50 Insane Facts About US Geography (You Won't Believe Are True)

Did you know there’s a part of the U. S. that  experiences nighttime for months?

How about the fact that Kentucky sits on…a sea? Or  that there’s a landmass in the U. S.

that’s actually expanding? U. S.

geography is full  of bizarre facts and surprises you would never imagine - so get ready, we’re about to  explore 50 More Insane Facts about US Geography. Fact 50 - Florida is home  to thousands of sinkholes The Sunshine State offers so much - golden  beaches, diverse wildlife, retirement homes and of course Florida Man. But, it’s also apparently  a great place to fall through the surface of the earth.

A substantial part of Florida sits on  top of limestone, which is easily dissolved by water- and because of this, several sinkholes  have opened up under the surface. These include sinkholes off the coast, like the giant sinkhole  50 miles (80 km) southwest of Sarasota called the “Green Banana”. This monster lies around 155 feet  (47 meters) under the Gulf of Mexico’s surface.

Despite the prevalence of sinkhouse,  Floridians seem to take it in stride, nicknaming central Florida “sinkhole alley”. Fact 49 - You can stand in four states at once At the appropriately named Four Corners Monument, you can do something pretty surreal- stand  in four states at the same time. This is the only spot in the U.

S. where four state borders  meet- Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico, and Utah- all thanks to their largely square shapes. Fact 48 - The Rocky Mountains are still growing The Appalachian Mountains stopped  growing around 220 million years ago, but the Rocky Mountains are geologically  speaking youngsters- only 65 to 35 million years old.

And they continue to grow even today. That’s why the main mountain range of the  U. S.

West Coast is much taller than the Appalachians Mountains, with the tallest mountain  reaching up to 14,440 feet (4,401 meters), while the tallest mountain in Appalachia only  reaches up to 6,684 feet (2,037 meters). Fact 47 - Kentucky is almost  evenly split between two time zones Many large states are split into  different time zones, but Kentucky is unique because it is practically split down  the middle. The western part of the state, including important cities like Bowling Green,  sits in the Central time zone (CST) while the eastern part of the state sits  in the Eastern time zone (EST).

Fact 46 - The U. S. has the largest  island in the largest lake in the largest island in the largest lake in the world The U.

S. side of Lake Superior,  the largest of the Great Lakes, includes the Apostle Islands, a group of  22 islands known for kayaking, hiking, and other outdoor adventures in the area- and Isle  Royale, the largest island in the lake by far. Isle Royale has several lakes on  it as well, the largest of which is Lake Siskiwit.

And that lake has a few tiny  islands, the largest of which is Ryan Island. All this is a result of the glacial  activity that originally formed the Great Lakes, leaving plenty of bodies  of water and islets scattered behind. Fact 45 - Nevada has over 600 ghost towns Nevada has over 600 abandoned towns,  many of them boom and bust towns left over from the gold rush and railroad  construction heyday of the state.

The most famous ghost town by far is Rhyolite, which was founded in 1905 and sits on the  eastern border of Death Valley National Park. Fact 44 - Minnesota does not have 10,000 lakes Minnesota is known as the “Land of Ten Thousand  Lakes”, but that nickname isn’t actually true. In fact, Minnesota has around 11,800 lakes, with some  sources claiming over 14,000 throughout the state.

Fact 43 - Minnesota doesn’t  have the most lakes of any state Despite its reputation, Minnesota is not  the most lake-covered state in the country. That honor goes to Alaska, with a  whopping 3. 2 million lakes throughout its territory.

Although around  3,200 of them have been named - The sheer number of lakes is mostly due to past  glacial activity, rainfall and the current Arctic climate, which causes glaciers and permafrost to  melt, creating millions upon millions of lakes. Fact 42 - The U. S.

has the only  territory in the UTC-12 time zone In addition to the main 50 states,  the U. S. has many territories abroad, mostly in the Caribbean Sea and Pacific  Ocean.

Most of its territories in the Pacific, with the exception of Guam, fall  under the U. S. Minor Outlying Islands.

These include Howland and Baker Islands,  which have the distinction of being the only landmasses in the world that fall within  the “the rarest time zone on Earth” - UTC-12. Though other countries and islands in the  area - like Tonga, Fiji, and Samoa - fall within similar longitudes, they have decided  to stick with neighboring time zones instead, to facilitate easier communication and  working relationships with their neighbors. However, Howland and Baker  Islands are uninhabited, functioning mostly as wildlife  refuges and nature preserves today.

Keeping with the theme of separation… Fact 41 - One state capital  can’t be accessed by road Juneau, Alaska, is surrounded by mountains  and glaciers, making driving into it almost impossible. For that reason, people  have to get to Juneau by sea or air, making it the only state capital  that can’t be accessed by road. Technically, Honolulu also can’t be accessed by  road from the rest of the mainland U.

S. either, but it does have roads leading to it from the  rest of the island, so we won’t count it here. Fact 40 - The U.

S. - Canada border is the  “longest undefended border in the world” Maybe it’s because of the friendly relations  between the two nations- or maybe it’s the miles of snow-covered forests and ice-cold lakes  acting as a natural barrier. Either way, neither country has felt the need to build much in the way  of border defenses.

That makes the U. S. - Canada border, which adds up to almost 5,525 miles (8,891  km), the “longest undefended border in the world.

” Fact 39 - 10% of the world’s  freshwater is in Lake Superior Everyone knows the Great Lakes are huge, but  did you know that Lake Superior, the largest of them all, is so large that 10% of the entire  world’s freshwater supply is held within it? It’s the largest freshwater lake - by  surface area - in the world. It covers 31,700 square miles (82,102 sq km), with  an average depth of 483 feet (147 meters).

Fact 38 - The Florida Keys  are (partly) made of coral The Florida Keys, made up of over 1,700  named islands and many extra minor ones, expand off the southern tip of Florida into  the Gulf of Mexico. In addition to being home to North America’s only coral reef, the keys  themselves are partly made of coral as well! Specifically, the Upper Keys are  made of the remains of ancient coral reefs that thrived during the  Pleistocene Epoch 125,000 years ago, when sea levels were higher.

Meanwhile the  Lower Keys are made mostly of sand bars. Fact 37 - The U. S.

had a city  larger than London…in 1100 The Cahokia Mounds are a popular  tourist attraction in Illinois, and the largest pre-Columbian site north of  Mexico. They are also the remains of a massive Native American city that was flourishing  all the way back in the 12th century. The Mounds cover around 4,000 acres (1,618  hectares), and based on the findings there, archaeologists estimate the population to have  been around 20,000 people in 1100.

At that time, the city of London had just over 15,000  people. Details about the civilization, including why it ended up  disappearing, remain unknown. Fact 36 - The Salton Sea was the result of  poor construction…and led to its abandonment In 1905, an irrigation canal was  being built in the Imperial Valley, near the then Salton Sink that had formed  thanks to San Andreas fault activity in the area.

During the construction, the  Colorado River breached a shoddy canal, leading to water pouring into the  sink, making it the Salton Sea. Though this would soon make it a  premier destination within California, the way it was formed would also lead to its  downfall. The Salton Sea kept being replenished by the irrigation runoff in the area- but there  was one big problem.

The water flowing in had nowhere to go. Over time, it kept depositing  salt, until the sea became 50% saltier than the ocean. .

This killed off most of the  fish and other living things in the sea, leading to dead animal bodies washing up on  shore and a stench that remains to this day. Local hotels had no way to  put a positive spin on it, and eventually the Salton  Sea was mostly abandoned. Fact 35 - There’s only one tropical  rainforest in U.

S. territory El Yunque National Forest is on the Caribbean  island of Puerto Rico. Most of the mainland U.

S. , with the exception of the very tip of Florida,  doesn’t have the climate to support a rainforest, making El Yunque the only tropical  rainforest on U. S.

territory. Even at a massive 29,000 acres (11,735 hectares),  it is one of the smallest forests within the U. S.

It is also one of the most diverse  when it comes to plants and wildlife. That being said, the U. S.

does have plenty of  temperate rainforests in the Pacific Northwest and Appalachian Mountains, one of the most famous  being in Washington’s Olympic National Park. Fact 34 - Water flows into  three oceans from one mountain In Montana’s Glacier National Park lies the  Triple Divide Peak. Though most water in the U.

S. flows towards one ocean, depending on which  watershed it’s located in, water from the Triple Divide Peak flows into the Pacific Ocean,  Atlantic Ocean, and even the Arctic Ocean. That’s because three massive river systems  come together at this point.

Water can either go into the Missouri and Mississippi  Rivers - ending up in the Gulf of Mexico, the Columbia River that empties into  the Pacific Ocean, or the Saskatchewan River that winds up to Hudson Bay,  and eventually the Arctic Ocean. Fact 33 - Niagara Falls is not  the tallest waterfall in the U. S.

The honor of the tallest waterfall in the country  goes to Yosemite Falls, in Yosemite National Park. Water at the top of the waterfall plunges  2,425 feet (739 meters) towards the base below. Niagara Falls is famous partly because  it provides a very scenic view, but mostly because it is the largest waterfall  by width and volume.

At peak flow, more than 700,000 gallons (2,649,788 litres) per second rush  towards its base at 25 miles per hour (40 kph). Fact 32 - St. Augustine is the oldest  continuously inhabited town in the U.

S. Spanish explorers founded St.  Augustine, Florida, in 1565, making it the oldest continuously inhabited town  in the U.

S. Older Native American settlements unfortunately can’t lay claim to that title  as most of them were forcibly abandoned. Fact 31 - Oklahoma has a  panhandle because of slavery Take a look at a U.

S. map, and you might  spot something unusual- a narrow strip of land stretching across the top of Texas, but  belonging to Oklahoma. This panhandle is just 34 miles wide, making it one of the most  distinctive quirks of the state’s shape.

Originally, it belonged to Texas, who wanted  to enter the union as a slave-owning state. Thanks to the Missouri Compromise, slavery  wasn’t allowed north of 36°30′ latitude. So Texas gave up a small sliver of its  northern border for slavery.

That land is now known as “No Man’s Land”, and  less than 1% of Oklahomans live there. Fact 30 - Cimarron County is the  only county to border four states Speaking of the panhandle, thanks to its odd  geography, it’s also home to the only state to border four other states. Cimarron County, located  in the western end of the Oklahoma panhandle, borders Texas, Kansas, Colorado, and New  Mexico.

It has a total population of almost 2,200 so very few people get to experience the  ease of traveling to four states from there. Fact 29 - Allen, South Dakota, is the most  landlocked point in the Western Hemisphere Allen, South Dakota is the most inaccessible  place by sea in the entire U. S.

, 1,025 miles (,1649 km)from both the  Pacific and Atlantic Oceans. Today, it’s part of the Pine Ridge Indian  Reservation in Bennett County. Fact 28 - Texas is bigger than any  country (fully) in the European continent Everything’s bigger in  Texas, including, apparently, the state itself.

Excluding Russia,  which has most of its landmass in Asia, Texas is bigger than any individual European  country fully on the continent itself. The state has an area of over 268,000 square  miles (694,116 sq km). The biggest European country is Ukraine, at an area of almost 233,000  square miles (603,467 sq km), followed by France, at an area of around 210,000  square miles (543,897 sq km).

Fact 27 - Maryland is the only  state with no natural lakes You might think that the dry, desert-covered  southwestern states would lack lakes, but no - Maryland is actually the only U. S.  state without natural lakes.

Lake Habee and Deep Creek Lake, two known Maryland lakes,  are both man-made. Even Arizona has naturally occurring Mormon Lake and Stoneman Lake, though  they occasionally dry up during long droughts. Fact 26 - Vermont was its own country for 14 years People may think of Texas as the once  independent state - that also thinks of independence again from time to  time - but actually, Vermont was its own country for 14 years.

After the start  of the Revolutionary War in 1776, Vermont decided it wasn’t being treated well by either  the British king or the state of New York, so it may as well go in its own direction.  It declared itself independent in 1777. The newly formed country had its own currency and  its own constitution, one that abolished slavery and gave all free men the right to vote.

Though  Vermont joined the newly formed United States in 1791, it still references its constitution  when passing and enforcing laws today. Fact 25 - New York is south of Rome It may sound strange, given New York’s  brisk winters, and Rome’s sunny reputation, but it’s true. Most of Europe is warmed by the  Atlantic current, making European places at the same latitude as U.

S. cities significantly warmer.  New York is on almost the same latitude as Madrid.

That’s why while the average high temperature in Rome in January is 55 F (12. 7 C), in  New York it’s 39 F (3. 8 C) instead.

Fact 24 - Louisiana is losing  land to the Gulf of Mexico Due to increasing water levels and coastline  erosion, Louisiana is slowly but steadily losing land to the Gulf of Mexico…and more  than you might expect. Scientists estimate that every 100 minutes Louisiana loses the  equivalent of a football field to the gulf. This is alarming news for everyone who lives  in those areas, including the residents of New Orleans and the surrounding regions.

One  prediction estimates that at this rate, by 2080, substantial parts of southern  Louisiana will be underwater. Fact 23 - Oklahoma has the  most tornadoes per capita Oklahoma has the not-at-all-wanted distinction  of being home to the most tornadoes per square mile than any other state in the U. S.

The  state gets around 50 tornadoes every year, most of them in the spring months between March  and May - but they can also happen any time. That’s because Oklahoma is right  in the middle of “Tornado Alley”, a stretch in the middle of the country where  conditions are ripe for tornadoes to form. It’s one of the only such geographic locations in  the world, thanks to the clash between cold, dry air moving south from Canada, and warm,  moist air moving north from the Gulf of Mexico.

Fact 22 - The Outer Banks are…migrating west Scientists have observed that The Outer Banks, located on the easternmost edge of  North Carolina, are slowly moving west. Thanks to the fact that the Outer Banks are  sandbars that are not anchored to anything. Every time there’s a storm or strong winds, waves will  pick up the sand from the lower, eastern shores, and deposit it further west.

Over time, this is  literally changing the location of the islands. Fact 21 - Hawaii’s Big Island is growing Some places in the U. S.

are steadily losing  land, but others are apparently growing! Hawaii’s Big Island, the youngest  member of the Hawaiian archipelago, has gained around 500 acres (202  hectares) of land since 1983. This is due to the island’s frequent volcanic  activity, as Kilauea and Mauna Loa still erupt from time to time; the lava flows eventually  cool down and become new land deposits.

This isn’t happening with other, older  Hawaiian islands, like Oahu and Kauai, because they are no longer actively  volcanic, so their shoreline is slowly eroding instead. But the Big Island  is determined to live up to its name. Fact 20 - Arizona is the only state  that contains all four U.

S. deserts Well, a part of all four of them at least. The  four major U.

S. deserts are the Great Basin, the Sonoran, the Chihuahuan, and the  Mojave deserts, and all of them come together - unsurprisingly - in one  of the U. S.

’ driest, hottest states. Fact 19 -You can mine for diamonds in Arkansas People usually associate diamond mines with  far-off destinations, but there’s a massive diamond mine right here in the U. S.

, located  in Arkansas. Craters of Diamonds State Park in Murfreesboro is a volcanic site that has  formed thousands of diamonds over millennia. .

Not only can you visit the park to learn  about its volcanic origins and diamond mining, but you can actually look for diamonds yourself!  And the chance of finding one isn’t as tiny as you might think; so far, visitors have  found over 35,000 diamonds in the park, including the largest diamond ever discovered in  the U. S.

- a 40. 23 carat gem nicknamed Uncle Sam. Fact 18 - Kansas is flatter  than a pancake…literally There’s a lot of jokes about how flat the  Midwest is, but some scientists decided to test out exactly how true those jokes were. 

Geographers from Texas State University and Arizona State University teamed up in 2003  to discover that some parts of Kansas are, quite literally, flatter  than your average pancake. Fact 17 - Eleven states in the  U. S.

have just one area code Densely populated cities in the United States  have multiple area codes for their phone numbers, out of necessity, since they have to  distribute numbers to millions and millions of people. On the flip  side, eleven states in the U. S.

have such small populations that the  entire state has only one area code. They include Alaska - 907,  Wyoming - 307, Delaware - 302, New Hampshire - 603, Maine  - 207, North Dakota - 701, South Dakota - 605, Vermont - 802, Montana  - 406, Hawaii - 808, and Rhode Island - 401. Fact 16 - Arizona has one of the best  preserved meteor craters on Earth While the famous meteor that killed the  dinosaurs landed in what is today the Gulf of Mexico, meteors have left others  craters all over the world.

In fact, one of the best preserved meteor craters  in the world is located in Arizona. The Barringer Crater was formed over 50,000 years  ago, and now sits around 40 miles (64 km) east of Flagstaff. You can walk along the crater’s rim,  but going into the crater itself is not allowed.

Scientists think the asteroid that  formed it was only 98 ft (30 m) to 164 ft (50 m) wide, but it hit  with such an enormous force that it left a 570-foot (173 m) deep  wound in the Earth’s surface. Fact 15 - Utah is home to the  largest natural bridge in the U. S.

The U. S. has its fair share of engineering  marvels, including iconic bridges like the Golden Gate and the Brooklyn Bridge.

However,  it’s also home to some enormous natural bridges. Fittingly located in Arches National  Park, Landscape Arch in Utah spans 290 feet (88. 4 meters) in total.

Others  claim it extends over 300 feet (91 meters), but the official measurement maxes out at 290. It’s  also a relatively thin, delicate-looking arch, only six feet (1. 8 meters) wide at  its narrowest point.

A portion of it actually fell down in the 1990s, making it even  thinner, but the arch is still hanging on today. Fact 14 - Only Maine shares a  border with exactly one other state Maine is the only state in the  U. S.

to share its border with just one other state - New Hampshire.  To the north, it borders Canada. If you were to take a road trip  through the contiguous 48 states, and had to only cross each state once, you  would inevitably start, or end up, in Maine.

Fact 13 - Michigan has a floating post office If you need to send your mail to a  ship worker on the Detroit River, you better address it to zip code 48222. Known as  the only floating zip code in the United States, it belongs to the postal ship J. W.

Westcott II. It goes up and down the river  delivering mail to workers on nearby vessels. This is the only floating  post office, and zip code, in the country.

Fact 12 - Wisconsin has an official state microbe Many states have state plants,  state mottos, or state birds. But Wisconsin is the only state to have an  official state microbe. But for Wisconsin, the microbe Lactococcus Lactis is incredibly  important to both its population and its economy.

That’s because Lactococcus Lactis is used  in cheesemaking, arguably Wisconsin’s most important industry. The state is the  biggest cheese producer in the U. S.

, making 2 to 3. 5 billion pounds (907 million  - 1. 59 billion kg) of cheese every year, and its dairy industry makes up  6.

5% of the state’s entire economy. Fact 11 - One town in the U. S. 

experiences full polar night Utqiagvik, formerly known as Barrow, experiences  a full 64 days of polar night. From mid-November to mid-January, the sun doesn’t rise at  all and the town is bathed in darkness. Between 4,300 and 5,000 people live in  Utqiagvik, actually making it the 12th most populated city in Alaska.

The population  seems to deal with polar night just fine; perhaps because they also have two months of  full 24/7 summer days to look forward to after! Fact 10 - No one can agree on  which state is the most mountainous Alaska, Colorado, West Virginia, and Nevada  all claim to be the most mountainous state in the country. How is it that with  all our knowledge of geography today, the winner still can’t be decided?

Well, it’s because each of them is correct,  in their own way. Alaska claims the title because it has the most mountains of  any state, with over 4,000 of them named. But Alaska is also enormous, so a fair  amount of it is covered by lowlands as well.

Colorado lays claim to the title because, as we  said before, it has the highest mean elevation of the U. S. On the other hand, West Virginia is the  only state to be contained within the Appalachian Mountain Range.

However, most of the northwestern  part of the state sits on a plateau, and the mountains in West Virginia tend to be much lower  than mountains in the western part of the country. Surprisingly, Nevada is the state most densely  covered by mountains. Only the Carson Sink and Death Valley can lay claim to being “flat”;  meanwhile Nevada has 2,000 named mountains, which may be less overall than Alaska, but way more  per capita.

Plus, almost everywhere you stand in Nevada, you can see a mountain somewhere in front  of you. That makes it the winner in our opinion. Fact 9 - South Carolina has an island full  of monkeys where humans aren’t allowed Morgan Island, off the coast of South  Carolina, is home to over 4,000 rhesus monkeys.

The U. S. government placed them  there in 1979 for research purposes.

Actually, the U. S. government only placed 1,400 of them,  but over time, their population expanded.

If you want to see the monkeys however, you’ll  have to take a boat trip around the island, as only approved researchers are allowed to  step foot on the coast. Scientists are afraid of people disturbing or harming the animal  population, a thing humans are prone to doing. Fact 8 - Kentucky has a “moonbow” Though most people are familiar with  rainbows, few know what a “moonbow” is, perhaps because the conditions needed  to form a moonbow are quite rare.

But at Cumberland Falls in Kentucky,  the mist at the base of the falls sometimes reflects the light coming  off an especially bright and full, or nearly full moon. This creates  what locals call a “moonbow”. Fact 7 - Mount Washington recorded  the fastest wind speed on Earth Those who live in New Hampshire know  that the hike up Mount Washington is deceptively dangerous and difficult, proven by  the many search and rescue missions undertaken there every year.

That’s partly due to the  harsh weather that batters the mountain, which may be why the fastest wind speed  ever recorded on Earth was noted here in 1934. On one horrific day, the wind  clocked in at 231 mph, (372 km/h). To understand just how fast that is, think of  the fact that the Porsche 911, one of the world’s premier sports cars, tops out at only 204 mph (328  kph).

A skydiver falling headfirst towards the earth will generally only reach 160 mph (257 kph).  The wind only needs to reach 120 mph (193 kph) to knock you down, so a speed of 230 mph (370 kph)  would quite literally throw you off the mountain. Fact 6 - Engineers made the  Chicago River flow backwards In the 19th century, the rapidly expanding town  of Chicago had a problem; though it had a prime location on the Chicago River, the river was  actually flowing towards Lake Michigan, which happened to be the city’s drinking water supply. 

And what it was carrying was sewage and waste. One day, William Boldenweck, the head  of the Sanitary District of Chicago, got an idea: what if he just reversed the  river’s flow? And he was serious.

In 1900, after eight years, the removals of  42 cubic yards of soil and rock, and the construction of a 28-mile-long  (45 km) canal, that’s exactly what he did. Fact 5 - Buford had a  population of 1 up until 2012 People driving through rural Wyoming would  sometimes come across the town of Buford, and do a double take when  they saw the welcome sign: Buford Population: 1 Elevation: 8000 The sole resident, Don Sammons, had lived in the  area since 1980 with his family. After his wife died in 1992, Sammons decided to buy the town and  began operating the Buford Trading Post.

His son moved away in 2008, and Sammons eventually closed  the store in 2012 and put the town up for auction. Fact 4 - Kansas City has a  massive underground complex Kansas City, Missouri, has one of the largest  underground business complexes in the world, named SubTropolis. Over 6 million feet (1.

8  million meters) of space are carved into the ground for this complex, which sits 150  feet (45 meters) below the city’s surface. Today, the complex is mostly used as storage for  ecommerce, pharmaceuticals, cars, records, and food distribution, to name a few, so the products  can be kept away from exposure to the elements. Fact 3 - You can see the Earth  curve at Bonneville Salt Flats Located in Utah, the Bonneville  Salt Flats are so flat, smooth, and never-ending, that you can literally  see the Earth curve when you look out at them on a clear day.

The alien-looking  landscape is mostly known for being a place where people set land speed records  - thanks to the aforementioned flatness. Fact 2 - One Hawaiian island  is closed to the public Unlike most private islands, Niʻihau wasn’t closed off to push locals  out- it was preserved to protect them. Ni’ihau has been owned by the Robinson  family since 1864.

They maintain strict control over who can visit the island  to conserve the island’s flora, fauna, and the indigenous culture of Ni’ihau as  well. The only people allowed on Ni’ihau are native Hawaiian inhabitants, the  Robinson family, and invited guests. Fact 1 - The U.

S. town of “Rough and Ready”  once declared itself an independent republic Rough and Ready is located near Sacramento  in California. In 1850, frustrated over the Mining Tax and taxes on alcohol, it  declared its independence from the Union, forming the “Great Republic of Rough and Ready”. 

The reason you may not have learned about this in history books is because independence only  lasted three months - strangely, until July 4. Feeling a surge of patriotism on the  rest of the country’s Independence Day, the citizens of Rough and Ready  rejoined the United States. Thanks for joining me today!

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