80 Fun Facts About New York State

What is the capital of New York State?

It has held the job since 1797 and is the oldest surviving settlement of the original Thirteen Colonies north of Virginia.

What is New York's official nickname?

George Washington reportedly called New York the 'Seat of Empire' while touring its harbors and interior.

Which mountain is the highest point in New York State?

It rises 5,344 feet in the Adirondack High Peaks; the state's lowest point is sea level on the Atlantic.

How many counties does New York State have?

Five of them are the boroughs of New York City, each coterminous with a county.

New York was which number state to ratify the US Constitution?

Ratification came on July 26, 1788, after heated debate that included the publication of The Federalist Papers in New York City newspapers.

Which explorer's 1609 voyage up the river later named for him began European involvement in the area?

He was sailing for the Dutch East India Company and looking for a passage to Asia.

What was the name of the Dutch colony that England seized and renamed the Province of New York in 1664?

When the Dutch briefly recaptured the city in 1673 they renamed it New Orange, but handed it back a year later.

Who was director-general of the Dutch colony from 1647 until it was ceded to England?

He expanded New Amsterdam beyond the southern tip of Manhattan before surrendering it in 1664.

Which governor championed the Erie Canal, which opened in 1825?

Opponents mocked the project as 'Clinton's Ditch' before it turned Buffalo and Rochester into boom towns.

How long was the original Erie Canal from the Hudson to Lake Erie?

The channel was just 40 feet wide and 4 feet deep, with the spoil piled up to form a towpath for horses.

Which 1777 New York battle persuaded France to ally with the American revolutionaries?

General John Burgoyne's entire British army was captured, the first of two major British armies lost in the war.

Which northern New York stronghold was captured by Ethan Allen and Benedict Arnold on May 10, 1775?

The French had built it as Fort Carillon, and in 1758 4,000 defenders there repelled 16,000 British troops.

The 1848 women's rights convention that produced the Declaration of Sentiments met in which New York town?

It met over two days, July 19-20, in the town's Wesleyan Chapel.

In which city was Susan B. Anthony arrested in 1872 for voting?

Her family had moved to a farm outside the city in 1845 and became active in the anti-slavery movement.

Harriet Tubman spent her later years in which New York city, on property she bought in 1859?

She cared for her aging parents there after the Civil War.

The 1969 Woodstock festival was actually held on a dairy farm in which town?

Max Yasgur's farm was 60 miles southwest of the town whose name the festival borrowed.

Which village in Otsego County is home to the National Baseball Hall of Fame?

The Hall was established in 1939 by Stephen Carlton Clark, heir to the Singer sewing machine fortune.

Lake Placid hosted the Winter Olympics in 1980 and which earlier year?

That puts it alongside St. Moritz and Innsbruck as the only places to host the Winter Games twice.

The spicy wings named for a western New York city were said to be invented at which bar in 1964?

Teressa Bellissimo, who owned the bar with her husband Frank, gets the credit in the best-known version of the story.

Jell-O was born in 1897 in which small New York town, which still has a Jell-O museum?

Pearle Bixby Wait registered the trademark there that year.

A now-discredited legend credits the potato chip's invention to a cook in which New York resort town?

The story has George Crum slicing potatoes paper-thin at Moon's Lake House in 1853 to spite a fussy customer.

Which group of eleven long, narrow bodies of water lies in central New York?

Seneca Lake, the largest, is 618 feet deep with a bottom well below sea level.

The Thousand Islands archipelago in the St. Lawrence River actually contains how many islands?

They straddle the Canada-US border where the river leaves Lake Ontario, and gave their name to a salad dressing.

How long is the Hudson River?

It flows from Lake Tear of the Clouds in the Adirondacks south to New York Harbor.

Which 1892 protected area is bigger than Yellowstone, Everglades, Glacier and Grand Canyon combined?

About half the land inside its boundary is privately owned, and it is roughly the size of Vermont.

Which New York state park, established in 1885, is the oldest in the United States?

It was also the first park created through eminent domain, after industry threatened to carve up Goat Island.

Which of the three Niagara waterfalls straddles the international border?

It is the most powerful waterfall in North America by flow rate.

In 1901, who became the first person to ride over the falls at Niagara in a barrel?

She emerged bleeding but otherwise unhurt and advised that no one ought ever do that again.

The falls at Niagara have only ever stopped flowing naturally once, because of an ice jam in which year?

No water fell for as long as 40 hours and mills shut down for lack of power.

What is New York's official state bird?

It shares the honour with Missouri.

What is New York's official state tree?

Vermont, West Virginia and Wisconsin have chosen the same tree.

What is the Latin motto on the New York state flag?

It is usually translated as 'Ever Upward'; a second motto, E pluribus unum, was added in 2020.

Which fifth grader's petition led to the nine-spotted lady beetle becoming the state insect in 1989?

Her 1980 letter and 152-signature petition languished for nine years before Cornell entomologists helped it pass.

Which food was named New York's official state snack in 2014?

Yogurt became the official state snack in 2014; the oldest symbols, the flag and the arms, date to 1778.

Who designed the I Love New York logo in 1976, reportedly in the back of a taxi with a red crayon?

The campaign, launched in 1977, has been promoting tourism to the state ever since.

Which crop is New York the largest producer of in the United States?

It also ranks in the top five for maple syrup, apples, cherries, dairy, onions and potatoes.

New York is the nation's third-largest wine producer by volume, behind California and which other state?

The Finger Lakes hillsides, the Hudson Valley and Long Island's North Fork are its main wine regions.

Which is the only state that borders both the Great Lakes and the Atlantic Ocean?

Its water boundaries also take in Lake Champlain, Long Island Sound and the Thousand Islands.

Which is the second-most populous city in New York State?

It had 278,349 residents at the 2020 census; Yonkers is third.

Which town on Long Island is the most populous town in the state, with more than 700,000 residents?

If it were a city it would be the second-largest in New York.

Kodak's home town pairs its Flour City nickname with which other nickname, from its floriculture trade?

The two names reflect its history in flour milling and floriculture; it is also home to Kodak, Xerox and Wegmans.

Which city earned the nickname 'The Salt City' from its brine springs?

Jesuit missionaries first reported salty springs around the lake now called Onondaga.

Which president was born in Kinderhook, New York, in a community that mostly spoke Dutch?

He was the first president born after the Declaration of Independence.

Which president was born in a log cabin in what is now Moravia, in central New York?

He later helped found the University of Buffalo and served as its chancellor.

Franklin D. Roosevelt's Springwood estate is in which Hudson Valley town?

The estate became a National Historic Site in 1945.

Who is New York's first female governor?

Born in Buffalo, she graduated from Syracuse University in 1980.

How much did the New York State Capitol, completed in 1899, cost?

Three teams of architects, including Henry Hobson Richardson, worked on it over 32 years.

How many campuses make up the State University of New York system?

SUNY is among the largest university systems in the country.

Founded in 1802, which institution on the Hudson is the oldest of America's five service academies?

The site is also the oldest continuously operating Army post in the country, first occupied in January 1778.

Sing Sing prison is located in which Hudson River village?

Its electric chair, nicknamed Old Sparky, was used 614 times before the state abolished the death penalty in 1972.

The 1971 riot at which state prison ended with 43 dead when the state retook control?

All but one guard and three inmates were killed by law-enforcement gunfire on the final day.

Which mid-20th-century resort region in the mountains west of the Hudson was nicknamed for a beet soup?

Its summer resorts were a major vacation destination for Jewish New Yorkers.

Irving's Rip Van Winkle sleeps for 20 years in which mountains?

Irving admitted he had never actually been to those mountains when he wrote the story.

Which New York village was the birthplace of L. Frank Baum, author of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz?

The village holds an annual Oz-Stravaganza festival in his honour.

Lucille Ball was born in 1911 in which western New York city?

She was raised partly in Celoron, a resort village on Chautauqua Lake.

The Book of Mormon was first published in 1830 in which New York village?

Joseph Smith's family farm straddled the line between that village and neighbouring Manchester.

Uncle Sam namesake Samuel Wilson's long-term home was in which New York city?

His birthplace, Arlington, Massachusetts, has the other memorial.

Watkins Glen's twenty straight years hosting the F1 United States Grand Prix ended in which year?

The first race there, in 1948, ran on a 6.6-mile course of local public roads.

Which New York track, opened in 1863, is often called the oldest major US sporting venue?

The National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame sits in the same town.

The oldest state fair in the United States is held near which New York city?

The first fair took place there in 1841 and settled permanently in 1890; it now draws over a million visitors a year.

How many years did the Superfund cleanup of the Love Canal landfill, discovered in 1977, take?

The neighbourhood in Niagara Falls sat on a 0.11-square-mile chemical dump.

A farmer discovered which cave system in 1842 after noticing his cows gathered at a cool spot?

It lies in Schoharie County and is one of the state's oldest tourist attractions.

The Chautauqua Institution in western New York was established in which year?

It gave its name to a whole movement of adult education assemblies across the country.

The 1955 Tappan Zee Bridge was replaced by a new span officially named for which former governor?

The twin cable-stayed bridge links Tarrytown and Nyack.

Grand Central Terminal has how many platforms, more than any other railway station in the world?

The terminal covers 48 acres.

New York was the most populous US state from the 1810s until which year, when California passed it?

As of 2024 it ranks fourth behind California, Texas and Florida.

Roughly what fraction of the American Revolutionary War's battles took place in New York?

The largest battle of the whole war, the Battle of Long Island, was fought in August 1776.

The Statue of Liberty was dedicated in New York Harbor on October 28 of which year?

Its formal name is Liberty Enlightening the World, and it was a gift from France to mark the Centennial of the Declaration of Independence.

Which large lake shared by New York and Vermont is sometimes called the sixth Great Lake?

It is also home to Champ, the lake's own legendary monster.

Montauk Point Light, authorized in 1792, ranks where among active US lighthouses by age?

It stands on Turtle Hill at the easternmost tip of Long Island.

Xerox was founded in 1906, in the same upstate city as Kodak, under what name?

It remains incorporated in New York, with its largest group of employees still around Rochester.

Which supermarket chain did John and Walter Wegman found in western New York in 1916?

Brothers John and Walter Wegman started the business in Rochester; the chain was still family-owned as of 2025.

The Christian commune founded near Oneida in 1848 evolved into a company famous for what?

John Humphrey Noyes and his followers built the community; Oneida Limited became one of the world's largest makers of its product.

Whiteface Mountain, host of the 1980 Olympic alpine skiing, ranks where among New York's highest peaks?

A memorial highway climbs almost to its summit, with the last stretch covered by tunnel and elevator.

What proportion of the state's population lives on Long Island?

It is the most populous island in any US state or territory.

Which fort near the present state capital was the first Dutch trading post in the region, built in 1614?

Fort Orange replaced it a decade later and grew into the settlement that became Albany.

What did Verrazzano name New York's northern bay when he entered it in April 1524?

The Italian explorer, sailing for France, honoured the French king's sister; he called the coast 'a vast coastline with a deep delta'.

Which two Iroquois nations sided with the Americans in the Revolutionary War?

The other four nations fought for the British and were later forced out of New York, resettling on Crown land grants in Canada.

Roughly what share of New York State's total area is water?

Much of the state's boundary runs through water, and four of New York City's five boroughs sit on three islands at the mouth of the Hudson.

Which Israeli institute partnered with Cornell on a $2 billion graduate tech school on Roosevelt Island?

Mayor Bloomberg announced the choice on December 19, 2011, aiming to make New York City the world's premier technology capital.