1. Minnesota
   Oklahoma
2. Oregon
   Wyoming

Home state of Garrison Keillor and childhood home of Charles A. Lindbergh, Minnesota sits on the northern border of the lower 48 states. It has a corner bordering Canada that sticks out sharply. At least if you got a cut on it, you wouldn't have to look far for some ice to put on it!

1. Oklahoma
   Georgia
2. Illinois
   Oregon

Northwestern state Oregon's eastern border is defined by the Snake River, which wiggles around, giving the border its distinctive shape. The bulge includes the ominously named Hells Canyon Recreational Area

1. Utah
   Wisconsin
2. Wyoming
   Hawaii

The home of Jackson Hole, Wyoming is a big state with a very small population, warranting only one representative in the US House of Representatives! A place of astounding natural beauty, Wyoming has no state income tax, so it's not just a nice place to visit.

1. West Virginia
   Georgia
2. Michigan
   Illinois

Having broken away from the Confederate States of America, and thus the rest of Virginia, West Virginia became a US state during the American Civil War. It is the only state to be admitted into the Union by presidential proclamation.

1. Ohio
   Idaho
2. Hawaii
   Oklahoma

Oklahoma isn't just where the wind comes racing down the plain. It has the longest compulsory period of education, requiring all children ages 5 to 18 to attend school. Perhaps this is because it was one of the states hit hardest during The Great Depression.

1. Missouri
   Hawaii
2. Georgia
   Illinois

The Show Me State has eight states on its borders and is the home state of the (long deceased) tallest man in recorded medical history, Robert Pershing Wadlow, who stood at nearly nine feet tall! If you enjoy soybeans, it is likely owed to Missouri.

1. Idaho
   Utah
2. Ohio
   Florida

Home of the Great Salt Lake, The Beehive State is home to some amazing natural beauty, with Bryce Canyon National Park, Monument Valley and Zion National Park. It is also where Philo Farnsworth, inventor of the television, is from.

1. Colorado
   New York
2. Texas
   Wisconsin

Wisconsin lays claim to the largest water park in the US, The National Fresh Water Fishing Hall of Fame and 7,446 rivers and streams. Perhaps most importantly, it is the setting for "Wayne's World".

1. Hawaii
   Ohio
2. Texas
   Michigan

Michigan is home to "Motor City" for good reason: it's the center of American automobile design, and at one point, manufacturing! Today, it's the second most diverse state in terms of agriculture, and it has more freshwater shoreline than any other state.

1. New York
   Idaho
2. Georgia
   Texas

The fourth US state, Georgia is the eighth-most populous state in the nation! Named for King George II, not the nation of Georgia, Georgia is the only place in the world where the Vidalia onion is cultivated.

1. Arkansas
   New York
2. Virginia
   Illinois

The Prairie State is the birthplace of Ronald Reagan, the Chicago Cubs, the Chicago White Sox and a law that makes it legal for people under the age of 21 to drink alcohol, provided they are enrolled in an accredited culinary school. "Illinois" is Algonquin for "warriors".

1. Connecticut
   North Carolina
2. Arkansas
   Hawaii

The first state to ban plastic bags and certain kinds of sunscreen is also the second widest state, and the only state where all billboards are illegal. The state is even so isolated in the Pacific that it has its own time zone: Hawaiian Standard Time.

1. Ohio
   Massachusetts
2. South Carolina
   Connecticut

The Buckeye State is a place of firsts: the first traffic light in the US, the first ambulance service, the first cash register! It is also the birthplace of Steven Spielberg, Paul Newman and a grand total of seven US presidents.

1. Idaho
   Connecticut
2. North Carolina
   Indiana

Idaho isn't just a massive producer of potatoes, it is an innovator in potato technology, especially when it comes to frozen spuds. Not limiting its power sources to spuds, the Idaho National Laboratory was first to harness nuclear power to provide electricity for a city.

1. Massachusetts
   Connecticut
2. North Carolina
   Texas

The Lone Star State is the largest of the lower 48 states, with 262,015 square miles of area. Since its founding, Texas has seen flags of seven nations fly over its huge expanses: The United States, The Confederate States, Spain, France, Mexico, and of course the Republic of Texas.

1. Vermont
   Massachusetts
2. Arizona
   New York

The Empire State is one of the oldest and most storied states, exporting talented New Yorkers to all manner of industries from science to media to politics. It is the home of West Point, Niagara Falls and the otherworldly Adirondack Mountains in the north of the state.

1. North Carolina
   Vermont
2. Montana
   Colorado

North Carolina is one of the remarkable original colonies. Noted for being the birthplace of Pepsi, it is a major producer of sweet potatoes. It was In Fayettville, North Carolina, on March 7, 1914, that Babe Ruth hit his first professional home run.

1. Delaware
   Massachusetts
2. Vermont
   Connecticut

Connecticutions (people from Connecticut) are huge contributors to the nation, from the author of the first dictionary to the oldest newspaper in continuous print to the creation of the hamburger. While the state's legislature is fairly normal by American standards, it does produce the occasional strange law, including one requiring all pickles to bounce.

1. Colorado
   Arizona
2. Montana
   Massachusetts

The state that produced both Presidents Adams also gave the world the Fig Newton (named for Newton, Mass.) the birth control pill, and of course Harvard. MIT's students are renowned for their eccentric pranks, which have included disassembling a police car and rebuilding it on the dome of the library.

1. Colorado
   Arizona
2. Delaware
   Vermont

The Green Mountain State is the second smallest state by population, and among the first states to outlaw slavery. The first state to join the US after the initial 13, it is perhaps best known as the adopted home of Bernie Sanders, and the location of Ben & Jerry's Ice Cream.

1. Montana
   Colorado
2. California
   Pennsylvania

"Square" was what one used to call someone who was uncool, back in the 1950s. To people who live in Colorado, it's just the corners of their state! On a globe, Colorado, the first state to legalize cannabis for recreational use, looks almost like a perfect rectangle.

1. Pennsylvania
   Delaware
2. Tennessee
   Arizona

Arizona contains some of the most fascinating ruins in the world, with well-preserved ancient homes of the Hohokam (ancient natives who predate the current groups) and Casa Grande, a magnificent building by the same people. Located in the beautiful American Southwest, it contains a huge portion of the Grand Canyon.

1. Pennsylvania
   Louisiana
2. Montana
   Tennessee

Montana is a state of magnificent natural beauty, with a triple divide that sends water to the Pacific, Atlantic and Hudson Bay in the north. It is home to the largest herd of migrating elk in the US. It's no wonder it is called The Treasure State.

1. New Jersey
   Tennessee
2. Delaware
   Alaska

Delaware is home to more than half of all publicly traded US corporations because it has very lenient tax laws. It is as narrow as its tax laws are generous, with the widest point of only 35 miles.

1. New Mexico
   Louisiana
2. California
   Pennsylvania

Penn's woods are where America got its first baseball stadium, where the Declaration of Independence was signed, and where chocolate manufacturer Hershey gets down to business. It's also the birthplace of Hollywood legend Jimmy Stewart and television personality Chris Matthews.

1. Tennessee
   California
2. Louisiana
   Kentucky

The Volunteer State gets its nickname from when locals volunteered to fight in the War of 1812 in the south, in Louisiana. It's the lifelong home of beloved performer Dolly Parton, The Grand Ole Opry and the brand Jack Daniels, whose namesake died after getting an infection in his foot after breaking it because he kicked his safe in frustration when he forgot its combination.

1. New Jersey
   Alaska
2. California
   New Mexico

New Mexico truly is an enchanted land, complete with ghosts: Las Vegas, NM is the location where legendary gunslinger Doc Holliday ran a dental office (that was also a saloon and casino) before heading to Tombstone, AZ. It is also the birthplace of the atomic bomb, and home to the nuclear lab at Los Alamos.

1. New Jersey
   Kentucky
2. Nevada
   Louisiana

Named for King Louis XIV, Louisiana stands alone as the only state that still uses the Napoleonic Code in its common law. Home to New Orleans, Louisiana nurtured musicians, actors, authors and presidents, producing such famous names as Anne Rice, Dee Brown and Ellen DeGeneres.

1. Kentucky
   California
2. Nevada
   Iowa

The Golden State is home to some of the biggest names in media and tech, making it one of the largest economies in the world; even larger than many nations. It's the center for movie and television production, home to the least affordable city in the US (San Francisco) and the lowest point of land in the US (Death Valley).

1. Alaska
   Iowa
2. Kentucky
   Alabama

Double the size of Texas, at 591,000 square miles, Alaska is more than wilderness and oil pipelines. It is where, as a gambler, boxing promoter Tex Rickard made a mint which he later put toward founding The New York Rangers and building Madison Square Garden. The name of the state is a corruption of a word in the Aleutian language translating as “object toward which the action of the sea is directed”.

1. Iowa
   Rhode Island
2. Nevada
   New Jersey

The Garden State is where the first dinosaur fossil was found in the US, and it's where Thomas Edison built the first movie production company. New Jersey played host to the first submarine ride in the US, and its Atlantic City Boardwalk is a famous tourist attraction.

1. Kentucky
   Indiana
2. Nebraska
   Rhode Island

The Commonwealth of Kentucky is more than Louisville Sluggers and the Kentucky Derby. It hosts five national parks, includes parts of three major physiographic regions of the country and contains The Mega Cavern, a former mine that is now considered the state's largest building.

1. Iowa
   Indiana
2. Mississippi
   Washington

Iowa isn't just the first state to have a say in presidential nominations, it's where the man who invented mechanically sliced bread was born! It's a state where there is a four to one hog to human ratio, where there's the annual National Hobo Convention, and it has the largest truck stop.

1. Washington
   Indiana
2. Nevada
   Rhode Island

Nevada is an unforgiving land with a fascinating history. It was during the construction of the Hoover Dam that workers created construction "helmets" by joining two baseball caps together with a layer of tar. Nevada is where Las Vegas made its indelible stamp on Americana, where magicians hit the mainstream in a big way and where aging musicians can settle in for the long haul with stationary acts.

1. Rhode Island
   Nebraska
2. Alabama
   Arkansas

Rhode Island was the home of world-famous horror writer H.P. Lovecraft, who laid the foundation for much of what we consider the horror and science fiction genres today. One of the oldest states, it's where America had its first circus, first automotive speeding ticket, and it is proud of the fact that it never ratified the 18th Amendment, which started prohibition.

1. Mississippi
   Indiana
2. Washington
   Nebraska

Once referred to as The Great American Desert, the Cornhusker State is the only state with a single house in its legislature. Nebraska's reputation for agriculture is well-founded, with the largest underground water reserves in the nation.

1. Alabama
   South Carolina
2. Mississippi
   Washington

The only state to be named for a president, Washington produces more apples than any state in the nation, although perhaps cherries would feel more appropriate. The home of Microsoft and Boeing, Washington State sits just south of Canada and has a great deal of international commerce as a result.

1. Alabama
   Arkansas
2. Virginia
   Indiana

Mark Indiana well for its Indianapolis 500 race, and for producing current Vice President Mike Pence. Its capital, moved to Indianapolis in 1925, is the US state capital closest to the middle of its state. Indiana is also the home state of David Letterman!

1. South Carolina
   Alabama
2. Virginia
   Mississippi

Alabama's Crimson Tide is just a taste of what the state has going for it. The rocket that took Neil Armstrong to the moon was built in Alabama, its official state fair is a Renaissance Faire, and it can boast such hometown heroes as Willie Mays, Hank Aaron and Joe Louis!

1. New Hampshire
   Virginia
2. South Carolina
   Mississippi

The Magnolia State gave the world "Muppets" creator Jim Henson, The King of Rock and Roll Elvis Presley, jazz legend B.B. King, playwright Tennessee Williams, country singer Faith Hill and show biz titan Oprah Winfrey. It is the site of the first lung transplant and it has the world's longest man-made beach.