This would have made memorizing the capitals a whole lot easier. In 1973 a California geography professor proposed a redrawing of the states [1] to limit them to 38, instead of the 50 we're used to. With names like Ozark, Cascade, and Alamo, the redrawing isn't just for fun, it's kind of a smart idea.

Aimed to limit the number of big cities within each state, to even out tax revenue and make benefits fair. Even the new names had a purpose — to reflect the cultural history of the regions. The 38 state proposal went for a vote in DC but was soundly defeated. The work going into scrapping all of the infrastructure, setting up new voting districts — basically starting from scratch made it pretty unworkable. Too bad, because I dig the thought behind it. Could you see the plan working? Signing off from El Dorado. . . .

To see where the big cities would lie in the wacky 38 state country, mentalfloss has plotted them out. To see them, .

Source [2]