How The States Got Their Shapes

Did money make our map? Through boom and through bust, the sweet smell of profit has drawn and redrawn our states.

How the States Got Their Shapes

How have massive geological events helped create the American map? Long before the Founding Fathers drew the map, Mother Nature shaped some states herself.

How did the most rebellious states take shape? And how did they earn their outsized features and outspoken reputations?

There are secrets hiding in our map, from the "blank spots" like Area 51 to the county in Georgia that was left off its state's quarter.

If you thought our borders were set in stone, you're wrong. Who stole a corner of Washington, D.C.? Is Ohio actually a state? Why isn't St. Louis our nation's capital? And how did we create order out of so much chaos?

Ever since the Pilgrims boarded the Mayflower, what we believe and how we believe has shaped the American map. How did religion shatter New England into such odd little shapes?

Did money make our map? Through boom and through bust, the sweet smell of profit has drawn and redrawn our states.

Cultures compete against each other all over the map. In extreme cases, they can divide states in two. Will rivalries within our states break them into pieces?

We all live in the same country, so why do we sound do different? And why do we have so many different words for the same things -- like pop versus sodä