Stone Mountain, Georgia, a monument to three heroes of the Confederacy, dwarfs Mt. Rushmore. The Denver Mint in Colorado, which produces the most coins in the world, started out during Colorado's gold and silver boom of the 1860s as a private bank. Wisconsin's Great Lakes are littered with sunken ships, but the cold, fresh waters keep aging vessels intact. One hundred, sixty acres of free land made available by The Homestead Act of 1862 drew settlers to Nebraska's plains. Maryland soil helped found the District of Columbia, but the District's Federal status denies it any state's rights of its own.

• Edward Herrmann