Curated category
States of the United States
- AlaskaAlaska is the largest state in the United States by area, yet it holds fewer residents than most mid-sized American cities.
- AlabamaAlabama sits at a crossroads of American history that few states can match. Its oldest city, Mobile, was founded by French colonists in 1702 as the capital…
- KentuckyKentucky, officially the Commonwealth of Kentucky, sits landlocked in the Southeastern United States with the Ohio River tracing its entire northern edge.
- MississippiMississippi sits at the southern edge of the American interior, a state whose name comes from an Ojibwe word meaning "great river." That river defines its…
- MinnesotaMinnesota sits closer to the North Pole than any other state in the contiguous United States. That single geographic fact shapes almost everything about it…
- West VirginiaWest Virginia came into existence not through gradual settlement or territorial promotion, but through an act of wartime defiance.
- ArkansasArkansas is a landlocked state whose very name carries a centuries-old argument. In 1881, the state legislature had to pass a formal resolution to settle a…
- New MexicoNew Mexico sits at the heart of the American Southwest, a landlocked state that holds the oldest state capital in the United States.
- TexasTexas stretches across 268,596 square miles of the southern United States, a territory so vast that it would rank as the 39th-largest country on earth if it…
- TennesseeTennessee sits at the crossroads of three distinct American worlds. From the fog-wrapped peaks of the Blue Ridge Mountains in the east, across the…
- MaineMaine sits at the far northeastern corner of the contiguous United States, a place where the Atlantic Ocean has drowned ancient valleys into bays and turned…
- LouisianaLouisiana sits at one of the most consequential crossroads in North America, where the Mississippi River meets the Gulf of Mexico.
- North CarolinaNorth Carolina sits at a crossroads that has shaped American history at almost every turn. On the 12th of April 1776, the colony's Provincial Congress issued…
- OklahomaOklahoma gets its name from two Choctaw words: okla, meaning 'people', and humma, meaning 'red'. Choctaw Nation Chief Allen Wright proposed that name in…
- South CarolinaSouth Carolina sits at a crossing point that has shaped centuries of American history. On the 12th of April, 1861, Confederate batteries opened fire on Union…
- ArizonaArizona became a state on the 14th of February 1912 - Valentine's Day - making it the 48th and last of the contiguous United States to join the Union.
- CaliforniaCalifornia holds a place in the American imagination unlike any other state. It is, in the same territory, home to the lowest and hottest point in North…
- DelawareDelaware ratified the United States Constitution on the 7th of December 1787, becoming the first state in the union and earning the nickname it has carried…
- IllinoisIllinois sits at the geographic and demographic center of the United States, a state that political strategists and journalists have long called a…
- PennsylvaniaPennsylvania sits at a crossroads that no other state can claim. It touches the Mid-Atlantic, the Northeast, the Appalachians, and the Great Lakes all at…
- Georgia (U.S. state)Georgia, the American state that calls itself the Peach State, holds a peculiar distinction: it is simultaneously the 24th-largest state by area and the…
- MarylandMaryland sits at a crossroads that no other state occupies. It is the only state that simultaneously borders the nation's capital, touches the Atlantic…
- MissouriMissouri sits at the heart of a continent, sharing borders with eight different states, a distinction matched only by its neighbor Tennessee.
- FloridaFlorida juts into the Atlantic world like no other piece of the United States. It is the only state that shares a border with both the Gulf of Mexico and the…
- VirginiaIn 1607, the London Company established Jamestown as the first permanent English settlement in North America. This event marked a turning point for the…