OK, we're closing in on the end of Round Three. Most of the players have already submitted full-credit guesses. Here are the clues; I'll accept revisions/new answers for half-credit until 12:01 AM tomorrow -- that is, Friday -- morning. Lightning round to follow tomorrow.

1. There's one of this "small five" that nobody's guessing. The founder was involved in the "Spanish Conspiracy" to join his entire state (this was before it joined the union) and hook up with the Spanish Empire. One relic of this attempt is the naming of a street in the city after the then-governor of New Orleans, Esteban Miro. The attempt was defeated and the founder decamped to Mexico.

At the turn of the century, political unrest in this state led to the assassination of the newly elected governor William Goebel as he was walking to the capitol building to be inaugurated. A former Secretary of State was later found guilty of conspiracy in the killing.

2. A few miles east of the city's founding area, founder's father had dubbed his settlement "New Helvetia." The founder and his father had come as part of a great and famous wave of emigrants.

3. The city's namesake was first a Count, then a Prince, then accepted the title of Duke upon retirement, when he was forced out of office by his 29-year-old sovereign, who had never liked him.

4. In 2000, the state of which this city is capital went for Al Gore; in 2004, it went for George W. Bush by a margin of 0.7%. Remember, the question asks for the city name, not the state.

5. In 1539, a famed explorer landed in what would later become this state, and in the winter camped at a conquered native American settlement near what would later become the capital.

6. Of the states in question, seven are located east of the Mississippi river.