25 Interesting Facts About USA – Part 5

Here is part 5 of Interesting Facts About USA.

1-5 Interesting Facts About USA

1. There is a 30-foot tree trunk known as the “Old Man of the Lake” that has been floating vertically in Oregon’s Crater Lake for nearly 120 years. In 1938 they tracked the tree trunk’s movement and discovered that it had traveled a total distance of over 60 miles in just under 3 months. – Source

2. Portland Oregon has more strip clubs per capita than any city in the country, has more microbreweries inside their city limits than any city in the world, has the smallest city park of any city in the world and is home to the largest bookstore in the country; Powell’s City of Books – Source

3. The Japanese pilot who attacked a town in Oregon during WWII returned 20 years later to present his family’s 400-year-old sword as a symbol of regret. – Source

4. In 1984, a cult spread salmonella on salad bars at restaurants in an Oregon city. They hoped to incapacitate the local population so that their candidates would win local elections. It was the first and single largest bioterrorist attack in US history. – Source

5. Portland was named by a coin flip. Had the coin landed the other way, the city would be Boston, Oregon. – Source

6-10 Interesting Facts About USA

6. There is a 2400 year old giant “honey mushroom” in Oregon, covering 2200 acres, slowly killing off the trees in the forest. It is the largest living organism on the planet. – Source

7. There was a county in Tennessee that, during the Civil War, decided not to join the Confederacy. Instead, Scott County seceded and formed the Free State of Scott. It didn’t officially rejoin Tennessee until 1986. – Source

8. The Jack Daniels distillery in Lynchburg, Tennessee, can’t sell any liquor because it is in a dry county. Instead, they sell commemorative Jack Daniels bottles that happen to have whiskey in them. – Source

9. There is an area of forest in Tennessee that is used as a dead body farm to aid in forensic research. – Source

10. Mississippi has the highest child vaccination rate of any state at 99.7%. – Source

11-15 Interesting Facts About USA

11. In 1861, the entire student body of the University of Mississippi enlisted in the Confederate Army as a single company. They suffered a 100% casualty rate during the Civil War. – Source

12. The state of Mississippi ranked 2nd in charitable giving in 2012, despite having the lowest per capita personal income in all of the US. – Source

13. In 1838, Missouri Governor Lilburn Boggs issued Missouri Executive Order 44, ordering all Mormons to leave the state or be killed. – Source

14. In 1981, a man who had been bullying residents of a small Missouri town was murdered in broad daylight when 46 townspeople rose up against him, in an act of vigilante justice. No charges were ever filed. – Source

15. Alabama is the only U.S. state where a law prohibiting the sale of sex toys remains on the books, though Alabama residents are permitted to buy sex toys with a doctor’s note. – Source

16-20 Interesting Facts About USA

16. 28 US states have an official state beverage. 21 of those 28 chose milk. Alabama chose whiskey. – Source

17. Underwater forest off Alabama Coast uncovered by Katrina is 50,000 Years Old. – Source

18. Alabama voters, in 2000, repealed the law that banned interracial marriage, which the US Supreme Court had already ruled unconstitutional 33 years earlier in Loving vs. Virginia. Despite the law already being unconstitutional, 41% of Alabama voters still voted against the repeal. – Source

19. Florida passed a law requiring toddlers in state-run schools to listen to classical music every day, and in 1998 the governor of Georgia budgeted $105,000 per year to provide every child born in Georgia with a tape or CD of classical music. – Source

20. In 1998, a Georgia high school student was suspended from school after wearing a Pepsi t-shirt on Coke Day. Upon hearing the news, a Pepsi spokesperson said, “Without knowing all the details, it sounds like (he’s) obviously a trendsetter with impeccable taste in clothes.” – Source

21-25 Interesting Facts About USA

21. In 1979, an unknown group of people paid for the erection of the “Georgia Guidestones”, 6 granite slabs that instruct the survivors of an apocalyptic scenario how to rebuild a better world. – Source

22. The State of Georgia was originally colonized with three prohibitions: no alcohol, no slavery, and no Catholics. – Source

23. The city of Kennesaw, Georgia has a law that all families must own a gun. – Source

24. A live nuclear bomb was ejected over the coast of Georgia, USA. The B-47 plane carrying it was hit by another plane, and the bomb was ejected to prevent detonation during the crash. The bomb was never found and still lies somewhere near the coast. – Source

25. On the night before his scheduled execution, Troy Leon Gregg successfully escaped Georgia State Prison’s death row. Later that night, he was beaten to death in a bar fight in North Carolina. – Source