed the Saturn V rocket that carried the first humans to the moon.
Mississippi
Arkansas
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Tennessee
Ohio
Florida
Louisiana
Louisiana was a French territory before it was purchased by the United States in 1803 in the Louisiana Purchase, though it also included territory that stretched all the way to Canada. The French agreed to sell the land on a bargain deal to fund their war in Europe.
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Michigan
Delaware
Delaware received its first national monument in 2013 on the orders of President Barack Obama. The monument included 1,100 acres of preserved land as well as Dover Green, the location where officials from Delaware ratified the Constitution.
Virginia
New Jersey
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Texas
California
New Mexico
Alaska
The Alaskan state flag was designed in 1927 by a 13-year-old boy who answered a request for residents to submit their ideas. The flag includes the Big Dipper and the North Star, which are easily seen in the Alaskan skyline.
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Wisconsin
"The Onion," a satirical news outlet, was started by two students attending the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1988. At the beginning, it was a small campus newspaper but has since developed into one of the largest media companies in the world.
Utah
Oregon
North Carolina
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Arizona
Washington
Nevada
Carson City might be the capital of Nevada, but the state is much better known for Las Vegas, the gambling capital of the United States. Vegas attracts thousands of visitors each year, who come not only for the gambling but also for major events, like boxing and concerts.
West Virginia
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Georgia
South Carolina
Kentucky
Virginia
If you want your child to have a decent chance of becoming president, move to Virginia, where eight U.S. presidents have been born. Of course, that did include four of the first five presidents, including George Washington, but the odds are still better than in most other states.
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Arizona
Arizona has quite a few environmental landmarks you can visit, but none are as well known as the Grand Canyon. Running a mile deep at points, this canyon was carved out by the Colorado River long before the European explorers arrived.
Colorado
Utah
Oregon
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North Carolina
West Virginia
West Virginia was primarily created as a result of slavery, as there was a divide between the wealthy landowners in the east and the more common workers in the west. When Virginia decided to secede from the Union in 1861, delegates from the other side of the state voted to form a new state.
Montana
Kansas
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Arkansas
Idaho
Illinois
Ronald Reagan, the 40th President of the United States, was born in Tampico, Illinois, in 1911. President Abraham Lincoln also lived in Illinois for a time and was elected as a member of the U.S. House of Representatives.
Michigan
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Utah
New Mexico
Oregon
California
Once overrun with grizzly bears, California called itself "The Grizzly Bear State" until residents wiped out the bear population. The previous nickname was dropped, and the state started calling itself "The Golden State."
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Colorado
Hawaii
When taking a trip to Hawaii, it's important to know about their traditions, which are quite unique compared to other states. For example, if someone offers you a lei, it's rude to not accept it from them.
Florida
Washington
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South Carolina
New York
Maryland
Arkansas
Arkansas has the only active diamond mine in the United States. It's called Crater of Diamonds State Park. Visitors to the park, which is the primary use for the mine, are allowed to dig for their own diamonds.
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New Jersey
Montana
Washington
Named after George Washington, a founding father and the first U.S. president, the state of Washington is the only state named after a president. However, it received this name when the territory was created in 1853, which was before it became a state.
Florida
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Tennesse
Mississippi
Texas
Georgia
Georgia was the location of Union General William T. Sherman's famous March to the Sea, where he led Union soldiers from Atlanta to Savannah. The purpose of the march was to demoralize the South into surrender while crippling the infrastructure of one of the most important Confederate states.
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Nebraska
Lincoln, Nebraska, was named Lancaster before the decision was made to move the capital from Omaha to Lincoln. Part of the reason the city was renamed was to halt the move from Omaha since many Nebraskans sided with the Confederacy and wouldn't want the capital in a city named after Abraham Lincoln.
Iowa
Oklahoma
Kentucky
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Missouri
New Mexico
Texas
Prior to its annexation into the United States, Texas was its own country known as the Republic of Texas. Mexico disputed the claim of independence and started a war with the United States immediately after the annexation, though Mexico ultimately lost the war.
South Dakota
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Vermont
North Carolina
Two universities, Duke and North Carolina, both located in North Carolina, have a bitter rivalry, especially on the basketball court. A big reason for their rivalry is the proximity of the two schools, as they are located 10 miles apart from one another.
Mississippi
Kentucky
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New Mexico
Michigan
Ohio
LeBron James might be the most famous celebrity from the state of Ohio. James, a basketball icon, played much of his professional career in the NBA with the Cleveland Cavaliers, a team he led to an NBA championship in 2016.
Maryland
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South Carolina
Mississippi
Mississippi has been one of the most important music centers in the United States and helped launch the blues genre. Many popular blues musicians, like B.B. King and Lead Belly, came from the state.
Montana
New Hampshire
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Utah
New Mexico
Maryland
Colorado
Usually, when a state is chosen to host the Olympics, they take up the offer immediately. However, that wasn't the case for Colorado in 1976, as the state turned down the Winter Olympics due to concerns of cost and pollution.
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Tennessee
During the War of 1812, soldiers from Tennessee flooded in to volunteer for the war, earning the nickname "the volunteers from Tennessee." To honor these soldiers, Tennessee started calling itself "The Volunteer State."
Kentucky
Oklahoma
Utah
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Oregon
Oregon is the location of the deepest lake in the United States, Crater Lake. Running about 2,000 feet deep, the lake was formed when a volcano collapsed thousands of years ago.
New Jersey
Minnesota
Indiana
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Maine
Florida
It would probably be easy to look at Florida and only recognize the peninsula that stretches down the East Coast of the United States. However, there's actually a series of islands, known as the Florida Keys, that represent the southernmost part of the United States in the East.
North Dakota
Vermont
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North Dakota
Michigan
Oklahoma
Utah
Utah is home to a network of trees known as the Trembling Giant because they are all connected together as one organism through a single root system. Some estimates say the organism is over 1 million years old.
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New Jersey
Kansas
New York
The state of New York is also the location of New York City, one of the biggest economic and cultural centers in the world. The city is also a major draw for immigrants, and today, nearly 40 percent of its residents were born in another country. However, the state's capital is further north, in Albany.
Connecticut
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North Dakota
Vermont
Vermont was a country before it became the 14th U.S. state in 1791. Known as the Vermont Republic, the country operated independently for 14 years before it agreed to join the United States.
South Carolina
Missouri
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Pennsylvania
The United States doesn't just go around granting honorary citizenship to people, but William Penn, who founded the Pennsylvania Colony, received the honor in 1984, over two centuries after the colony was founded. His wife, Hannah Penn, also received the honor for her part in running the colony.
Minnesota
Kentucky
Iowa
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Minnesota
Kansas
Oklahoma
Michigan
Michigan is uniquely placed to where it borders four of the five Great Lakes: Lake Superior, Lake Michigan, Lake Huron and Lake Erie. These lakes give Michigan the longest freshwater shoreline in the country.
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Missouri
Rhode Island
Kentucky
Kentucky truly was a border state during the Civil War in many ways. Families from Kentucky were obviously split between the Union and the Confederacy, but so too were the leaders from both sides, Abraham Lincoln and Jefferson Davis, who were both born in the state.
Maine
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South Carolina
Montana
Connecticut
Idaho
Idaho is recognized as "The Gem State" because of the vast number of natural resources throughout the state, which are primarily minerals and gems. One of the most famous gems found in the state is the star garnet, which is extremely rare around most of the world.
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Rhode Island
New Mexico
The very first atomic bomb to ever be detonated was launched in the deserts of New Mexico on June 16, 1945. Only a few weeks later, a bomb made with the same design was dropped on Nagasaki, Japan.
Oklahoma
North Dakota
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Maryland
Maryland, which has noble roots, made jousting the first official sport of the state in 1962. The sport has a strong following in Maryland, and the state has even set up the Maryland Jousting Tournament Association.
South Carolina
Missouri
New Jersey
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You Got:
/35
Image: joe daniel price / Moment / Getty Images
About This Quiz
You're finally visiting that old friend from college who moved to the other side of the country. They want you to fly into the capital, and they'll pick you up from the airport. Would you know what city you were flying into, or would you end up halfway across the state? It's a good thing there's Google, but it's got to be a little hit to your pride not to be able to match each state to its capital through memory alone. Are you going to let your ego take that hit, or do you have every state and capital memorized?
From sea to shining sea, the United States might be just that, united, but that doesn't mean each state isn't unique in its own right, most evident by the capitals that serve as important political and cultural centers for their respective states. These capitals weren't just randomly selected. Their locations were strategically planned to best benefit their state. To have a full grasp of the country, it's necessary to dive into each of these state capitals and at least find out where they are. This quiz is here to help.
When you're ready to dive back into some geography, get started and see if you can get a perfect score.
