Texas and Arizona have 7 of the top 52 in the contiguous United States. Georgia has five. California has four. Colorado, Oklahoma and Virginia have three. Alabama, Kentucky, Montana, and Tennessee have 2. Florida, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Louisiana, Minnesota, Missouri, Nevada, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, and Ohio have one.
Hints so far:
– If Canada were included, some provinces would have dominated the list.
– North Dakota and South Dakota not only fall short of having any outside the top 52, but their biggest is outside the top 140 or so.
– The top ten, in order, are located in: Florida, Montana, Montana, Oklahoma, Texas, Arizona, Tennessee, California, Texas, Virginia.
– There is a reason that Hawaii and Alaska were excluded.
– Alaska has four above the one in Florida. Canada has twelve (four in Quebec, four in Ontario, three in Nova Scotia, and one in Manitoba.)
– Ranking relates to size, top being the largest.
My first thought was largest counties, but then I realized Oregon would be on the list.
There’s a distinct southern and western tilt, despite New York getting a double mention.
Aqueducts or other similar water delivery pipelines.
Artificial lakes?
I like that guess.
Largest HS football stadiums?
Solar power plants?
Universities?
Largest military facilities (measured by people)?
Nationally ranked hospitals?
Tuesday Hint: I was going to include some Canadian provinces, but they would have dominated the list.
(Some good guesses here today.)
Nice people?
Lovely.
Indian reservations by area?
That’s a great guess, MT. But where are the Dakotas? I’m sure there’s big reservations in at least one of them.
Come to think of it, where are the Dakotas?
D’OH!
Neither of the Dakotas have one in the top 140 or so.
It appears that Texas has only three Indian Reservations, totaling less than 10 square miles in area. Wonder how that came to be? Well, another reason to assert that Texas isn’t a real Southwestern state.
Michael,
It came to be because Texas came into the Union by a different route than any other state. Originally part of Mexico, then an independent country, then brought in by treaty…but by then it’s basic land structure was set up. Unlike other western states, which were territories before becoming states, Texas has a minuscule amount of federal land in general, not just reservations.
As Will T and I have noted on more than one occasion, by western standards none of the states east of the Rockies have significant amounts of federal land :^) Several states — Iowa, Ohio, New York, and Alabama to name four — have a smaller percent of their area as federal land holdings than Texas.
Yes, all of those states came into the union before we started thinking seriously about environmental amenities.
Megachurches
Note to self. Read Will’s hint before guessing.
school districts?
Why is North Carolina listed twice in the OP?
He really likes North Carolina.
(and New York).
Oops. Both should be listed only once.
Farms. Agribusinesses. Food producers. Something like that.
Enclosed shopping malls?
This is a good guess, but I know for a fact that NJ has at least one of the biggest.
Wednesday Hint: The top ten: Florida, Montana, Montana, Oklahoma, Texas, Arizona, Tennessee, California, Texas, Virginia.
Montana’s here twice. I presume that’s because the biggest one of these is in Florida, and #2 and #3 are in Montana, #4 is in OK, and so on. Correct?
That is correct, Burt.
Longest border with another state.
Wouldn’t they all have to pair, then?
Oh, yeah.
Neither Texas nor Arizona touch seven other states, even if you count Mexico (and the Gulf of Mexico).
Will-
Where would Hawaii and Alaska rank if on the list?
I’ll just say… there is a reason they were excluded.
Which suggests it has something to do with adjacent states, since Alaska and Hawaii have none, and still allows for some Canadian provinces to be adjacent to states that have even more of whatever it is…
Or it could be something they’d dominate in. Will’s not saying they don’t qualify; a number of states are outside the top 52. But Hawaii and Alaska were not included for a reason, making me think their presence on the list might make it obvious.
So what do Hawaii and Alaska have a lot of that other states don’t? I’m starting to think it has something to do with demographics… population centers wherein greater than 50% of folks report a language other than English as their first language, or something.
If Montana gets #2 and #3, you have to sort of stretch the definition of population “center” :^)
Good point. Those areas just seem heavily not American-y
Inland islands? As in islands in lakes, rivers, reservoirs, and other bodies of fresh water?
Late Wednesday Hints: Including Alaska and Hawaii, the top four would be in Alaska. Including Canada, the top two would be in Quebec (Canada has 13 before you get to that one in Florida – four in Quebec, four in Ontario, three in Nova Scotia, and one in Manitoba). Hawaii is not a contender to be on this list anywhere. [this comment modified by Trumwill for clarity]
Stretches of a single state highway?
State (not national) parks, by acreage.
Thursday Morning Hint: “Top” in this case means largest.
Largest cities by land area.
This is correct.
Sorry for the delayed response on that. I have an assignment for special ed at the middle school today.
I gotta confess, when James H almost got it on the first go, I thought this question was doomed.
That’s a damn fine trivia question. I probably should have got it.
Will-
When possible, can you throw up the source for the data once it’s been guessed?
Thanks.
Kazzy, I will try to start doing that.
Wikipedia, in this case. (US, Canada)
More facts I never knew:
San Francisco is an extreme example; water makes up nearly 80% of its total area of 232 square miles (601 km²).