5 15 touring the united states

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 0-328-17549-8

ì<(sk$m)=bhfej < +^-Ä-U-Ä-U


In this book you will discover many of the fifty state
capitals in the United States. Some capitals are large
and busy cities, while other capitals are small and
quiet. Each capital is the center of government for its
state and is interesting in its own way.

Write to It!
Write a paragraph that compares and contrasts two of
the state capitals that you have read about.

Vocabulary
capital

irrigation system

capitol

civil rights

monarchy

statehouse

Write your paragraph on a separate sheet of paper.

Table of Contents

Capitals at a Glance .................................... page 2
California’s Capital ...................................... page 3
Faraway Capitals ......................................... page 4
Southwestern Capitals ................................ page 6
Midwestern Capitals ................................... page 9
Southeastern Capitals ............................... page 12
Northeastern Capitals ............................... 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: 0-328-17549-8
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: ©Royalty-Free/Corbis
2 ©Gerald L. French/ThePhotoFile
4 ©Allen Prier/Panoramic Images
Editorial Offices: Glenview, Illinois • Parsippany, New Jersey • New York, New York

5 ©Royalty-Free/Corbis
6 ©Owen Franken/CorbisSales Offices: Needham, Massachusetts • Duluth, Georgia • Glenview, Illinois
7 ©Andre Jenny/Alamy Images
Coppell, Texas • Sacramento, California • Mesa, Arizona
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


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

California’s Capital

Capitals at a Glance
Each state capital, or center of government, has its own
story. Kings and queens once ruled in Honolulu, Hawaii.
Paul Revere once rode on horseback through the streets of
Boston, Massachusetts. A huge bat colony makes its home in
Austin, Texas.
While visiting each state’s capital, you can also tour the
capitol. You can see where major events in United States history
happened. You can also have fun. Depending on which capital
you visit, you might see a race, swim at a popular beach, or visit
a roller-skating museum.

2

Sacramento, the state capital of California, is a good place to
start our tour of the state capitals. Built in the 1800s, its capitol
is a history museum and a government office. The historic offices
on the first floor have been restored to how they once were.
Californians call Sacramento the “Gateway to the Gold
Country.” In 1839 a Swiss man named John Sutter set up a
colony here for people arriving from Switzerland. He called it
New Helvetia, which means New Switzerland. He also set up a
trading post called Sutter’s Fort. When gold was found there in
1848, the Gold Rush was on.
With gold miners rushing to the area from all over the world,
the colony grew quickly. Renamed Sacramento, the town became
a miners’ supply post. Buildings from those days still line the
waterfront in Old Sacramento. At Sutter’s Fort State Historic Park,
the original settlement has been rebuilt to show how it once was.
Pony Express riders made Sacramento their final stop. The
transcontinental railroad, which was completed in the 1800s,
also made Sacramento its final stop. You can see locomotives
from that time at the California State Railroad Museum.

3


People from all over the world swim, surf,
and relax on Honolulu’s lovely Waikiki
(wai-kih-KIH) Beach. Diamond Head, an
extinct volcano, is in the background.

Faraway Capitals
The state capitals of Alaska and Hawaii are far from the
United States mainland. To get to them, you must travel by
plane or by ship. In other ways, however, chilly Juneau, Alaska,
and warm Honolulu, Hawaii, could not be more different from
each other.
Juneau has a mix of old and new buildings. A ride up steep
Mount Roberts gives you a great view of the city. You can also
see Gastineau (GAS-ti-no) Channel on the other side.
Be sure to visit nearby Mendenhall Glacier. This one-and-a-halfmile-wide sheet of ice is amazing. As the glacier slowly moves,
parts of it break off and form icebergs in Mendenhall Lake.
The Alaska State Museum in downtown Juneau has displays
that celebrate the city’s Inuit and Russian pasts. Look for the
statue of a grizzly bear at the state capitol.

Because of the lack of roads, even visitors from other parts
of Alaska must take a plane or ferry to get to Juneau.

It is a long flight to Honolulu, Hawaii. The city is more two
thousand miles from San Francisco, California. Honolulu is
called the “Crossroads of the Pacific.” This is because ships and
planes traveling to and from Asia, Australia, New Zealand, and
the mainland United States land here.
Kings and queens once ruled in Honolulu. You can visit Iolani
(ee-oh-LAH-nee) Palace, the only royal palace in the United
States. Queen Liliuokalani (lee-LEE-oh-kah-lah-nee), Hawaii’s
last royal ruler, lived here until 1893. That year the monarchy,
a government ruled by a king or queen, ended. Hawaii became
part of the United States five years later.
You can also visit the museums and memorials at Pearl

Harbor. On December 7, 1941, the Japanese bombed the United
States naval base there. That attack caused the United States to
enter World War II.

5


Austin, Texas, has the largest urban bat
population in North America. About one
million Mexican free-tail bats live under
a bridge over the Colorado River. At
sunset every summer evening, they fly out
searching for dinner—bugs!

Santa Fe, New Mexico, is the oldest capital in the United
States. Since 1607 Spain, Mexico, and the United States have
ruled it. The Palace of the Governors is located in the central
plaza and has displays that showcase the city’s history.
Santa Fe is a favorite place for many artists. The Museum of
Indian Art and Culture displays Pueblo, Navajo, and Apache arts
and crafts. The state capitol is made to look like an American
Indian sun sign that represents the circle of life.
Old houses and churches made of adobe brick line
Santa Fe’s narrow, crooked streets.
Frontier Days in
Cheyenne, Wyoming,
is a ten-day-long
festival of rodeos,
chuck wagon races,
and country music.

Southwestern Capitals
Thousands of years ago American Indians called the
Hohokam (huh-HO-kum) lived in a dry area near the Salt River
in Arizona. They built an irrigation system, a way of using
canals, ditches, or pipes to bring water to dry land. Phoenix,
Arizona, is built on these ancient ruins. The city is named for a
mythical bird from Greek and Egyptian mythology.

6

7


Midwestern Capitals

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

On April 22, 1889, the United States government opened
the Oklahoma Territory to settlement. More than ten thousand
homesteaders raced across the border. These settlers claimed land
around the railroad tracks and quickly built a city of tents.
Oil and cattle are important to the history of Oklahoma City.
Miners first struck oil here in 1928. Today, the city is still a
major producer of oil.
Oklahoma City has one of the world’s largest cattle markets.
You can visit the National Cowboy and Western Heritage
Museum to learn about rodeos, western towns, and African
American Buffalo Soldiers.

8

You cannot miss Lincoln, Nebraska, because its capitol, the
“Tower of the Plains,” can be seen for miles around. It stands four
hundred feet high. At the top is a statue of a farmer sowing grain,
a good symbol for this grain-growing state of the Great Plains.
The prairie, which once stretched as far as the eye could see, is
now mostly farmland. Visit the Nine-Mile Prairie in Lincoln to see
the prairie as it once was. You can also visit the National Museum
of Roller-Skating, an entire museum devoted to skates and skating.
St. Paul, Minnesota, is one of the “Twin Cities.” Minneapolis
is the other twin city, but the two cities are not alike. St. Paul is
smaller and quieter than its large, busy twin. The cities are on
opposite sides of the Mississippi River. St. Paul was built on the
site of a French-Canadian trading post called “Pig’s Eye.” For many
years, St. Paul was the busiest port on the Upper Mississippi.
More than one million people come to Des Moines,
Iowa, every August to attend the huge Iowa State Fair.

9


Abraham Lincoln lived in Springfield, Illinois, for the
twenty-three years before he became President. Many of the
places that he knew are kept just as they were when he lived
there. The railroad station where Lincoln left Springfield to
become President is now a museum. You can visit the law
office where Lincoln worked and the tomb where he is buried.
You can see Lincoln’s statue, too, and rub its nose for good
luck. Many visitors do this. In fact, the statue’s nose color has

worn away over the years from so much rubbing!

A statue of Abraham Lincoln is in front of the capitol in
Springfield, Illinois.

Indianapolis is Indiana’s capital. It is also the city of
wheels—car wheels, that is. Every Memorial Day, the famous
Indianapolis 500 motor race takes place. Cars go as fast as
two hundred miles per hour around the Indianapolis Motor
Speedway for a total of five hundred miles. Visitors can take
a guided test drive around the track, and racing cars are on
display at the speedway’s Hall of Fame.
The Brickyard 400 stock car race and the United States
national competitions of the International Hot Rod Association
also take place in the capital. Indianapolis is home to many
businesses related to auto racing.
Many regular cars drive through and around this busy
capital. Indianapolis’s seven Interstate highways and nine
United States highways have earned it the nickname the
“Crossroads of America.”
Seen from above, the city of Indianapolis even looks like a
wheel. Monument Circle is at the center and the city’s streets fan
out from it like spokes.
Indianapolis is not all about wheels, of course. It is also a
popular place for professional sports. Do not forget the city’s
Children’s Museum. It is five stories tall and full of many fun
things to explore.

11

Southeastern Capitals
Montgomery is the capital of Alabama. It was also the first
capital of the Confederacy during the Civil War. A star on the
capitol steps marks the spot where Jefferson Davis was sworn in
as its president.
More than one hundred years later, civil rights leader Dr.
Martin Luther King, Jr., gave a speech on these same steps. He
spoke to twenty-five thousand Americans, both black and white.
The group had marched from Selma, Alabama, forty-three miles
away, in support of civil rights. Earlier, in 1955, there was a
famous Montgomery bus boycott that started when Rosa Parks
refused to give up her seat to a white person.
The Civil Rights Memorial in Montgomery honors forty
people who died in the struggle for civil rights. Maya Lin
designed the memorial. She is an artist who also designed the
Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C.

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, resembles the black
and white keys of a giant piano.

Atlanta, Georgia, is a modern city with one of the world’s

busiest airports. To see the old Atlanta, visitors can go under
the city to Underground Atlanta. For fifty years brick streets,
gaslights, and old storefronts lay under the bridges that carried
traffic through the city. Now four blocks of this historic area are
open to the public.
At the Margaret Mitchell House and Museum, you can see
the home of the author of the book Gone With the Wind. The
story, which also became a famous movie, tells about the history
of Atlanta. During the Civil War, Union soldiers led by General
Sherman burned the city almost to the ground.

13


Follow Boston’s Freedom Trail to see where important
historical events took place.
Hig

Riv

Da

Cha

rles
l Dr.
o r ia

St
a

se

St.
t

Boston
Common

Tr e
m
on

es

Me

St.

Ja m

w
orro
J . St

Bowdoin
St.

Joy
St.

1 ⁄4 Kilometer

m

1⁄ 8

St.
con
Bea

Old South
Meeting
House

St.
Clinton

Faneuil
Hall
t.
State S

Post
Office

.
St
ilk
M

t.
sS
es
gr
C o n deral
Fe
St.

0

1 ⁄4 Mile

93

ve.
ticc A
Atlan

1⁄8

rles
Cha

rl

Revere House
Paul Rever

93

or
on Harb

John F. Kennedy
Federal Bldg.

Cambridge St.

Flee
t St
.

Bost

e
us
Ca
Mer
rima
c St.

St.

r

0

el
St.

y
wa

Museum of
City Hall
Afro-American
-American History
Old State
Beacon Hill
House
King’s
King s Chapel

ive
es R

Comm North End
erci
al S
t.
Hu
ll S
North Church
t. Old Nort
e
St
.

t.
on S

Uni
ess
ngr
Co

w Bridge

Cha

.

m

St
.

er

inc
Pr
N. Washington
St.

Charlesbank
Playground
Longfello

Boston Inner Harbor

S al

Ha em St.
no
ve
r
St
.

es

U.S.S.
Constitution

93

La
nd
Blv
d.

arl

N

eCharlestown
.
n
tio
tu
sti Rd.
n

Co

n
ow
est
e
dg
Bri

Montpelier, Vermont, is the smallest state capital. The Vermont
statehouse is made of a kind of stone called granite. The granite was
mined from a huge quarry in the nearby town of Barre.

n

arl

Ch

Wi

Ch

Interstate
highway

ont
St
.

Ch

rf o

Freedom
Trail

Av

th
St rop
.

he

rd

Park

St.
in
Ma

Point of
interest

Cambridge

14

Trem

hS
t.

Bunker Hill Monument
R ut

Annapolis, Maryland, sits at the
mouth of Chesapeake Bay. This capital
has seventeen miles of shoreline and
is home to the United States Naval
Academy. Boats fill the City Dock, and restaurants serve seafood
from the surrounding waters. Many visitors enjoy sightseeing in
Annapolis by boat.
A statue of Independent Man stands on top of the statehouse,
or capitol, in Providence, Rhode Island. Rhode Island is the
smallest state in our country.
Roger Williams was Rhode Island’s first independent man.
He was a minister who disagreed with the ideas of the other
ministers in Boston. Williams left Boston and started a new
colony to the south, Rhode Island.

arl
e
Av stow
e.
n

Northeastern Capitals

Hartford, Connecticut,
Boston is the capital of
Massachusetts. It has so much
has been home to two
history crowded into such a
famous writers. One was
small space that it is difficult
Harriet Beecher Stowe, who
to see it all. To make it easier,
wrote Uncle Tom’s Cabin.
visitors can follow the Freedom
Another was Mark Twain,
Trail, a path that leads visitors
who wrote Tom Sawyer and
to the sites of events that were
Huckleberry Finn.
important to the founding of
the United States.
During the American Revolution, soldiers trained on Boston
Common. The Boston Massacre took place in front of the
Old State House. The famous Patriot Paul Revere lived in the
house now known as the Paul Revere House. In the Old North
Church, two lanterns were lit to show that British troops were
headed for Concord.

Ch

Annapolis has the oldest state capitol
in the nation still in use. No nails were

used in its wooden dome, the largest
of its kind in the United States.


In this book you will discover many of the fifty state
capitals in the United States. Some capitals are large
and busy cities, while other capitals are small and
quiet. Each capital is the center of government for its
Glossary
state and is interesting in its own way.
capital a city where a state or national government is located

Write to It!
Write a paragraph that compares and contrasts two of
the state capitals that you have read about.

capitol a building where a state or national legislature meets

Vocabulary
civil rights the rights guaranteed
to all citizens by the
Constitution capital
irrigation system

Write your paragraph on a separate sheet of paper.

irrigation systemcapitol
a way of using
canals,
civil

rightsditches, or pipes to
bring water to dry land
monarchy statehouse
monarchy a government ruled by a king or queen
statehouse another word for capitol

Table of Contents
Capitals at a Glance .................................... page 2
California’s Capital ...................................... page 3
Faraway Capitals ......................................... page 4
Southwestern Capitals ................................ page 6
Midwestern Capitals ................................... page 9
Southeastern Capitals ............................... page 12
Northeastern Capitals ............................... 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: 0-328-17549-8
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

16

Opener: ©Royalty-Free/Corbis
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