12 Fun Facts You May Not Know about the Midwest -

One fun part of travel is learning interesting facts about the places you visit. Following are bits of trivia I’ve picked up about each of the Midwest states.

■ The world’s tallest man, Robert Wadlow, was from Alton, Illinois. He reached 8’11.1” and was still growing when he died at the age of 22.

■ Most Americans know that Abraham Lincoln was born in a cabin in Kentucky and that he spent his pre-presidential adult years in Illinois. But did you know that the Lincoln family moved to Indiana when Abe was a young boy? It was in Indiana that he spent his formative years.

■ Snake Alley in Burlington Iowa was dubbed the crookedest street in the world by Ripley’s Believe It or Not! The 600-foot Lombard Street has eight switchbacks, or one switchback for every 75 feet.

■ Cawker City, Kansas, is home to the world’s largest ball of twine, measuring more than ten feet in diameter. Read about it in an article by fellow travel bloggers, The Walking Tourists.

■ Colon, Michigan, is known as the Magic Capital of the World. This small city of 1100 people manufactures more magic supplies than anywhere else, has three magic stores, hosts two magic conventions each year and even has a cemetery full of interred magicians.

■ The Mall of America in Bloomington, Minnesota, the largest shopping mall in the United States, does not have a central heating system. Instead, the mall is heated through skylights, lighting fixtures and body heat of visitors.

■ Although the ice cream cone was patented in 1903 by an Italian immigrant to New York, it became popular as a result of the 1904 World’s Fair in St. Louis, Missouri. When an ice cream vendor ran out of dishes, a vendor selling a wafer-thin waffle pastry in the next booth rolled one of the waffles into a cone and gave it to the ice cream vendor.

■ The Union Pacific’s Baily Yard in North Platte, Nebraska, is the world’s largest railroad yard. The yard is 8 miles long and 1.5 to 2 miles wide with 301 sets of rails set on 2,850 acres.

■ North America’s geographical center is in Rugby, North Dakota.

■ Ohio has a larger Amish population than any other state, with 69,255 as of 2015.

■ The largest concentration of mammoth remains in the world is located at the Mammoth Site of Hot Springs, South Dakota.

■ Wisconsin is the largest producer of cranberries, taking over the lead from Massachusetts in 1995.

What Midwest fun facts can you add to the list? Answer in the Comments section below.

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44 thoughts on “12 Fun Facts You May Not Know about the Midwest”

Anna Schlaht

July 5, 2016 at 9:37 am

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44 thoughts on “12 Fun Facts You May Not Know about the Midwest”

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