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This Is the Most 'American' State

New slogan: 'It's as American as Iowa'?
By Arden Dier,  Newser Staff
Posted Jul 10, 2015 8:50 AM CDT
This Is the Most 'American' State
A bald eagle flies over the Des Moines River while looking for fish, Monday, Dec. 27, 2010, in Des Moines, Iowa.   (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall)

America is the land of the free and the home of the brave, but Iowans are a little freer and braver than the rest of us, apparently. In what the Des Moines Register calls a "totally unscientific study," Estately ranks the 50 states on "Americaness." It used 8 "indicators that represent the uniqueness" of the good ol' USA to arrive at its conclusion: each state's number of bald eagles, guns, astronauts, fast food restaurants, MLB players, and Olympic gold medals won; Facebook interest in the "United States of America" among residents; and, um, Google searches for "Bin Laden dead." (Most of those figures were considered per capita, per square mile, or as a percentage.) The top 10:

  1. Iowa
  2. Ohio
  3. West Virginia
  4. Alabama
  5. South Dakota
  6. Illinois
  7. Oklahoma
  8. Arkansas
  9. Missouri
  10. Mississippi
Bringing up the rear? Nevada. Click for the full list, or discover the country's 10 most cultural cities. (More lists stories.)

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