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According to Wikipedia, after Apollo 11 returned from the Moon:

The command module Columbia went on a tour of the United States, visiting 49 state capitals, the District of Columbia, and Anchorage, Alaska.

The cited source backs this up:

Stopping at 49 state capitals, the District of Columbia, and Anchorage Alaska, the tour provided Americans with a unique opportunity to view and marvel at these historic items.

My question is, which state capital did it not visit on this tour? Given the reference to Anchorage and the relative difficulty in reaching Juneau vs. Anchorage, I'm assuming the answer is Juneau, Alaska, but I can't find any specific source for this.

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    I bet they skipped Honolulu Hawaii.. I'm wrang Possible crib
    – MCW
    Commented Sep 29, 2021 at 16:46
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    @MCW Thanks. Can you find a source for that? That's a reasonable guess too.
    – Michael A
    Commented Sep 29, 2021 at 16:47
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    Indeed, in 1970 only 6,000 people lived in Juneau compared to 48,000 in Anchorage Commented Sep 30, 2021 at 14:37

1 Answer 1

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The linked Smithsonian page also has this page from a report, which expresses it a bit more explictly:

...completed an earthbound journey of nearly 14,000 miles by land, visiting the capitals of the 48 contiguous states and the District of Columbia. The mobile display completed the tour travelling 12,000 miles by sea, for visits to Honolulu in April, 1971, and to Anchorage, Alaska's first city, in May.

So the missing one is indeed Juneau. I agree with your suspicion that it probably comes down to Anchorage being a much more accessible location for most Alaskans.

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    Thank you! I just didn't dig deeply into the citation, apparently.
    – Michael A
    Commented Sep 29, 2021 at 16:57
  • @MichaelA: Nor digging necessary; it stands to reason that, otherwise, the (remote and least densely populated) state of Alaska would have been the only one to be visited twice: once in the capital, and once in Anchorage; that the two cities are distinct is also easily deducible, since, otherwise, the explicit mention of Alaska's capital, as opposed to that of all other states, would have made little or no sense contextually.
    – Lucian
    Commented Oct 8, 2021 at 21:45

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