97 Fun Facts About Midwest

Which is the most populous city in the Midwest?

Chicago, with about 2.7 million residents, is the Midwest's largest city by a wide margin; its metropolitan area spills into Indiana and Wisconsin.

Which Midwestern metropolitan area is the second largest in the region?

Detroit's metro area, at roughly 4.3 million people, ranks second in the Midwest behind Chicago, ahead of Minneapolis-Saint Paul at about 3.7 million.

Which ancestry is most commonly reported in the Midwest?

German is the most common self-reported ancestry in the Midwest, claimed by roughly a fifth of residents, and in North Dakota by well over 30 percent.

Which Midwestern state is the most populous and racially diverse?

It is also ranked the state most representative of overall US demographics on several measures.

What is the Midwest's nickname, thanks to its grain harvests?

The Midwest is called the nation's breadbasket because its deep prairie soils grow much of America's corn, soybeans, wheat and oats.

Which population movement transformed Midwestern cities in the early 20th century?

The Great Migration brought some six million African Americans from the rural South to cities such as Chicago, Detroit and Cleveland between about 1916 and 1970.

Which Cleveland disc jockey popularised the term 'rock and roll' in 1951?

Alan Freed, on Cleveland's WJW radio from 1951, used 'rock and roll' for the rhythm-and-blues records he played; he staged the Moondog Coronation Ball in 1952.

Which Midwestern state has Lansing as its capital?

Lansing has been Michigan's capital since 1847, when legislators moved it inland from Detroit; the much larger Detroit remains the state's biggest city.

Which fact about presidential elections held true for Ohio through the 2024 election?

No Republican has ever won the presidency without carrying Ohio, a streak intact through 2024; Ohio's bellwether reputation, by contrast, ended when it backed Trump while Biden won in 2020.

How many Great Lakes are there?

The five Great Lakes are Superior, Michigan, Huron, Erie and Ontario, draining to the Atlantic through the St. Lawrence River.

Which two Great Lakes are hydrologically a single body of water?

Lakes Michigan and Huron connect through the five-mile-wide Straits of Mackinac, so they sit at the same surface level and are counted by hydrologists as one lake, Michigan-Huron.

Where was deep-dish pizza invented?

Deep-dish pizza was created at Pizzeria Uno, the restaurant Ike Sewell and Ric Riccardo opened at Ohio and Wabash in Chicago; a thick, buttery crust holds cheese under the sauce.

In which year was deep-dish pizza invented?

Pizzeria Uno served its first deep-dish pizza in 1943, in the middle of the Second World War; the style did not spread widely beyond Chicago until the 1970s.

Which two Chicago-area pizzerias were founded by sons of Pizzeria Uno's original pizza cook?

Lou Malnati's (1971, Lincolnwood) and Pizano's (1991, Chicago) were founded by Lou and Rudy Malnati Jr., sons of Rudy Malnati Sr., who cooked at Pizzeria Uno in the 1940s.

Which Cincinnati chili chain did Greek immigrant Nicholas Lambrinides found in 1949?

Skyline Chili opened its first parlor in Price Hill in 1949, named for the view of downtown Cincinnati; founder Nicholas Lambrinides had cooked at Empress Chili.

From which region did the immigrant brothers who created Cincinnati chili come?

The Balkans: Tom and John Kiradjieff, Macedonian immigrants from Kastoria in present-day northern Greece, opened Empress Chili in Cincinnati in 1922.

In which state is Mount Rushmore?

Mount Rushmore stands in South Dakota's Black Hills, just outside the town of Keystone and about 23 miles southwest of Rapid City.

Who sculpted Mount Rushmore?

Gutzon Borglum, who had earlier begun the Confederate carving at Stone Mountain, led the work until his death in March 1941; his son Lincoln finished it that October.

Whose idea was the Mount Rushmore carving originally?

Doane Robinson, South Dakota's state historian, proposed carving the Black Hills in 1923 to draw tourists, and recruited Gutzon Borglum for the job in 1924.

Which figures did Mount Rushmore's original proposer want carved instead of presidents?

Heroes of the American West were the first plan: Lewis and Clark, Sacagawea, Red Cloud and Buffalo Bill Cody; Gutzon Borglum pushed for presidents to give the work national appeal.

In which year did work on Mount Rushmore begin?

Carving began on October 4, 1927, after President Coolidge's dedication that August; the four faces were dedicated one by one between 1930 and 1939, Washington first.

What curve does the Gateway Arch follow?

The Gateway Arch is a weighted catenary, the curve of a hanging chain thickened toward its ends; at 630 feet it is the tallest arch in the world.

Which architect designed the Gateway Arch?

Eero Saarinen won the 1947-48 design competition for the arch; he died in 1961, before construction began in 1963, and the monument opened to the public in 1967.

In which Midwestern city does the Gateway Arch stand?

St. Louis's Gateway Arch, on the west bank of the Mississippi, commemorates the city's role as the gateway to the West after the Louisiana Purchase.

In which year was the Indianapolis 500 first run?

The first Indianapolis 500 was run on May 30, 1911, and won by Ray Harroun in a Marmon Wasp; the race has skipped only the war years 1917-18 and 1942-45.

What does the winner of the Indianapolis 500 traditionally drink?

Milk: Louis Meyer drank buttermilk in Victory Lane after his 1936 win, and a dairy-industry sponsor turned it into a fixture from 1956 onward.

How many timed laps does Indy 500 qualifying require?

Indy 500 qualifying is a four-lap, ten-mile run, with the average speed over all four laps counting; a bad fourth lap can wreck an otherwise fast attempt.

Which song's chorus is sung before the Indianapolis 500?

'Back Home Again in Indiana', a 1917 Tin Pan Alley song, has been sung before the command to start engines since 1946; Jim Nabors sang it from 1972 to 2014.

In which Nebraska town was Kool-Aid invented?

Edwin Perkins created Kool-Aid in Hastings in 1927, working in his mother's kitchen; Nebraska named it the official state soft drink in 1998.

What was Kool-Aid's liquid predecessor called?

Fruit Smack was the bottled syrup Edwin Perkins sold by mail through his Perkins Products Company in Hastings before he reformulated it as a powder in 1927.

Why did Kool-Aid's inventor turn his drink into a powder?

To cut shipping costs: Fruit Smack's four-ounce glass bottles were heavy and often broke or leaked in the mail, so in 1927 Perkins dried the concentrate into powder packets.

Which Midwestern state is nicknamed the Badger State?

Wisconsin's Badger State nickname comes from 1830s lead miners who dug into hillsides for shelter like badgers, not from the animal's numbers.

Which Midwestern state has Jefferson City as its capital?

Jefferson City, on the south bank of the Missouri River, became Missouri's capital in 1826, picked for its central location; Kansas City and St. Louis both outgrew it.

Which Wisconsin city is home to Harley-Davidson's headquarters and Miller brewing?

Milwaukee has been Harley-Davidson's home since the company began in a backyard shed there in 1903, and Miller Brewing has operated in the city since 1855.

Which invention, paired with fertile soil, made large Midwestern harvests possible?

The steel plough, which John Deere began making in Illinois in 1837, sliced through the sticky prairie sod that clogged cast-iron blades, opening the Midwest to corn and wheat.

Which Ohio city anchors a metropolitan area spanning three states?

Cincinnati's metropolitan area crosses the Ohio River into northern Kentucky and reaches southeastern Indiana, covering about 2.2 million people across the three states.

Which Midwestern metro area has core cities of the same name in two different states?

Kansas City, Missouri and Kansas City, Kansas sit side by side across the state line, one metro area of about 2.2 million people whose downtown lies on the Missouri side.

Until 1984 the Census Bureau officially called the Midwest by what name?

The Census Bureau used 'North Central Region' until June 1984, when it adopted 'Midwest' for the same 12 states, from Ohio west to Kansas, Nebraska and the Dakotas.

The Mall of America is in which Minnesota city?

Bloomington's Mall of America opened in August 1992 on the site of Metropolitan Stadium, where the Vikings and Twins had played, just across the interstate from the airport.

Berry Gordy Jr. founded Motown in January 1959 under what original name?

Tamla Records was Gordy's first label, launched on January 12, 1959, with an $800 family loan; Motown Record Corporation followed as the parent company in April 1960.

Which Minnesota town, nicknamed 'Spam Town USA', is home to the Spam Museum?

Austin, Minnesota, is Hormel Foods' home town; Spam has been canned there since 1937, and the Spam Museum on Main Street opened its current building in 2016.

The Mississippi River begins as a trickle out of which small Minnesota body of water?

It covers only about 1,200 acres and sits 1,475 feet above sea level. Its Ojibwe name means Elk Lake.

'The World's Only Corn Palace', redecorated with grain murals yearly, is in which city?

Mitchell, South Dakota, has had a Corn Palace since 1892; the current 1921 building, with Moorish domes and minarets, gets new corn-and-grain murals each year and hosts basketball.

In which year did the Mackinac Bridge linking Michigan's two peninsulas open?

The Mackinac Bridge opened to traffic on November 1, 1957, after three and a half years of construction; its five-mile span carries Interstate 75 across the Straits of Mackinac.

The 110-story Willis skyscraper was the world's tallest when it opened in 1973 under what name?

Sears Tower, built as the retailer's headquarters, was the world's tallest building from 1973 until the Petronas Towers in 1998; it was renamed Willis Tower in 2009.

Who planted the famous ivy on Wrigley Field's outfield walls in 1937?

Bill Veeck, son of Cubs president William Veeck Sr., planted the ivy in 1937 after seeing it at Perry Stadium in Indianapolis; in 1951, owning the St. Louis Browns, he sent 3-foot-7 Eddie Gaedel to bat.

Lake Superior is the largest freshwater lake in the world by which measure?

Surface area: Lake Superior covers 31,700 square miles, more than any other freshwater lake; by volume it ranks third behind Baikal and Tanganyika, and it drains to Huron via the St. Marys River.

Which flower gives Kansas its official nickname and appears on the Kansas flag above the state seal?

Sunflower is hard to miss in Kansas: the highest point in the Sunflower State, at 4,039 feet, is even named Mount Sunflower.

Which English monument is copied in vintage cars at a roadside attraction near Alliance, Nebraska?

Stonehenge was the model for Carhenge, which Jim Reinders built with a crew of about 35 relatives and dedicated at the June 1987 summer solstice.

Which food has an artist sculpted into a cow at the Iowa State Fair for more than a century?

Butter cows have been a fair staple since J.K. Daniels sculpted the first one, and Norma "Duffy" Lyon later carved all six breeds of dairy cow over 45 years.

Which future president ranched in the 1880s in North Dakota badlands that are now a national park?

Theodore Roosevelt first came to the North Dakota badlands in September 1883 to hunt bison, then put $14,000 into the Maltese Cross Ranch near Medora.

Which Wisconsin city, the smallest market in major North American pro sports, has a community-owned NFL team?

Green Bay has had the Packers since 1919, and fans hold the shares: it is the only community-owned franchise in North America's four traditional major leagues.

Which restaurant chain did brothers Dan and Frank Carney launch as students in Wichita, Kansas, in 1958?

Pizza Hut started with a $600 loan from the Carneys' mother, and the brothers chose the name because the sign could only hold eight letters.

Which Apollo astronaut was born and raised near Wapakoneta, Ohio, home to a museum bearing his name?

Neil Armstrong took flying lessons at the Wapakoneta airfield as a teenager, and the air and space museum named for him opened in the town in 1972.

Which pop star, born and raised in Minneapolis, built the Paisley Park home and studio in nearby Chanhassen?

Prince also put his hometown on screen: his 1984 film Purple Rain features the Minneapolis nightclub First Avenue, where many of its performances take place.

Which animal gives Michigan its nickname, despite no confirmed sighting there from the early 1800s until 2004?

Wolverine is also the name of the University of Michigan's teams, and the 2004 animal was photographed in Ubly by a state wildlife biologist.

Which baseball film was shot on a farm near Dyersville, Iowa, that still draws visitors to its diamond?

Field of Dreams left its ballpark behind: Universal built the diamond across two farms in 1988, and a family kept its part intact for visitors after filming.

Which president does Illinois honor in its official slogan, carried on Illinois license plates since 1954?

Abraham Lincoln was born in a one-room Kentucky log cabin and only moved to Illinois in March 1830, when his family settled in Macon County.

Which pioneering pilot was born in 1897 in Atchison, Kansas, where her birthplace is now a museum?

Amelia Earhart was born in her grandfather's Atchison home, and in 1932 she became the first woman to make a nonstop solo flight across the Atlantic.

Which medical center grew out of a doctor's family practice in Rochester, Minnesota, begun in 1864?

Mayo Clinic is named for William Worrall Mayo, whose one-man practice grew under his sons Will and Charlie into a group of partner doctors.

Which automaker, headquartered in Dearborn, Michigan, introduced the first moving assembly line in 1913?

Ford ran that line at its Highland Park factory, one of several innovations meant to make automobiles affordable for middle-class buyers.

Which tree gives Ohio its nickname and Ohio State University's sports teams their name?

Buckeye nuts have markings said to resemble a deer's eye, and a popular Ohio candy copies the look with a ball of fudge partly coated in chocolate.

Which folk hero stands about 18 feet tall in a famous roadside statue in Bemidji, Minnesota?

Paul Bunyan and Babe went up in 1937 to catch the attention of passing motorists, and the lumberjack measures three feet from toe to heel.

Which Ohio city, where the NFL was founded in 1920, is home to the Pro Football Hall of Fame?

Canton saw the league born as the American Professional Football Association, and the Hall of Fame opened to the public there in 1963.

Which president returned to Independence, Missouri, after leaving office and has his presidential library there?

Harry S. Truman was born in Lamar, Missouri, and moved back into his wife's family home in Independence when his presidency ended.

Which mail service sent its first westbound trip out of St. Joseph, Missouri, on April 3, 1860?

Pony Express mail reached Sacramento in about 10 days, but the service went bankrupt within 18 months once a faster telegraph line was established.

Which dairy food does Wisconsin make more of than any other state, about a quarter of the US total?

Cheese is serious business there: Wisconsin is the only state in the US that requires its cheesemakers to hold a license.

Which nickname does Iowa share with the University of Iowa's sports teams?

Hawkeye State is traced to the scout Hawkeye in James Fenimore Cooper's 1826 novel The Last of the Mohicans, and the university borrowed the name later.

Which Ohio city was home to Orville and Wilbur, the bicycle makers who built the first successful airplane?

Dayton is where the brothers learned their craft, working for years in a shop with printing presses, bicycles and motors before they ever flew.

Which Great Lake, the shallowest and warmest of the group, lies along Ohio's northern edge?

Erie averages only about 63 feet deep, yet its deepest point still sits above the surface of Lake Ontario, the next lake downstream.

Which South Dakota mountain range, called Pahá Sápa in Lakota, includes Wind Cave National Park?

Black Hills translates the Lakota name: from a distance the range looks dark because its slopes are covered in evergreen trees.

Which 1803 deal with France brought the future states of Iowa, Missouri and Nebraska into the United States?

Louisiana Purchase land cost $15 million, less than three cents an acre, and the US had to borrow the sum from British and Dutch banks.

Which author was born near Pepin, Wisconsin, in 1867 and set her first book in the Big Woods there?

Laura Ingalls Wilder later moved with her family to De Smet, South Dakota, where her father filed a land claim over the winter of 1879–1880.

Which famous painting shows a farmhouse that still stands in Eldon, Iowa?

American Gothic shows a stern pair who never lived in that house: Grant Wood's models were his sister Nan and the family dentist, Byron McKeeby.

Which holiday began in Nebraska in April 1872 at the urging of J. Sterling Morton of Nebraska City?

Arbor Day got off to a fast start: on April 10, 1872, an estimated one million trees were planted across Nebraska.

Which Missouri river town was the boyhood home of Mark Twain and hosts the yearly National Tom Sawyer Days?

Hannibal gave Twain the childhood settings he drew on for Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn, and its festival still holds a fence-painting contest.

Which Lakota leader is the subject of a South Dakota mountain carving that has been under way since 1948?

Crazy Horse's face alone, finished in 1998, stands 87 feet 6 inches high; sculptor Korczak Ziolkowski had expected the whole work to take 30 years.

Which Michigan city, nicknamed Cereal City, is where both the Kellogg and Post cereal companies were founded?

Battle Creek became a breakfast town twice over: C. W. Post invented Grape-Nuts there and founded his own cereal company in Kellogg's backyard.

Which Indiana city, known for its large steel mills, is the birthplace of Michael and Janet Jackson?

Gary takes its name from a lawyer, Elbert Henry Gary, who was the founding chairman of the United States Steel Corporation.

Which Kansas cattle town, once policed by Wyatt Earp, was the setting of the long-running western Gunsmoke?

Dodge City returned the compliment in 1959, when the city government renamed its downtown Walnut Street as Gunsmoke Street.

Which South Dakota town hosts a motorcycle rally each August that has drawn around 500,000 people?

Sturgis held its first rally on August 14, 1938, put on by the Jackpine Gypsies motorcycle club, and the early gatherings were built around races and stunts.

Which highland region covers most of the southern half of Missouri and a large part of northern Arkansas?

Ozarks country spans nearly 47,000 square miles, making it the most extensive highland region between the Appalachians and the Rockies.

Which 1954 Supreme Court ruling against segregated schools began with a lawsuit by Black families in Topeka, Kansas?

Brown v. Board of Education was decided 9–0 in May 1954, after thirteen local families filed a class action against the Topeka schools.

Which songbird is the official bird of Illinois, Indiana and Ohio, part of a record seven states?

Northern cardinal is the pick of more states than any other species, though each state's own wording simply calls the bird a cardinal.

Which Canadian province lies directly north of both Minnesota and North Dakota, sharing a land border with each?

Manitoba sits between the two near misses: Ontario touches Minnesota but not North Dakota, and Saskatchewan touches North Dakota but not Minnesota.

Which region, organized by Congress in 1787, later became Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan and Wisconsin?

Northwest Territory was created by a 1787 ordinance that prohibited slavery across the whole region, so all five of those states joined the Union as free states.

Which gunfighter was shot dead in 1876 while playing poker in a saloon in Deadwood, now in South Dakota?

Wild Bill Hickok is said to have been holding two pairs, black aces and eights, which poker players have called the dead man's hand ever since.

Which ancient city in Illinois had up to 20,000 residents around 1100 AD and about 120 earthen mounds?

Cahokia's largest earthwork, Monks Mound, covers 14 acres and rises 100 feet, and UNESCO named the site a World Heritage Site in 1982.

Which river, celebrated in Indiana's official state song, forms the southern part of the Indiana–Illinois border?

Wabash waters rise in Ohio and cross Indiana before turning south, and the song "On the Banks of the Wabash, Far Away" became official in 1913.

Which Nebraska river did pioneers joke was a mile wide but only inches deep?

Platte water still draws a crowd: the river's central valley is a major stopover for sandhill and whooping cranes migrating along the Central Flyway.

Which 1862 law offered settlers 160 acres of public land and is commemorated by a national park near Beatrice, Nebraska?

Homestead Act land went to settlers who improved it, and Daniel Freeman filed one of the very first claims, at a Nebraska land office, on the day the law took effect in 1863.

Which slender stone spire in western Nebraska guided Oregon Trail pioneers and appears on the Nebraska state quarter?

Chimney Rock rises about 300 feet above the surrounding valley, and the 2006 quarter shows a covered wagon heading west past it.

Which Kansas upland holds North America's densest intact tallgrass prairie because its rocky soil defeated the plow?

Flint Hills limestone carries bands of chert, or flint, just under the surface, so early settlers turned to cattle ranching instead of crops.

What shape is Ohio's flag, the only one of the 50 state flags that is not a rectangle?

Swallowtail flags like Ohio's are more often seen on boats: state law has officially called the design a burgee since 2002.

Which Minnesota port city sits on Lake Superior at the westernmost point of the Great Lakes?

Duluth is the world's farthest inland port that oceangoing ships can reach, and the largest and busiest port on the Great Lakes.

Which Indiana town's post office receives thousands of Christmas letters every year because of the town's name?

Santa Claus was a second choice: the town was founded as Santa Fe but could not get a post office because Indiana already had one by that name.

Which Nebraska bread pocket of ground beef, cabbage and onions shares its name with a fast-food chain founded in 1949?

Runza sandwiches descend from the bierock, a recipe immigrants from Russia's Volga valley carried to Nebraska, and the chain bakes its version as a rectangle.