5 15 visiting states and capitals

Fascinating Facts
• Salt Lake City, Utah’s capital, is home to the famous
Mormon Tabernacle Choir.

• Sacramento, the capital of California, is also the
“Camellia Capital of the World.”

• Horace King, a former enslaved person, designed
the beautiful spiral staircase in the capitol in
Montgomery, Alabama.

Genre

Text Features

Nonfiction

• Map
• Sidebars
• Table of Contents

Scott Foresman Social Studies

ISBN 0-328-17548-X

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In this book you will read about many of the state
capitals in the United States. Some capitals are
large and busy. Other capitals are small and quiet.

Write to It!
Choose a state capital that you would like to visit.
Write a postcard to a friend or family member
from that capital. Tell what you liked about the
city and why you liked it.

Vocabulary
capital

irrigation system

capitol

civil rights

monarchy

statehouse
Write your postcard on a separate sheet of paper.

Table of Contents
Let’s Take a Tour ............................................. page 2
Sacramento, California’s Capital ...................... page 3
Faraway Capitals ............................................. page 4
Capitals of the Southwest ............................... page 6
Capitals of the Midwest .................................. page 9
Capitals of the Southeast .............................. page 12
Capitals of the Northeast .............................. page 14

Maps
MapQuest, Inc.
Photographs
Every effort has been made to secure permission and provide appropriate credit for photographic material. The publisher deeply
regrets any omission and pledges to correct errors called to its attention in subsequent editions.
Unless otherwise acknowledged, all photographs are the property of Scott Foresman, a division of Pearson Education.
Photo locators denoted as follows: Top (T), Center (C), Bottom (B), Left (L), Right (R) Background (Bkgd)

ISBN: 0-328-17548-X
Copyright © Pearson Education, Inc.
All Rights Reserved. Printed in the United States of America. This publication is protected
by Copyright, and permission should be obtained from the publisher prior to any prohibited
reproduction, storage in a retrieval system, or transmission in any form by any means,
electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or likewise. For information regarding
permission(s), write to: Permissions Department, Scott Foresman, 1900 East Lake Avenue,
Glenview, Illinois 60025.
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 V0G1 14 13 12 11 10 09 08 07 06 05

Opener: ©Allen Russell/Index Stock Imagery
2 ©Gerald L. French/ThePhotoFile
4 ©Allen Prier/Panoramic Images
5 ©Royalty-Free/Corbis
6 ©Owen Franken/Corbis
7 ©Andre Jenny/Alamy Images
8 ©AP/Wide World PhotosEditorial Offices: Glenview, Illinois • Parsippany, New Jersey • New York, New York
9 ©Don Emmert/AFP/Getty Images
10 ©Andre Jenny/Alamy Images
Sales Offices: Needham, Massachusetts • Duluth, Georgia • Glenview, Illinois
12 ©Andre Jenny/Alamy Images
Coppell, Texas • Sacramento, California • Mesa, Arizona

13 ©Mark E. Gibson/Corbis
14 ©Andre Jenny/Alamy Images


Let’s Take a Tour

Sacramento, California’s Capital

Each state capital, or center of government, has a story.
Kings and queens once ruled in Honolulu, Hawaii. Paul Revere
rode on horseback through Boston, Massachusetts. A bat
colony lives under a bridge in Austin, Texas.
When you visit state capitals, you can see the capitol, the
building where lawmakers work and where important events
happen. You can have fun too. You might see a race, swim at
the beach, or visit a roller-skating museum.

Let’s start in Sacramento, the capital of California. Its capitol
was built in the 1800s. It is a museum of history as well as a
government office. The historic offices are on the first floor.
They have been changed back to how they looked long ago.
Sacramento is the “Gateway to the Gold Country.” John
Sutter set up a colony here for Swiss immigrants in 1839. He
also set up Sutter’s Fort, a trading post. Gold was discovered
there in 1848.
Hopeful gold miners rushed to Sacramento from all over the
world. The colony became a supply post for miners. You can
see buildings from those days along the waterfront.
Pony Express riders made Sacramento their final stop.
Sacramento was also the final stop on the transcontinental

railroad, which was built in the 1800s. You can see
locomotives from that time at the California State Railroad
Museum.

Sacramento’s capitol looks like a smaller
version of the United States Capitol in
Washington, D.C.

2

3


Honolulu is Hawaii’s most important city. Planes and ships
come and go from here to Asia, Australia, New Zealand, and
the United States mainland. Honolulu is called the “Crossroads
of the Pacific.”
You can visit Iolani (ee-oh-LAH-nee) Palace, the only royal
palace in the United States. Queen Liliuokalani (lee-LEE-ohkah-lah-nee) lived here. She was Hawaii’s last royal ruler. The
monarchy, a government ruled by a king or a queen, ended
in 1893. Five years later, Hawaii became part of the United
States.
You can also visit the museums and memorials at Pearl
Harbor. On December 7, 1941, the Japanese bombed the
United States naval base here. The United States then entered
World War II.

Alaska is the largest state.

Faraway Capitals

If you live on the mainland of the United States, you must
take a plane or ship to visit Juneau, Alaska, or Honolulu,
Hawaii. You will discover how different they are from each
other.
You can ride the tramway in Juneau. The tramway climbs up
Mount Roberts and gives a great view. You can see old and
new buildings and Gastineau (GAS-ti-no) Channel.
Mendenhall Glacier is nearby. It is one-and-a-half miles wide.
As it slowly moves, parts of it break off and form icebergs in
Mendenhall Lake. Be sure to visit this huge sheet of ice.
The Alaska State Museum is in downtown Juneau. It has
exhibits on the Inuit and Russians who once lived here.

4

People from all over the world swim, surf, and sunbathe on
beautiful Waikiki (wai-kih-KIH) Beach.

5


Austin, Texas, has one of the largest urban bat colonies in
North America. About one million bats live under a bridge
over the Colorado River. At sunset every summer evening,
they fly out to look for dinner.

Santa Fe, New Mexico, is about four hundred years old. It
is the oldest capital in the United States. Spain, Mexico, and
the United States have ruled it. The Palace of the Governors
is in Santa Fe. It is now a museum where you can learn about

the city’s history.
Artists love Santa Fe because it has beautiful scenery.
Pueblo, Navajo, and Apache arts and crafts are displayed
in a museum here. The design of the capitol is based on an
American Indian sun sign that stands for the circle of life.

Old houses and churches line
Santa Fe’s narrow,
crooked streets.

Frontier Days in Cheyenne, Wyoming, lasts for ten days.

Capitals of the Southwest
The phoenix is a mythical bird from Greek and Egyptian
mythology. Phoenix, Arizona, is named for this bird. Hohokam
(huh-HO-kum) Indians once lived where Phoenix is now. They
built an irrigation system, a way of using canals, ditches,
or pipes to bring water to dry land. Phoenix was built on their
settlement.
6

7


On April 22, 1889, homesteaders could claim land in the
Oklahoma Territory. More than ten thousand people raced
across the border and put up a city of tents along the railroad
tracks. That settlement became Oklahoma City.
Oil and cattle are important to Oklahoma City. Miners first
struck oil here in 1928. Today the city is one of the major oilproducing areas in the United States.

Oklahoma City has one of the largest cattle markets in the
world. It also has the National Cowboy and Western Heritage
Museum, where you can learn about rodeos, western towns,
and African American Buffalo Soldiers.
More than a million people come to Des Moines, Iowa, every August
for the Iowa State Fair.

Capitals of the Midwest

Oil wells are all over
Oklahoma City, even on the
grounds of the state capitol.

8

You cannot miss Lincoln, Nebraska. Its capitol is four
hundred feet high. It is called the “Tower of the Plains.” You
can see it from miles away. A statue of a farmer sowing grain
stands on top of the building.
The prairie once stretched as far as you could see. Visit the
Nine-Mile Prairie in Lincoln to see how the prairie used to be.
At the National Museum of Roller-Skating, you can learn about
skates and skating.
St. Paul, Minnesota’s capital, is one of the “Twin Cities.”
Minneapolis is the other twin city. The twin cities are not alike.
St. Paul is small and quiet. Minneapolis, a large and bustling
place, is across the Mississippi River. For many years, St. Paul
was the busiest port on the Upper Mississippi.
9

Abraham Lincoln lived in Springfield, Illinois, before he
became President. Many of the places that he knew have
been kept as they were. The railroad station where Lincoln left
Springfield to become President is now a museum. You can
visit the law office where he worked and the tomb where he is
buried. You can also see his statue and rub its nose for good
luck. The color of the statue’s nose has worn away over the
years from so much rubbing!

This statue of Abraham Lincoln
is in Springfield, Illinois.

10

Indianapolis is the capital of Indiana. It is also the city of
wheels—car wheels, that is. The Indianapolis (or Indy) 500
motor race is held every Memorial Day weekend. Cars speed
around the five-hundred-mile speedway. Visitors can see racing
cars in the speedway’s Hall of Fame.
The Brickyard 400 stock car race and competitions of the
International Hot Rod Association are held here too. Many
auto racing-related businesses make their home in Indianapolis.
Indianapolis is called the “Crossroads of America” because
four interstate highways and five United States highways run
through and around it.
Indianapolis is laid out like a wheel. Monument Circle is in
the center, and streets fan out from it like spokes.
Indianapolis is not all about wheels, of course. It also has
professional football and basketball teams. Its Children’s

Museum has five stories full of fun things to see and do.

11


Capitals of the Southeast
Montgomery, Alabama, was the first capital of the
Confederacy during the Civil War. A bronze star on the
capitol steps marks where Jefferson Davis was sworn in as
president of the Confederacy.
More than one hundred years later, civil rights leader Dr.
Martin Luther King, Jr., gave a speech on these steps. He
spoke to twenty-five thousand
Americans who had marched
from Selma, Alabama, to
support civil rights.
In 1955 Rosa Parks was on
a bus in Montgomery when she
refused to give up her seat to a
white person and was arrested.
The famous bus boycott began,
and many people stopped
riding the buses. The Civil Rights
Memorial in Montgomery honors
people who died in the struggle
for civil rights.

Baton Rouge, Louisiana, has the tallest
state capitol in the United States. It is
thirty-four stories tall.

12

The Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum in Nashville,
Tennessee, looks like the keys of a giant piano.

Atlanta, Georgia, is a modern city with a huge and busy
airport. Go under the city to see the old Atlanta. Bridges
covered this five-block area for fifty years. Underground
Atlanta has been restored, and you can now see brick streets,
gaslights, and old storefronts.
Visit the Margaret Mitchell House and Museum. This was
the home of the author who wrote Gone With the Wind. This
popular novel later became a famous movie about Atlanta
during the Civil War. General Sherman and his Union forces
attacked Atlanta and burned it almost to the ground.

13


Boston, Massachusetts, has a lot of history crowded into a
small space. It is hard to see it all in a short time. To make it
easier, visitors follow the Freedom Trail, which leads to places
where important events happened.
Colonial soldiers trained on Boston Common during the
American Revolution. The Boston Massacre took place in front of
the Old State House. Paul Revere lived in the house now known
as the Paul Revere House. Lanterns were lit in the Old North
Church as a signal that the British were headed for Concord.
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Both Harriet Beecher Stowe and Mark Twain were
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Annapolis, Maryland, is near
Chesapeake Bay and has seventeen
miles of shoreline. The United States
Naval Academy is here. Boats fill
City Dock and restaurants serve lots
of seafood. You can tour Annapolis
in a boat, schooner, or kayak.
Rhode Island is the smallest
state in the Union. Its capital is
Providence. Independent Man is
Annapolis has the oldest state
a statue that stands on top of the
capitol in the nation that is still

in use.
statehouse, or capitol.
Roger Williams was Rhode
Island’s first independent man. He was a minister in Boston
who did not agree with the ideas of other Boston ministers. He
left and started a new colony—Rhode Island.

Montpelier, Vermont, is the smallest state capital in the
nation. The statehouse is made of granite, a kind of stone
that comes from a huge quarry. A quarry is a large hole in
the earth where stone is mined.

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Capitals of the
Northeast

93


In this book you will read about many of the state
capitals in the United States. Some capitals are
large and busy. Other capitals are small and quiet.

Glossary

Write to It!

capital a city where a state or national government
is located

Choose a state capital that you would like to visit.
Write a postcard to a friend or family member
from that capital. Tell what you liked about the
city and why you liked it.

Vocabulary

capitol capital
a building where a state
or national
irrigation
system
legislature meets
capitol
civil rights
civil rights the rights guaranteed to all citizens by
monarchy
statehouse
the Constitution

Write your postcard on a separate sheet of paper.

irrigation system a way of using canals, ditches,
or pipes to bring water to dry land

Table of Contents

monarchy a government ruled by a king or queen
Let’s Take a Tour ............................................. page 2
statehouse another word for capitol
Sacramento, California’s Capital ...................... page 3
Faraway Capitals ............................................. page 4
Capitals of the Southwest ............................... page 6
Capitals of the Midwest .................................. page 9
Capitals of the Southeast .............................. page 12
Capitals of the Northeast .............................. page 14

Maps
MapQuest, Inc.
Photographs
Every effort has been made to secure permission and provide appropriate credit for photographic material. The publisher deeply
regrets any omission and pledges to correct errors called to its attention in subsequent editions.
Unless otherwise acknowledged, all photographs are the property of Scott Foresman, a division of Pearson Education.
Photo locators denoted as follows: Top (T), Center (C), Bottom (B), Left (L), Right (R) Background (Bkgd)

ISBN: 0-328-17548-X
Copyright © Pearson Education, Inc.
All Rights Reserved. Printed in the United States of America. This publication is protected
by Copyright, and permission should be obtained from the publisher prior to any prohibited
reproduction, storage in a retrieval system, or transmission in any form by any means,
electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or likewise. For information regarding
permission(s), write to: Permissions Department, Scott Foresman, 1900 East Lake Avenue,
Glenview, Illinois 60025.
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 V0G1 14 13 12 11 10 09 08 07 06 0516

Opener: ©Allen Russell/Index Stock Imagery
2 ©Gerald L. French/ThePhotoFile
4 ©Allen Prier/Panoramic Images
5 ©Royalty-Free/Corbis
6 ©Owen Franken/Corbis
7 ©Andre Jenny/Alamy Images
8 ©AP/Wide World Photos
9 ©Don Emmert/AFP/Getty Images
10 ©Andre Jenny/Alamy Images
12 ©Andre Jenny/Alamy Images
13 ©Mark E. Gibson/Corbis
14 ©Andre Jenny/Alamy Images