50 Fun Facts About Midwest

Which is the most populous city in the Midwest?

Its metropolitan area spreads across three states.

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

Cincinnati, Kansas City and Cleveland follow it in the regional rankings.

Which ancestry is most commonly reported in the Midwest?

Nearly 23% of the region reports it, and in North Dakota it passes 30% of the population.

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?

Rich soil plus the steel plough made corn, wheat, soybeans, oats and barley possible at scale.

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

African Americans left the South for northern and western cities, changing their demographics entirely.

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

He started playing the music and gave the genre the name that stuck.

What was the median household income in the Midwest in 2022?

That was slightly below the 2022 national figure of $74,755.

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

Through 2024 that record made it the classic battleground, though margins widened in the 2010s and 2020s.

How many Great Lakes are there?

Hydrologically, Michigan and Huron are really one body of water joined at the Straits of Mackinac.

What share of the world's surface fresh water do the Great Lakes hold?

They are the largest group of freshwater lakes on Earth by area and second by volume.

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

They join at the Straits of Mackinac, which is why their water levels move together.

Where was deep-dish pizza invented?

Ike Sewell and Richard Riccardo founded it in 1943, and the recipe was printed two years later.

In which year was deep-dish pizza invented?

The first published recipe used a dough made with scalded milk, butter and sugar.

Which two later pizzerias were founded by sons of that restaurant's original chef?

Rudy Malnati's sons opened them in 1971 and 1991 respectively.

What is that Ohio chilli usually served on?

The hot dog version is called a coney, and the whole thing was invented by immigrant restaurateurs in the 1920s.

Which popular myth about that Ohio chilli is false?

The actual spices include cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice, clove, cumin and bay leaf.

Where did the brothers who created that Ohio chilli emigrate from?

Tom and John Kiradjieff left a village in what is now Greece after the Balkan Wars and the First World War.

In which state is Mount Rushmore?

It sits in the Black Hills, about 20 miles southwest of Keystone.

Who sculpted Mount Rushmore?

He called it the Shrine of Democracy, and his son Lincoln finished the job after his death in 1941.

Whose idea was the Mount Rushmore carving originally?

He had wanted figures from the American West, including Lewis and Clark, Sacagawea and Red Cloud.

Which figures did the original proposer want carved instead of presidents?

Lewis and Clark, Sacagawea and the Oglala Lakota chief Red Cloud were on his list.

In which year did work on Mount Rushmore begin?

The four faces were completed between 1934 and 1939.

What geometric form does the St. Louis monument take?

It is clad in stainless steel and is the world's tallest arch.

Which architect designed the Gateway Arch?

He drew it in 1947; construction ran from 1963 to 1965 and it opened to the public in 1967.

In which Midwestern city does the Gateway Arch stand?

It commemorates the westward expansion of the United States.

In which year was the Indianapolis 500 first run?

Ray Harroun won it, and the race has paused only for the two world wars.

How many cars start the Indianapolis 500?

They line up in eleven rows of three, a tradition as old as the race itself.

What does the winner of the Indianapolis 500 traditionally drink?

The crowd also sings the chorus of 'Back Home Again in Indiana' before the start.

How many timed laps does Indy 500 qualifying require?

Most oval races settle it on a single lap, which makes this one unusually punishing.

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

The bottle of milk in victory lane completes the ritual afterwards.

In which Nebraska town was Kool-Aid invented?

Edwin Perkins did all the experiments in his mother's kitchen.

What was Kool-Aid's liquid predecessor called?

Removing the liquid cut shipping costs, and the powder that was left became the product.

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

The change happened in 1927, and the powder took a new name at the same time.

What proportion of the Midwest's population lives below the poverty line?

That includes roughly 16% of children under 18 and 10% of people over 65.

What is the median age in the Midwest?

The region's age distribution broadly matches the country as a whole.

Where does almost half the Midwest's Hispanic population live?

Most of them are in the Chicago metropolitan area.

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

Corn, wheat, soybeans, oats and barley all followed it out of that soil.

Which Ohio city anchors a metropolitan area spanning three states?

It reaches into Kentucky and Indiana as well as Ohio.

Which Midwestern metro area straddles two states either side of the Missouri River border?

Omaha does something similar across the Nebraska-Iowa border.

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

The Bureau's definition covers 12 states, from Ohio west to the Dakotas, Nebraska and Kansas, with nearly 69 million people at the 2020 census.

The Mall of America, the largest mall in the US, is in which Minnesota city?

It opened in 1992 on the site of the old Metropolitan Stadium, where the Vikings and Twins once played, just across the interstate from the airport.

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

It was incorporated as Motown Record Corporation the next year. The name is a blend of 'motor' and 'town', and it stuck to the city itself.

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

Hormel makes the canned meat there and in Dubuque, Iowa. The town once had a restaurant whose entire menu was built around Spam.

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?

The Moorish Revival arena draws up to 500,000 visitors a year and doubles as a venue for concerts and basketball.

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

At 26,372 feet it is the longest suspension bridge between anchorages in the Western Hemisphere and carries Interstate 75 across the straits.

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

It held the world's-tallest title for nearly 25 years, and its Skydeck is still the highest observation deck in the United States.

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

He was the club president's son and got the idea from Perry Stadium in Indianapolis. He later owned the White Sox and sent a 3-foot-7 batter to the plate.

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

By volume it ranks only third. It is also the highest and most northerly of the Great Lakes and drains into Lake Huron via the St. Marys River.