Capital Cities Ranked from Most Obvious to Most Obscure

[webny99]

Discussion in some other threads got me thinking about capital cities, and how some are so obvious, while others are real head-scratchers.
So I thought I'd rank them from most obvious to most obscure, and maybe this could be an opportunity to discuss the history of our state capitals and what caused them to be located where they are. So, without further ado:

The No-Brainers
1. Oklahoma City
2. Indianapolis
3. Boston
4. Atlanta
5. Phoenix
6. Denver
7. Columbus
8. Nashville
9. Honolulu
10. Salt Lake City
Prominent Statewide
11. Little Rock, AR
12. Des Moines, IA
13. St. Paul, MN
14. Boise, ID
15. Jackson, MS
16. Providence, RI
17. Hartford, CT
18. Columbia, SC
19. Charleston, WV
20. Cheyenne, WY
Mid-Sized, Centrally Located
21. Montgomery, AL
22. Richmond, VA
23. Albany, NY
24. Lansing, MI
25. Madison, WI
26. Springfield, IL
27. Lincoln, NE
28. Bismarck, ND
29. Sacramento, CA
30. Austin, TX
The Far and Small
31. Baton Rouge, LA
32. Raleigh, NC
33. Harrisburg, PA
34. Dover, DE
35. Tallahassee, FL
36. Trenton, NJ
37. Topeka, KS
38. Salem, OR
39. Santa Fe, NM
40. Helena, MT
The Head-Scratchers
41. Concord, NH
42. Pierre, SD
43. Jefferson City, MO
44. Olympia, WA
45. Augusta, ME
46. Montpelier, VT
47. Annapolis, MD
48. Carson City, NV
49. Frankfort, KY
50. Juneau, AK

Agree? Disagree? Create a list of your own!
EDIT: Changed the names of the first and fourth categories.

[jeffandnicole]

Other than the head-scratchers, the other 40 in your list are head-scratchers under their headings.  I would say none of the 1st ten are doozies.  11 - 30 are all midsized, and many from 31 - 40 are right on the beaten path, with major limited access highways going thru or just an easy exit from the major limited access highway.

[3467]

The first 20 are all bigger or major cities in their states and the next 20 are all have some central location in their states. And in the giant states they tend to stay that way because those states all have different regions and some tensions. The only real head scratchers to me are AS and AK.

[briantroutman]

I fail to see how Harrisburg, which is probably close to the center of the state when weighted by population–and is at the confluence of four two-digit interstates connecting nearly all of the state's metro areas plus a US route that's part of an international corridor–qualifies as "off the beaten path".

[J3ebrules]

In school, I remember learning that for the colonies at least, capitals were specifically positioned inland to avoid easy invasion via water - Boston was for some reason an intentional anomaly.

[Scott5114]

The Doozies
1. Oklahoma City

"the freebie"

Also the bait to get you to put down Kansas City, KS.

[TheHighwayMan3561]

Because I've never spent time in either area, I start to blend Charleston, SC and Charleston, WV, especially because of the SC city's greater prominence over Columbia.

I'm sure more than a few people would say Minneapolis is our capital if put on the spot, between the penchant of the media to refer to "Minneapolis-St. Paul"  and most people generally aware that Minneapolis is larger, which for some reason means "capital"  in many minds even though the capital and largest city are only the same in probably about 1/5 of states (AR, AZ, CO, GA, IA, IN, MA, OH, OK, UT being most of that list - oh, and ask how many people can name the largest city in Ohio while they're at it, they'll probably be wrong )

Also, Austin isn't "mid-sized"  - isn't is second to Phoenix in state capital population? It just gets lost in the shuffle somehow between the more famous San Antonio and all of Texas's other massive cities.

[oscar]

Juneau AK is not a "head-scratcher" for historical reasons -- when it was established in the early 20th century (moved there from the out-of-the-way original territorial capital of Sitka), it was where the population was back then as well as much of the gold. (Anchorage didn't overtake Juneau until after World War II.) Alaska would probably be in a category of its own for "most serious effort to relocate the capital city" -- though if that had been successful, the move would've been to Willow (rather than the much-hated Anchorage), which would itself have been a bit of a head-scratcher.

Another precious metal, silver, was part of the rationale for Carson City NV as its state's capital. But its location isn't nearly as inconvenient as Juneau's.

Many of the other "head-scratchers" are probably due to a traditional antipathy to big-city sin and corruption. What they got instead was small-city sin and corruption .

[KEVIN_224]

I was told that Connecticut had a split dual capitol of both Hartford AND New Haven at one time.

Montpelier, VT is one of the two smallest state capitols, but still has direct access via I-89. I think Pierre, SD is the smallest state capitol of them all.

[GaryV]

Maybe if you hadn't decided each category had to have 10 capitals, we might like some of your suggestions better.

Like others I'd move St Paul down and Austin up.  Although Austin's population has jumped dramatically since back when I was in elementary school learning all the capitals.  (Do they still teach that?)

If by Doozies you mean "the only possible thing people would think of", maybe some would think of Memphis instead of Nashville.

I assume "prominent in the state" means biggest or maybe 2nd biggest city in the state.  And "mid sized" means mid-sized compared to other cities in the state.  I can live with that.  Still, that would move some up from "off the beaten path" to "mid sized" - like Harrisburg and Raleigh.  (I think a lot of people if asked to name a city in NC would say Raleigh, possibly more than would say Charlotte.  Course if it was on Family Feud, you'd get answers like Norfolk and Atlanta.)

Maybe "off the beaten path" could be changed to "small cities in small states", after you move some to mid sized.  And the leftover "head scratchers" could be renamed "historical choices".

[1995hoo]

I was told that Connecticut had a split dual capitol of both Hartford AND New Haven at one time.

Montpelier, VT is one of the two smallest state capitols, but still has direct access via I-89. I think Pierre, SD is the smallest state capitol of them all.

Montpelier has about half the population of Pierre (slightly more than half, but close enough–around 7,800 in Montpelier and around 13,600 in Pierre).

[kkt]

Olympia, Washington, could easily be placed in the "mid sized, centrally located" category.  It doesn't empty down to nothing when the legislature's not in session.  It's in the middle of the I-5/Pacific Highway corridor, the most populous corridor in the state.  It's accessible by water, in small to medium sized boats.

[MikeTheActuary]

A few comments:

Re Doozies:  I would subdivide that into "Second/Third Tier Global Cities" (Boston, Atlanta, Phoenix, Austin, Sacramento, Nashville), and "Other Cities of National Significance" (Indianapolis, Columbus, Honolulu, SLC).

OKC shifts to Prominent Statewide.

St. Paul could have a claim on "Second/Third Tier Global Cities" if you look at the MSP metro as a whole, but then you'd need to consider what to do with Olympia and Annapolis.

Hartford ought to be down at the bottom of "Prominent statewide" or top of "mid-sized, centrally located", especially if you go by the city itself, rather than its metro area.

[Ketchup99]

Harrisburg is probably the third-most-important city in PA, centrally located, and very much on the beaten path.

[ozarkman417]

Missouri's state capital used to be in St Louis. Had it stayed that way, I would rank it "prominent statewide".

If the capital was 25 miles to the north in Columbia, It would be in the "Mid-sized, centrally located" section.

[Brandon]

In school, I remember learning that for the colonies at least, capitals were specifically positioned inland to avoid easy invasion via water - Boston was for some reason an intentional anomaly.

That's why Lansing was chosen for Michigan's capital.  It had originally been Detroit (until 1847).

Illinois's was chosen, in part, by a push from Abraham Lincoln.  It had been in Vandalia (on I-70), and the city even built a new state capitol building in an attempt to keep the state capital in town.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vandalia_State_House_State_Historic_Site

[kphoger]

The only real head scratchers to me are AS and AK.

??

American Samoa ??

[Roadgeekteen]

I would put Sacramento higher simply because it has an NBA team, which gives it more notoriety.

[NWI_Irish96]

I think a better way to frame this ranking is, "If you took 100 people who were generally familiar with the US, but somehow didn't know any of the state capitals, rank them by the largest number of people who could correctly answer based on what they know.

Oklahoma City and Indianapolis rank high because the state is right there in the name. Juneau ranks really low because of where it is and Topeka ranks really low because of Kansas City.

I would move Columbus and Nashville below Honolulu and SLC because, even though they're in the middle of their states, there are other large, well-known cities in the state. There aren't really viable alternatives for Hawaii and Utah.

I might rerank the top 10 like this:

Oklahoma City
Indianapolis
Boston
Altanta
Honolulu
Salt Lake City
Denver
Phoenix
Nashville
Columbus

[1995hoo]

In school, I remember learning that for the colonies at least, capitals were specifically positioned inland to avoid easy invasion via water - Boston was for some reason an intentional anomaly.

That's why Lansing was chosen for Michigan's capital.  It had originally been Detroit (until 1847).

Illinois's was chosen, in part, by a push from Abraham Lincoln.  It had been in Vandalia (on I-70), and the city even built a new state capitol building in an attempt to keep the state capital in town.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vandalia_State_House_State_Historic_Site

Richmond is located where it is because it's on the fall line, and it became the state capital because it was central to the population in the 1700s and further inland than the previous capital at Williamsburg, so it was thought to be a more defensible location. Williamsburg itself became the capital because it was further away from the James River than Jamestown and was thought to be less susceptible to some of the diseases that plagued the colony in the early years.

The thing about Richmond that I recall from some of the history classes is that it became the Confederate capital primarily because it was on a lot of the railroad lines and because it was an industrial center for manufacturing weapons and munitions. Growing up in Virginia, we all thought it was odd that the capital was moved from a location like Montgomery that was a lot farther from the North, and was centrally located relative to most of the rest of the country aside from maybe Texas, to a place like Richmond that's so close to the Northern armies (even recognizing the 100 miles to DC was not the quick trip then that is now) and relatively far from most of the rest of the country, but Virginia's industrial output apparently roughly equalled the entire rest of the Confederate states' output, and it was a lot easier for members of the Confederate Congress to reach than Montgomery was. (A more sinister reason for moving the capital to Richmond was that its population of 38,000 was more than 60% white, whereas Montgomery's population of about 9,000 was maybe half white at most.)

[briantroutman]

I think a better way to frame this ranking is, "If you took 100 people who were generally familiar with the US, but somehow didn't know any of the state capitals, rank them by the largest number of people who could correctly answer based on what they know.


I might rerank the top 10 like this:

Oklahoma City
Indianapolis
Boston
Altanta
Honolulu
Salt Lake City
Denver
Phoenix
Nashville
Columbus

Which, ultimately, translates to "Which states use their largest city as the state capital?"  ...right? If my quick glance is correct, that's exactly what your list translates to (excluding those stares in which the most populous city is not well known).

[formulanone]

The only real head scratchers to me are AS and AK.

??

American Samoa ??

Well, AS is the IATA code for Alaska Airlines. (AirAsia has AK).

[webny99]

Other than the head-scratchers, the other 40 in your list are head-scratchers under their headings.

Try it, it's tougher than it looks. I could have just omitted headings altogether, but that was part of the fun.

I would say none of the 1st ten are doozies.  11 - 30 are all midsized, and many from 31 - 40 are right on the beaten path, with major limited access highways going thru or just an easy exit from the major limited access highway.

In this case, I'm considering doozy to mean essentially, super obvious.

The difference between 11-20 and 21-30 is that the former are mid-sized but still large or prominent within their state, while the latter are much less so, usually because there are multiple larger cities. That's why Boise is ranked much higher than Austin, for example.

"Off the Beaten Path" is perhaps the most clumsy title for what I was trying to convey. Yes, I know Tallahassee is right on I-10, and I know Topeka is right on the Kansas Turnpike. Everything in that category was either quite small, or significantly off-center location-wise, preventing it from being ranked higher.

[SEWIGuy]

Discussion in some other threads got me thinking about capital cities, and how some are so obvious, while others are real head-scratchers.
So I thought I'd rank them from most obvious to most obscure, and maybe this could be an opportunity to discuss the history of our state capitals and what caused them to be located where they are. So, without further ado:

The Doozies
1. Oklahoma City
2. Indianapolis
3. Boston
4. Atlanta
5. Phoenix
6. Denver
7. Columbus
8. Nashville
9. Honolulu
10. Salt Lake City
Prominent Statewide
11. Little Rock, AR
12. Des Moines, IA
13. St. Paul, MN
14. Boise, ID
15. Jackson, MS
16. Providence, RI
17. Hartford, CT
18. Columbia, SC
19. Charleston, WV
20. Cheyenne, WY
Mid-Sized, Centrally Located
21. Montgomery, AL
22. Richmond, VA
23. Albany, NY
24. Lansing, MI
25. Madison, WI  Chosen because it was halfway between the two population centers at the time.  The Lake Michigan shore and the miners in the SW portion of the state.
26. Springfield, IL
27. Lincoln, NE
28. Bismarck, ND
29. Sacramento, CA
30. Austin, TX
Off the Beaten Path
31. Baton Rouge, LA   Its about an hour west of New Orleans on I-10.  Is that really off the beaten path?
32. Raleigh, NC    Right in the middle of the state in a large metro area.  Off the beaten path?
33. Harrisburg, PA
34. Dover, DE
35. Tallahassee, FL   Made sense when most of Florida's population was in the panhandle.
36. Trenton, NJ
37. Topeka, KS
38. Salem, OR
39. Santa Fe, NM   I think this was chosen for historic reasons more than anything.
40. Helena, MT
The Head-Scratchers
41. Concord, NH
42. Pierre, SD
43. Jefferson City, MO   Halfway between St. Louis and Kansas City.  Maybe it should have been in Columbia where the University of Missouri is?
44. Olympia, WA
45. Augusta, ME
46. Montpelier, VT
47. Annapolis, MD   I would say more "off the beaten path" then a head-scratcher.  Old city that is home to the Naval Academy.
48. Carson City, NV   
49. Frankfort, KY  Halfway between Louisville and Lexington, but I think that's by historical accident.  I don't think there were many obvious choices when Kentucky became a state.
50. Juneau, AK  There have been plenty of movements to move it, but they have never succeeded.  My understanding is the governor rarely works from there anyway?

Agree? Disagree? Create a list of your own!

[webny99]

I fail to see how Harrisburg, which is probably close to the center of the state when weighted by population–and is at the confluence of four two-digit interstates connecting nearly all of the state's metro areas plus a US route that's part of an international corridor–qualifies as "off the beaten path".

Harrisburg was really tough to rank, probably one of the hardest. And it's a prime example of the clumsiness of that heading, in particular, which I will revise as soon as I can come up with a better name.

The problem is that Harrisburg is the #9 city in PA, which is quite low. Lower than 45 other states, in fact. Only New Jersey, Kentucky, Missouri, and Washington have capitals that are #9 or further down the list by population.
Even Annapolis, MD is only #7, while Pierre, SD is #8.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_capitals_in_the_United_States

Harrisburg certainly punches above its weight in terms of being a strategically located, major crossroads. But I just couldn't put it in the same league as Albany and Lansing because it really is not that well known nationally and is even under 50K in population.