11 Incredible, Almost Unbelievable Facts About Pennsylvania

How many squirrels live in the state of Pennsylvania? Your guess is as good as mine. There are some amazing facts that I do have the answer to, though— see if you already know any of these quirky things about our state.

1. Pennsylvania is 119,283 square kilometers large— roughly the same size of North Korea, which is 120,538 square kilometers.

Thanks to the app MapFight for the size comparison.

2. Benzette is home to the largest free roaming elk population in the entire country. There are about 900 elk living there.

3. Pennsylvania is home to 1 million veterans. That's more veterans than live in Ohio, Virginia, or New York, and about 1/12th of Pennsylvania's population.

4. Kennett Square is known as the mushroom capital of the world because it produces over a million pounds of mushrooms each week.

5. Roseto used to be an extremely close-knit community; so close-knit, in fact, that residents there suffered lower mortality rates than surrounding towns.

In 1961, Researchers performed a study to determine what caused residents in Roseta to suffer significantly fewer heart attacks than average. They eventually found that the strong social bonds of the community and a general positive outlook was the only possible explanation.

6. 12.8 million: That's the population of Pennsylvania. That's also the amount of people in the U.S. who believe the world is secretly run by a reptilian, alien race.

7. Pennsylvania is spelled "Pensylvania" on the Liberty Bell because it was created before its spelling was established.

8. PA is comparable in restaurant and cafe density to the rest of the country, but has more bars on average. Pennsylvania has 5.43 bars per capita as compared to the U.S. average of 4.03 per capita.

9. The oldest gas station in the country is Reighard's in Altoona.

10. Pennsylvania has more covered bridges than anywhere else in the country, with 197 to visit.

11. Horseshoe Curve in Blair County was targeted by Nazi Germany during World War II.

What other amazing facts would you add to this list? Share them below.