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Unlawful bear exploitation is a Class B felony in **Alabama**. This law was passed in 1996 and states that it is illegal for anyone to promote, engage in, or be employed by a bear wrestling match.

Bear wrestling matches are prohibited.

In 1927, Benny Benson beat out more than 700 people in the design contest for **Alaska's** flag. He won a watch, a trip to D.C., and $1,000.

The state flag was designed by a 13-year-old.

This law was passed in **Arizona** in 1924 after a merchant allowed a donkey to sleep in an old tub. The town was flooded when a dam broke, and the donkey in the tub was washed away. He survived, but the town spent a lot of time and money rescuing him.

It's illegal for donkeys to sleep in bathtubs.

Harry Thomason, co-creator of the late '80s/early '90s sitcom, was from Little Rock, **Arkansas**. The house featured in the show's opening credits is the city's Villa Marre house.

_Designing Women_ was produced by an Arkansan.

Nearly 90% of wine production in America comes from **California**. There are currently more than 1,200 wineries in the The Golden State, many of which include art museums, restaurants, and performance venues.

More than 17 million gallons of wine is produced there each year.

In 1945, Mike was decapitated and continued to live for an entire year in Fruita, **Colorado**. His legacy lives on with "Mike the Headless Chicken Day", which is celebrated on the third weekend in May.

Mike the Headless Chicken hails from there.

The Ivy Leave school, which is located in New Haven, **Connecticut**, has housed the brains since 1939 when Harvey Cushing, a neurosurgeon, left the collection to his alma mater.

There are 550 human brains in Yale's medical library.

The actor was born in Wilmington, **Delaware** in 1957. He is best known for _Fast Times at Ridgemont High_ and _Beverly Hills Cop_.

Judge Reinhold was born there!

The Everglades, located in South **Florida**, are home to both reptiles. The most notable difference between the two is their snout shape.

The Everglades is the only place in the world where Alligators and Crocodiles live together.

Located in Dawsonville, **Georgia**, the North Georgia Zoo was home to over five species of kangaroo. Unfortunately, the conservation has since closed but those marsupials are still bouncing around the world.

Once home to the largest Kangaroo Conservation Center outside Australia.

The Hawaiian hoary bat and the Hawaiian monk seal are the only mammals that are indigenous to **Hawaii**. The bats got their name from the frosty looks of their fur, and the seals are only one of two remaining monk seal species.

Only two mammals are indigenous.

The **Idaho** state seal was designed by Emma Edwards Green in 1891. She didn't actually move to the state until she was 34, and was awarded $100 for her design.

It has the only state seal designed by a woman.

**Illinois** is known for its corn fields, but its only the second-largest producer of corn. In 2015, the state produced 317.9 million pounds of pumpkins. Luckily, Chicagoans love Halloween!

It produces more pumpkins than any other state.

In 1866, the Reno brothers boarded a train in **Indiana** and became the first ever train robbers, stealing $10,000. The last notable train robbery took place in Russia in 1993.

Home of the very first train robbery.

While playing in a celebrity golf tournament in Des Moines, the actor's ball managed to hit a goldfinch in mid-flight. An insurance company calculated the odds of the famous actor coming to a **Iowa** and killing the state bird with a golf shot: one in 747 million.

Rob Lowe once accidentally killed the state bird with a golf ball.

Just weeks after **Kansas** women earned the right to vote in city elections, Susanna Madora Salter became the first female mayor in 1887.

The first female mayor in the United States was elected in Argonia.

Invented in 1968, the sticky yellow notes are made in **Kentucky**, however, the exact amount that is manufactured every year is a secret.

Post-It notes are made in Cynthiana.

In 2014, 406 people twerked at the same time in New Orleans, **Louisiana**, earning a spot in Guinness.

Holds the world record for "most people twerking simultaneously".

**Maine** is famous for its lobsters, which is why the Institute was founded in 1987 with the hope of learning more about lobsters in order to assist lobstermen.

The University of Maine has its own Lobster Institute.

In 1962, **Maryland** became the first state to choose an official sport, and they landed on jousting.

Jousting is the official sport.

Sorry, Sir Isaac Newton, but the famous pastry was actually named after Newton, **Massachusetts**. Before Nabisco was Nabisco, it was called Kennedy Biscuits and they named all their treats after nearby locations.

The Fig Newton was named after the town of Newton.

The _J.W. Westcott II_ operates out of Detroit, **Michigan** and is the only floating zip code in the United States. The boat was built in 1949 and currently has a contract with the US Postal Service through 2021.

Home of the only floating post office.

Built in 1957, "Pelican Pete" is 15.5 feet tall and is located in Pelican Rapids, **Minnesota**.

Home to the world's largest fake pelican.

Fred Armisen's full name is Fereydun Robert Armisen, and he was born in Hattiesburg, **Mississippi** on December 4th, 1966.

Fred Armisen was born there!

**Missouri** hosted the 1904 Summer Olympics, which ended up being a real mess. It was during the World's Fair and athletes competed for over four months.

The first Olympics in the U.S. were held in St. Louis.

The good news: Jeannette Rankin was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives by the state of **Montana** in 1916 and again in 1940. The bad news: She continues to be the only woman elected to Congress from the state.

The first woman to serve in Congress was a representative of Montana.

Kool-Aid was invented by Edwin Perkins in Hastings, **Nebraska** in 1927. While many states have "state beverages", NE is the only one with a "state soft drink".

The official "State Soft Drink" is Kool-Aid.

They must LOVE their crustaceans in **Nevada**, becuase 60,000 pounds are eaten every single day. This is especially impressive considering it's a landlocked state.

More shrimp is consumed per day in Las Vegas than in all the other states COMBINED.

While H. H. Holmes did most of his killing in the "Murder Castle" in Chicago, he was raised in **New Hampshire**. He was executed in 1896, so no need to fear him, New Hampshirites.

America's first serial killer was from Gilmanton.

Originally called a "park-in theater" this trend began in 1933 in **New Jersey**. The idea came to Richard Hollingshead when his mother was unable to sit comfortably in a movie theater.

The first ever drive-in movie theater was opened in Camden.

Originally known as just Smokey Bear, the former cub got lost during a fire in **New Mexico** in 1950. Thankfully, he survived and went on to live at the National Zoo. The "the" was added to his name for the song in 1952.

Smokey the Bear is from the Capitan Mountains!

The upstate **New York** city was host to the Olympics in 1932 and 1980. The men's hockey team that inspired the film _Miracle_ won their victory there.

Lake Placid is the only U.S. location to host the Olympics twice.

Thanks to its shallow inlets, many pirates took to **North Carolina’s** Outer Banks to ransack ships. The famous english pirate, Blackbeard, was no exception. He lived in Beaufort and died in Ocracoke.

Blackbeard spent a lot of time pillaging unsuspecting ships in the Tar Heel State.

On February 17th, 2007 the Guinness World Record for most people making snow angels at the same time was completed in in Bismarck, **North Dakota** by 8,962 people.

Holds the record for most people making snow angels simultaneously.

Eight presidents died while in office and eight presidents were from **Ohio**. The overlap includes William Henry Harrison, James A. Garfield, William McKinley, and Warren G. Harding.

Half of the U.S. presidents to die in office were from Ohio, and half of the presidents from Ohio died in office.

In **Oklahoma** in 1937, the owner of the Humpty Dumpty supermarket chain, Sylvan Goldman, concocted the first shopping cart, which included a metal frame and two wire baskets.

The shopping cart was invented there!

**Oregon's** gigantic mushroom is the largest living organism on the planet (that we know of). This honey mushroom, also know as Humongous Fungus, covers 2,385 acres of the Malheur National Forest.

The biggest mushroom in the world resides there!

A coal mine fire has been burning beneath this **Pennsylvania** borough for over 50 years. As of 2013, only seven people reside in the "ghost town", and they will be the last. PA is allowing them to live out their lives in Centralia, but once they die, their homes will be taken by the state.

Centralia has been on fire since 1962.

Gilbert Stuart was born in Saunderstown in the Colony of **Rhode Island** and painted the famous portrait in 1796. He produced over 1,000 other portraits, including ones of the five presidents that followed Washington.

Home of Gilbert Stuart, the artist responsible for the George Washington portrait on the $1 bill.

The '90s Nickelodeon show was filmed on **South Carolina's** St. Helena Island. One of the show's stars and cultural advisors, Ron Daise, was from St. Helena and helped the show break ground by being the first preschool programming that starred a family in an indigenously black community.

_Gullah Gullah Island_ was filmed there!

Mount Rushmore isn't the only **South Dakota** landmark! The Mitchell Corn Palace was originally called the The Corn Belt Exposition and was built in 1892. Today, the tourist spot is visited by 200,000- 500,000 people each year, who come for events, festivals, and "corn art".

Home to "The World's Only Corn Palace".

Although she represented Arkansas, Hattie Caraway was born in **Tennessee** in 1878. She was elected to the Senate in 1932 and held office until 1954.

The first woman elected as United States Senator was born in Bakersville.

In 2007, the soon-to-be Oscar winners were both being filmed in **Texas**. In fact, _No Country_ had to stop filming for a day because of a huge smoke cloud from the _TWBB_ set.

_No Country For Old Men_ and _There Will Be Blood_ were filming in Marfa at the same time.

**Utah** has six national forests plus two that bleed over from Idaho. It is the only state in which every single county contains part of a national forest, which totals about 15% of the state's land.

Every county contains some part of a national forest.

You'll get a nice view when you drive through the Green Mountain State, because roadside ads are not legal. This year will mark 50 years since **Vermont** passed this law.

Billboards are illegal.

Phi Beta Kappa was founded in 1776 at the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, **Virginia**. Legend has it, the state is also home to the very first college streaker, which is documented to have happened at Washington and Lee University in 1804.

The very first fraternity was started there.

In 1910, a woman wanted to honor her father, a Civil War veteran who raised six children alone, so she held a celebration at the YMCA in Spokane, **Washington**. Despite her many efforts to make it national, Father's Day did not become a federal holiday until 1972.

Father's Day started there.

Underwood was first elected governor of **West Virginia** at age 34 and served from 1957-61. He was elected again in 1997 at age 74.

Governor Cecil Underwood was the youngest and oldest governor of the state.

In the 1870s, a a newspaper editor in **Wisconsin** named Christopher Latham Sholes created the keyboard design, which is now only slightly different from his original layout.

The keyboard layout, QWERTY, was designed in Milwaukee.

In 1925, Nellie Tayloe Ross was elected as the 14th governor of **Wyoming**, making her the first woman to ever hold the position. She was also the first woman to win a special election, which was held after her husband, the governor at the time, had passed while in office.

Home of the first female governor!

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