Southwest States and Capitals: Map, Quiz and Facts

The 4 Southwest states and capitals

Four states make the Southwest the quickest region to learn and a great first region for younger children. The map above zooms in on these four, with neighboring states and the Mexican border for context.

How to remember the Southwest states and capitals

With only four pairs, a single story can hold them all. Try this one:

A phoenix bird flies out of the Grand Canyon in Arizona, over to New Mexico, where it lands on a Santa hat (Fe rhymes with "hey"). It flies east to Oklahoma, where the capital is easy: Oklahoma City. Then it soars south to Texas and lands on a lone star in Austin.

Other quick tricks:

• Two capitals are easy. Oklahoma City has the state's name in it. Phoenix is Arizona's biggest city, so it's a natural guess.
• Two need attention. Santa Fe is small compared with Albuquerque, New Mexico's biggest city. Austin is the capital, but Houston, San Antonio and Dallas are all bigger.
• Left to right. On the map, from west to east, the order is Arizona, New Mexico, then Texas, with Oklahoma on top of Texas. "All New Old Trails" can help.

Southwest shapes

Each Southwest state has a shape children can picture:

• Oklahoma looks like a frying pan, with the long, thin Panhandle as the handle.
• Texas is the biggest shape, with a pointed bottom along the Rio Grande and a square Panhandle at the top.
• New Mexico and Arizona are almost squares, side by side. New Mexico has a small notch, the bootheel, at its southwest corner.

Southwest geography

The Southwest is famous for its dry landscapes, but it has more variety than most people expect.

Deserts. The Sonoran Desert covers southern Arizona, home to the giant saguaro cactus. The Chihuahuan Desert stretches across southern New Mexico and West Texas.

The Grand Canyon. In northern Arizona, the Colorado River has carved a canyon about a mile deep. The National Park Service protects it as Grand Canyon National Park.

The Rio Grande. This river flows south through New Mexico, then forms the border between Texas and Mexico all the way to the Gulf of Mexico.

Mountains. The southern Rocky Mountains reach into northern New Mexico, where Santa Fe sits at about 7,000 feet, the highest state capital in the country. Texas's highest point, Guadalupe Peak, rises to 8,749 feet according to the USGS.

The Great Plains. Oklahoma and the Texas Panhandle are part of the Great Plains, flat grasslands that are now farms and ranches.

The Four Corners. Arizona and New Mexico meet Utah and Colorado at the Four Corners, the only place in the US where four states touch.

Big state, small region

The Southwest has the fewest states of the five regions, but they're big. Texas is the second-largest state in area, after Alaska, and the second-largest in population, after California, according to the Census Bureau. New Mexico and Arizona are the fifth- and sixth-largest states by area.

That contrast is worth pointing out to children: a region with only four states can still cover a huge part of the map.

Southwest quick-fire questions

Use these as a warm-up before the map quiz. Answers are in parentheses.

1. Which Southwest capital has the state's name in it? (Oklahoma City)
2. Which Southwest state is the largest by area? (Texas)
3. Which river forms the border between Texas and Mexico? (The Rio Grande)
4. Which state is home to the Grand Canyon? (Arizona)
5. Which is the highest state capital in the country? (Santa Fe, New Mexico)
6. Which two Southwest states were the last of the 48 connected states to join? (New Mexico and Arizona, in 1912)
7. Which state looks like a frying pan? (Oklahoma)
8. Which Southwest states touch the Four Corners? (Arizona and New Mexico)
9. Which Southwest capital is its state's largest city? (Phoenix, and also Oklahoma City)
10. Which state was once its own country? (Texas, the Republic of Texas)

A short history of the Southwest

The Southwest's history is layered. Native peoples, including the Pueblo, Navajo, Apache and many others, have lived in the region for thousands of years. Spanish explorers and settlers arrived in the 1500s and 1600s and founded Santa Fe as a capital around 1610. The area later belonged to Mexico.

Texas won its independence from Mexico in 1836, was its own country, the Republic of Texas, for nearly ten years, and joined the United States in 1845. After the Mexican-American War, the US gained most of what became Arizona and New Mexico. Oklahoma, much of it once Indian Territory, became a state in 1907. New Mexico and Arizona were the last of the 48 connected states to join, both in 1912.

Is the Southwest a real region?

Not every map has one. The US Census Bureau uses only four regions and no Southwest: it puts Texas and Oklahoma in the South and Arizona and New Mexico in the West. National Geographic's five-region map, which many textbooks follow, creates a Southwest from these four states. Other maps include Nevada, Utah, Colorado or southern California. If your child's book shows a different Southwest, use the West region states and capitals page to fill in the extra states.

Make it part of a bigger lesson

The Southwest is a natural fit for a unit on deserts, ancient cultures or the Alamo. Programs like National Geographic Kids and Little Passports cover the landforms and people, and many families pay for programs like these with a state scholarship or education savings account. See what your state offers. Texans can dig deeper with the Texas counties map.