Alphabetical America, Part One Quiz

When it was founded in 1858, Carson City was the chosen location for a group of settlers who were unhappy with life under Mormon governance in the Utah Territory. The population quickly grew with the discovery of the nearby Comstock Lode and in 1864, Carson City was named the capital of the newly created state of Nevada.

Carson City was named after Kit Carson, who was the scout for the first expedition of Europeans who came to the region in 1843. The expedition leader, John C. Frémont, named the river along which the capital sits (Carson River) in his honor, and the name for the city was drawn from that landmark.

When the Idaho Territory was first established in 1863, Lewiston was designated the territorial capital, but this only lasted until a vote by the Territorial Supreme Court shifted the seat of government to Boise (by a one-vote margin). This caused a rift between the northern and southern portions of the territory, which almost resulted in its dissolution, but when the territory joined the Union in 1890 on July 3rd, Boise was confirmed as the state capital.

The story behind the naming of Boise is uncertain, but there is a consensus in the French-language origin as a reference to the wooded river valley... the French world for trees is 'bois'. When the federal government established Fort Boise on the site, the river already carried the name.

When the Northern Pacific Railway reached the bank of the Missouri River in 1872, a settlement was established, by the name of... Edwinton. But it wasn't long before it was decided that honoring the chief engineer wasn't as important as attracting German settlers to the region, so they renamed the settlement after Otto von Bismarck, the German Chancellor.

The Dakota Territory was already established in 1861 when Bismarck came into existence, and Yankton was the territorial capital. With the 1882 completion of a rail bridge across the Missouri at Bismarck, it became a transportation hub and a gateway to the west. A year later, it also became the new seat of the territorial government.

When the petitions to join the Union were put forth for the territory to be divided into northern and southern regions, Bismarck was confirmed as the state capital of the newly established state of North Dakota on November 2nd, 1889.

Although the region had seen Spanish colonists in the early 1700s, the site that would become Austin in Texas did not have a permanent settlement until 1837, a year after the Texas Revolution resulted in the establishment of the Republic of Texas. The capital of this new country was soon established in Houston (named for the republic's newest (2nd) president), but when his vice president (Mirabeau B. Lamar) became president in 1838, a commission was established to find a site for a new capital to be named for Stephen Fuller Austin, the 'Father of Texas'.

When President Lamar chose the site, it was known as Waterloo, but it was changed to Austin and the government moved to the site by the fall of 1839. Political turmoil followed in the early 1840s, and eventually, the Republic of Texas was annexed by the United States, making Texas the 28th state on December 29, 1845. Austin was named the capital of the new state.

The French name of 'Baton Rouge' has its origins from the French explorer Pierre Le Moyne d'Iberville, who mounted an expedition up the Mississippi in 1698. There was a red-painted pole marking the boundary between the native tribes of the Bayagoulas and Oumas, and d'Iberville wrote about it in his records.

It was also French colonists who established the first non-native settlement on the location in 1721. The region fell under the governance of different colonial powers over the next century, but eventually Louisiana joined the Union as the 18th US state on April 30th, 1812. At this time, New Orleans was the state capital, but in 1846, Baton Rouge took over the role.

During the Civil War, Louisiana joined the Confederate States of America, and Baton Rouge soon found itself under occupation from Union forces. The seat of government was moved during this time, and was again ensconced in New Orleans during the Reconstruction era, but eventually Baton Rouge (in 1882) reclaimed the role.

Atlanta did not yet exist when Georgia was admitted into the Union on January 2nd, 1788. It was not until 1836 that the government decided to have the Western and Atlantic Railway create a link between Savannah and the Midwest (through Chattanooga). The site for a rail terminus south from Chattanooga was chosen, and it was named 'Terminus'. Name changes from that point included 'Thrasherville' and 'Marthaville', and then it was suggested that the settlement be called 'Atlanta-Pacific' for the name of the railway route. In 1847, it was incorporated as 'Atlanta', and grew quickly as a major transportation hub.

During the Civil War, Georgia seceded and joined the Confederate States of America, and Atlanta experienced the brunt of this, being essentially destroyed by a combination of withdrawing troops (ensuring there was nothing of use for the Union) and invading troops (Gen. Sherman destroying what was left with his 'scorched earth' policy of warfare).

But Atlanta was rebuilt and its hub rail system led to the choice to move the seat of government there in 1868. By the early 1880s, Atlanta had superseded Savannah as Georgia's largest city.

Annapolis, the capital of Maryland, has a long history dating back to the mid 17th century when Puritan exiles from the Colony of Virginia moved into the region. Annapolis was originally (albeit briefly) named 'Providence', then 'Town at Proctor's', and 'Town at the Severn' before they settled on 'Anne Arundel's Towne' after the wife of Lord Baltimore. In 1694, the colonial capital was moved to Anne Arundel's Towne, and it was renamed Annapolis after Princess Anne (who became Queen Anne in 1702).

On July 4th, 1776, Maryland (as one of the 13 Colonies), joined in the signing of the Declaration of Independence. Briefly, at the end of the Revolutionary War in 1783, Annapolis became the temporary capital of the new country for the period from November 26th to August 19th of the next year (1784). Then on April 28th, 1788, Maryland became the seventh state to join the Union after ratifying the Constitution of the United States, with Annapolis continuing in the role of state capital.

Annapolis has developed a rich culture over 300+ years of history. It is the home of the oldest governmental State House still in use, the location of the first theater built in the United States, the home of the US Naval Academy, and the site of the third-oldest institution of higher learning in the country (St. John's College, founded in 1696 as King William's School).

The first Europeans to settle in the area that would one day become Albany were the Dutch. Fort Nassau was established in 1614 as a trading post, with Fort Orange soon after in 1624, the first permanent (Dutch) settlement on the continent. When the English took over in 1664, they renamed Fort Orange as Fort Albany, after the Duke of Albany (who later became King James II/VII).

In 1754, Albany was where Benjamin Franklin presented the 'Albany Plan of Union', which was the first formal proposal to unite the colonies and the first step of what eventually led to the Declaration of Independence 22 years later. And with New York's statehood, the seat of government was moved a number of times (Albany, Kingston, Hurley, Poughkeepsie, and New York City all held the role) before being moved permanently to Albany in 1797.

Boston was founded by Puritan colonists in 1630 when they settled on the Shawmut Peninsula under a charter of trade and colonization granted by Charles I to the Massachusetts Bay Company. On September 7th, colony leader John Winthrop named the site Boston after the town of the same name in England from which many of the colonists had come. The colony grew quickly, and in 1632 it was dubbed the capital of the Massachusetts Bay Colony. A mere four years later saw the establishment of the first institute of higher learning in America - Harvard College (1636).

For a brief time, between 1686-1689, Boston was the capital of the Dominion of New England, which included "the Province of New Hampshire, Massachusetts Bay Colony, Plymouth Colony, Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, Connecticut Colony, Province of New York, and Province of New Jersey, plus a small portion of Maine." (Wikipedia). The colonists eventually revolted against their loss of rights and their colonial charters, and the Dominion was no more.

As it grew, Boston rivalled New York City as the financial and commercial center of America, and as such, became a focal point for the tribulations leading up to the American Revolution. Boston was the site of unrest following the harsh taxation of the Stamp Act of 1765, to the point that England sent 4,000 British troops to the city as a show of force in 1768. This eventually led to the Boston Massacre of 1770, and the Boston Tea Party of 1773 (and subsequent harsh response) - both key factors in the movement towards revolution. With more troops sent to Boston, British General Thomas Gage was declared the governor of the colony, and in April of 1775, the first battle of the Revolutionary War occurred with the Battle of Lexington and Concord, a mere 11 miles from Boston. American militia laid siege to British forces in Boston, eventually resulting in withdrawal of British troops on March 17th, 1776.

The Massachusetts Bay Colony, as one of the 13 Colonies, joined with the Declaration of Independence, but it would not be until February 6th, 1788, that the colony officially became the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, joining the Union as the sixth state, with Boston still the capital city.

Europeans first visited the area that would one day become Augusta, Maine in the early 1600s, with the Plymouth Colony establishing a trading post at the Kennebec River, using the indigenous name for the mouth of the river, 'Cushnoc'. This settlement did not last, and it was not until the French & Indian War in 1754 that British colonists built Fort Western on the site in support of other beleaguered settlements in the region, giving Augusta its true beginnings.

Cushnoc became part of Hallowell in 1771, then separated and incorporated as Harrington in 1797. Later that year, however, it was renamed Augusta after Pamela Augusta Dearborn, the daughter of Revolutionary War officer Henry Dearborn (commander of the Maine militia following the war, and also representative of the District of Maine in the US House of Representatives between 1793 and 1797).

When Maine became the 23rd state on March 15th, 1820, Portland held the seat of government, but in 1827, Augusta was named the capital.