Dover, Delaware

by | Feb 21, 2013 | CAPITALS

Red Rover, Red Rover, send Dover right over. Next in CAPITALS is Dover, Delaware. Back in the day, New Castle was the capital of Delaware. That was during the time when shouts of “the British are coming” struck fear in everyone, and people in New Castle were worried that their prime riverfront location made them a little too vulnerable to the Redcoats. In a move of revolutionary brilliance, the capital was moved to Dover, a whopping 6 miles...

Providence, Rhode Island

by | Feb 20, 2013 | CAPITALS

Providence, Rhode Island is now up in CAPITALS. Challenge anyone to name a city in Rhode Island and if they can (a big “if”), it will probably be Providence. That is, of course, unless they are from the Rhode Island area, in which case that’s totally cheating and their answer doesn’t count. But really, Rhode Island is about the size of a quarter and the Providence metro area is essentially the entire state, so capital status seems...

Montpelier, Vermont

by | Feb 19, 2013 | CAPITALS

The next entry of CAPITALS: Montpelier, Vermont. We’ve now reached the smallest state capital in terms of population (less than 8,000 people). Little Montpelier may have a French name, but no self-respecting Vermont resident would try to use the correct French pronunciation. That’s not how things are done in...

Madison, Wisconsin

by | Feb 18, 2013 | CAPITALS

In honor of President’s Day, it’s time for the presidentially named Madison, Wisconsin in CAPITALS. Madison is a fine capital city, but you might wonder why it wasn’t, say, Milwaukee. My completely unresearched, totally made up rationale is that Milwaukee was too busy with more pressing matters to put in a bid for capital status. After all, it’s 5 o’clock...

Saint Paul, Minnesota

by | Feb 17, 2013 | CAPITALS

Up next in CAPITALS is Minneapolis St. Paul, Minnesota. Saint Paul is forever linked to Minneapolis as one half of the Twin Cities. The two cities do everything together, but oftentimes St. Paul is overshadowed by its larger, taller counterpart. But when it comes to all things capital, it’s all St. Paul. Take that, Minneapolis. Another little factoid: St. Paul used to be called Pig’s Eye. Any wonder why that name didn’t...