Interesting US Maps, Part 1

I collect interesting maps. Not physical ones, but every time I see an interesting map online I save it. Today you get a peek into some of the maps I've collected recently. 

---------

This map refers to the 63 National Parks (not the remainder of the 433 National Park units). Someone in the comments said they need a Tornado Alley National Park, which totally cracked me up. Many people pointed out that Hot Springs, Gateway Arch, and Cuyahoga Valley are all urban parks, so that portion of the map doesn't represent proximity to what many people think of as what a National Park should be. I thought it was interesting that I live in the only part of California that is yellow-green. With 9 National Parks, most of the state is pretty close to one. We're 130 miles away from the nearest, Pinnacles.   

Source

Spanish is the most commonly spoken language in 43 of the 50 states, so it is fascinating to see what the next most common language is. I'm not one bit surprised it's Tagalog here in California. The one that surprises me the most is Hmong in Minnesota (I would have guessed Somali) and Tagalog in Hawaii (I would have guessed Japanese). 

Source

This map was posted on Terrible Maps, but it is not terrible at all (other than the fact that it doesn't have a title). It shows the most populated city in the US that starts with each letter of the alphabet. I wish I had thought of this idea. I would have LOVED to research this. It makes me want to visit Xenia, Ohio and Zionsville, Indiana, which were definitely not on my radar before. 

Source

This map compares the geographic center of each state with the population center. I'm not especially interested in the geographic center, but I'm fascinated by the population center of each state. In many cases, it's not biggest city. Take California, for example. As best I can tell, the icon is sitting somewhere between Buttonwillow and Maricopa, which is apparently the average between the massive cities of LA, San Diego, and San Jose. 

Source

I'll be back on Monday with Part 2 of Interesting US Maps. Enjoy your weekend!