The Big Book of American Trivia
Page 9
28. California is the “Golden State,” and its state flower is the golden ________? [Answer]
29. What fruit tree blossom is popular at American weddings? [Answer]
30. The pua aloalo, Hawaii’s lovely state flower, is actually a common garden shrub known by what name? [Answer]
31. The “Sunflower State” has the sunflower as the state flower. Which plains state is it? [Answer]
32. Nebraska and Kentucky’s state flower is (for many allergy sufferers) something to sneeze at. What yellow wildflower is it? [Answer]
33. New York’s flower, the rose, was voted on by what group of people? [Answer]
34. The iris was for centuries the national flower of France and is also the flower of what southern state? (Hint: country music) [Answer]
35. Virginia’s state tree and state flower are the same, an April-blooming species in pink and white. What? [Answer]
Feathered Friends
1. What edible game bird did Benjamin Franklin want as the U.S. symbol? [Answer]
2. Rhode Island’s state bird, named for the state, can provide both eggs and meat. What is it? [Answer]
3. Florida’s state bird isn’t the flamingo but is what much loved southern songbird? [Answer]
4. The nene, a goose on the endangered species list, is the state bird of what western state? [Answer]
5. Hinkley, Ohio, is the only city to celebrate the spring return of a particularly unpleasant type of bird. What is it? [Answer]
6. The yellowhammer, Alabama’s state bird, is what type of bird? (Hint: Woody) [Answer]
7. Baraboo, Wisconsin, has a center devoted to the study of what type of endangered bird? [Answer]
8. What type of wooden birds decorate the streetlights of Waupun, Wisconsin? [Answer]
9. What Atlantic Coast state has a mythical chicken as its state bird? [Answer]
10. What state without a seashore has the seagull as its state bird? [Answer]
11. Memphis, Tennessee’s famous Peabody Hotel has what sort of creatures marching daily to and from the lobby fountain? [Answer]
12. What bird, the U.S.’s only native parrot, became extinct by the early 1900s? [Answer]
13. What New England state has the purple lilac as its flower and the purple finch as its bird? [Answer]
14. What creature of a Native American myth caused lightning and thunder? (Hint: Ford) [Answer]
15. What ecology-conscious twentieth-century president is buried in a bird sanctuary named for him? [Answer]
16. What beloved southern songbird is the state bird of nine states? [Answer]
17. What rare and graceful bird has its main winter home in Texas’s Aransas Wildlife Refuge? [Answer]
18. South Dakota’s state bird, an Asian import, would make a tasty dinner. What is it? [Answer]
19. What lake-studded northern state has the loon as its state bird? [Answer]
20. What state has a state bird named for another state? [Answer]
21. What majestic birds did the Pueblo tribe keep in captivity for their feathers? [Answer]
More Big Waters: America’s Rivers
1. What major river was known in the old days as “Big Muddy”? (Hint: not the Mississippi) [Answer]
2. What eastern country was Henry Hudson seeking when he sailed up the Hudson River in 1609? [Answer]
3. The world’s largest land gorge is which famous one on the Colorado River? [Answer]
4. What Manhattan ethnic section runs from Morningside Avenue to the Harlem River? [Answer]
5. If you are floating on the Sangamon River, what midwestern state are you in? [Answer]
6. The Stephen Foster Culture Center sits, appropriately enough, on what river in Florida? [Answer]
7. At Columbus, Kentucky, what did Confederate soldiers stretch across the Mississippi River to halt Union gunboats? [Answer]
8. What southwestern river makes a ninety-degree bend that gives Big Bend National Park its name? [Answer]
9. What city sits astride the Miami River? (Hint: not Miami) [Answer]
10. What famous chemical-producing city sits on the Brandywine River in Delaware? [Answer]
11. What historic Texas metropolis is noted for its River Walk and its water taxis? [Answer]
12. What name is given to the U-shaped lakes left behind because the Mississippi River changed its course over the years? [Answer]
13. What city, Idaho’s capital, is located on a river of the same name? [Answer]
14. The Savannah River provides much of what state’s boundary with South Carolina? [Answer]
15. Boulder City, Nevada, grew up as a result of a major federal project on the Colorado River. What was it? [Answer]
16. The Perdido River forms part of the border between the Florida panhandle and what state? [Answer]
17. What noted western river’s waters provide the irrigation for California’s fertile farms? [Answer]
18. What inappropriately named town in Louisiana had to be relocated four times because the Mississippi River kept drowning it? [Answer]
19. Wilma Dykeman’s fascinating book The French Broad is not about a woman, but a river. What two southeastern states is it in? [Answer]
20. Virginia’s Shenandoah River is the largest tributary of what major river? (Hint: D.C.) [Answer]
21. The 840-mile-long Brazos River lies entirely within what huge state? [Answer]
22. If you were boating on the Pearl and Yazoo Rivers, what state would you be in? [Answer]
More Beasts and Zoos
1. What animal’s hide could earn a frontier hunter as much as a hundred dollars a day? [Answer]
2. What hardy desert animal was used in Texas as a supply carrier in the 1800s? [Answer]
3. A hellbender is what type of American aquatic creature? [Answer]
4. If you are visiting Tiger River, Sun Bear Forest, and Gorilla Tropics, what world-famous California zoo are you in? [Answer]
5. What breed of dog, named for an American city, was a cross between a bulldog and a white terrier? [Answer]
6. Texas’s Diablo Mountains are the last home of what horned animal of the Old West? [Answer]
7. A popular St. Louis park with a petting zoo is run by what pet food company? [Answer]
8. Besides horses, what slow-moving animals pulled covered wagons on the frontier? [Answer]
9. If you are in the Rio Grande Zoo, what major southwestern city are you in? [Answer]
10. What beasts associated with the Old West graze wild at Woolaroc in Oklahoma? [Answer]
11. New York Zoological Park is better known by what name? [Answer]
12. What is the only state to have a county named for an aquatic mammal? [Answer]
13. If you are visiting the large zoo in Mohawk Park, what southwestern metropolis are you in? [Answer]
14. What material did the early buffalo hunters use to make their huts? [Answer]
15. California’s lovely Catalina Island was used by the Russians for hunting what playful water animal? [Answer]
16. Effigy Mounds National Monument has Native American mounds in the shapes of birds and animals, as well as in other forms. What midwestern state is it in? [Answer]
17. Horse breeding is associated with what type of grass, common in Kentucky? [Answer]
18. What pro-animal organization was founded in 1866 by Henry Bergh? [Answer]
19. What substance was mined in Death Valley and hauled out by twenty-mule teams? [Answer]
20. Hill City, South Dakota, has an animal museum named for a Jack London novel. What is it? [Answer]
21. What did early buffalo hunters discover was a good use for buffalo bones? [Answer]
22. What animal parts could you see on display in a San Antonio, Texas, museum? [Answer]
23. Where in D.C. could you see giant pandas, lowland gorillas, and Komodo dragons? [Answer]
24. What rare ten-foot mammal is found in the rivers and bays of Florida? [Answer]
25. What formerly domestic animals now
run wild in the Arizona ghost town of Oatman? [Answer]
Named in Honor of Whom?
How do we honor someone? Name something after him or her. The name can live on in a city, a park, a museum . . . even a hairstyle.
1. Santa Ana, California’s airport is named for what star of dozens of Western films? [Answer]
2. The Metrodome in Minneapolis is named for what famous Minnesota senator and presidential candidate? [Answer]
3. Kentucky has a national forest named for what near-legendary frontiersman? (Hint: coonskin cap) [Answer]
4. Harvard’s School of Government is named for what Massachusetts-born president of the 1960s? [Answer]
5. The Museum of Cavalry and Armor in Kentucky is named for what gritty World War II general? [Answer]
6. The dance called the Lindy Hop was named after what famous American aviator? [Answer]
7. What style of architecture, named for England’s Hanoverian kings, was quite popular? [Answer]
8. Which two states named their most populous city after Andrew Jackson? [Answer]
9. Jonas Bronck, a Swedish settler, lends his name to a section of what metropolis? [Answer]
10. Chicago has a world-class natural history museum named for a department store founder. Who? [Answer]
11. Block Island, named for Dutch explorer Adriaen Block, is a summer resort in what New England state? [Answer]
12. What state has a town that was named for Abraham Lincoln before he became president? [Answer]
13. Cleveland, Ohio’s best-known city park is named for one of the city’s best-known (and richest) residents. Who? [Answer]
14. The planetarium in D.C.’s National Air and Space Museum is named for what renowned German-speaking scientist? [Answer]
15. What Alabama city named three of its public schools after the astronauts killed in 1967 aboard Apollo 1? [Answer]
16. An island park in the Potomac River is named for which outdoors-loving president? [Answer]
17. What eastern state capital was named in honor of Queen Anne of England? [Answer]
18. What western state has a county named for the ill-fated George Custer? [Answer]
19. What Polish leader in the American Revolution has dozens of towns and counties named for him? [Answer]
20. Burbank, California, was named for scientist Luther Burbank, whose specialty was what? [Answer]
Halls of Fame
Americans like to honor the great—and sometimes the not-so-great. Somewhere, across the fifty states, is a hall of fame for everything—sports, music, dogs, tobacco spitting . . .
1. The Country Music Hall of Fame is on Music Square in what city? [Answer]
2. What music hall of fame has categories of Artists, Early Influences, and Nonperformers? [Answer]
3. What great American sport’s hall of fame is in Cooperstown, New York? [Answer]
4. The Hall of Fame for Great Americans, displaying numerous bronze busts, is in what New York City borough? [Answer]
5. The gun collection in Oklahoma’s Cowboy Hall of Fame is named for what motion picture gunslinger? [Answer]
6. What sport’s hall of fame is located (appropriately) one block from New York’s Madison Square Garden? [Answer]
7. Notorious for its crime rate, Miami has a hall of fame honoring what profession? [Answer]
8. What state, with lots of sunshine and water, has the Water Ski Museum and Hall of Fame? [Answer]
9. Abilene, Kansas, has a hall of fame for what breed of dog? (Hint: racetracks) [Answer]
10. Where would you find sculpted bronze busts of famous Native Americans? [Answer]
11. Hereford, Texas, has a hall of fame for what special type of cowboy? [Answer]
12. What muscle-enhancing hobby has its hall of fame in York, Pennsylvania? [Answer]
13. Fort Lauderdale, Florida, has an international hall of fame for what watery pastime? [Answer]
14. The National Mining Hall of Fame is in what mountain state? [Answer]
15. What popular (and nonprofessional) sport has its hall of fame in Oklahoma City? [Answer]
16. What type of person is honored with a hall of fame in Oklahoma City? (Hint: lariat) [Answer]
17. If you wanted to see Elvis Presley’s gold piano and Roy Acuff’s yo-yo, what Nashville museum would you visit? [Answer]
18. Vandalia, Ohio, has a hall of fame devoted to what type of shooting? (Hint: “Pull!”) [Answer]
19. King’s Mills, Ohio, has a hall of fame for what college sport? [Answer]
20. In what mountainous state would you find the ProRodeo Hall of Fame and American Cowboy Museum? [Answer]
21. Who is the only minister honored in the Hall of Fame for Great Americans? [Answer]
22. The Cartoonists’ Hall of Fame is at White Plains in what northeastern state? [Answer]
23. What inventor plowed into the Agricultural Hall of Fame in 1987 with his self-polishing steel plow? [Answer]
Grave Matters: Final Resting Places of the Famous
Graves aren’t gloomy places, but (as all travelers are aware) tourist attractions. Call it silly, but we get a special feeling knowing we’re actually near a famous person—or at least the mortal remains. A tomb has a way of reminding us of what the person stood for. And if you want some insights into human nature—and the American character—try reading tombstones.
1. What actor was buried in Simi Valley, California, in June 2004? [Answer]
2. The bed in which George Washington died, as well as his grave, is at what Virginia site? [Answer]
3. What notable achievement of Thomas Jefferson’s life did he not mention on his tombstone? [Answer]
4. Who is buried in Manhattan in Grant’s Tomb? [Answer]
5. What naval hero of the Revolutionary War died in France and was reburied in the U.S. in 1905? [Answer]
6. What glamorous woman, who died in March 2011, is buried in the Great Mausoleum at Forest Lawn? [Answer]
7. What famous (and gloomy) poet and short-story writer is buried at First Presbyterian Church in Baltimore, Maryland? [Answer]
8. What much loved western comedian’s home, birthplace, and grave can be visited in Claremore, Oklahoma? [Answer]
9. What honored Confederate general is buried in the chapel at Washington and Lee University? [Answer]
10. What is unusual about the large bust of Abraham Lincoln by his grave? [Answer]
11. What World War II and Korean War general has an imposing memorial and tomb in Norfolk, Virginia? [Answer]
12. Samuel Wilson’s grave is in Troy, New York. What U.S. symbol was he the original of? [Answer]
13. The Tomb of the Unknown Soldier of the American Revolution is at Rome in what northeastern state? [Answer]
14. The nation’s twelfth president, a hero of the Mexican War, is buried in Louisville, Kentucky. Who is he? [Answer]
15. When you see the letters C.S.A. on a tombstone, what does it mean? [Answer]
16. Wisconsin Dells is, oddly, the burial site of the Confederacy’s most famous spy. Who was she? [Answer]
Named in Honor of Whom? (Part 2)
1. What president was Washington’s National Airport renamed for? [Answer]
2. The University of Arkansas’s school of business was named for the founder of what retail chains? [Answer]
3. What beloved comedian who died in 2003 is the Burbank, California, airport named for? [Answer]
4. Oklahoma City’s airport is named for what popular cowboy comedian? [Answer]
5. A Native American chief named Paduke has his name memorialized in what city? [Answer]
6. Wapakoneta, Ohio, has a space museum named for what well-known astronaut? [Answer]
7. Williamsburg, Virginia, was named in honor of whom? [Answer]
8. What Texas metropolis is named for the first president of the Republic of Texas? [Answer]
9. Brigham City, Utah, was named for what Mormon leader? [Answer]
10. What state has a state park named for President Dwight
Eisenhower? [Answer]
11. In what state can you find Stonewall County, named for Confederate general “Stonewall” Jackson? [Answer]
12. Harrisonburg, Virginia, has a large state university named for what Virginia-born president? [Answer]
13. Fort Scott, Kansas, was named for one of the country’s most famous soldiers of the 1800s. Who? [Answer]
14. What four states were named for British rulers? [Answer]
15. Roman Nose State Park was not named for a Roman but for whom? [Answer]
16. What major Kentucky city on the Ohio River is named for a king of France? [Answer]
17. What notorious Nevada gambling town is named for a Civil War general? [Answer]
18. One of the world’s best art museums in Malibu, California, is named for one of the world’s richest oil men. Who? [Answer]
19. Kentucky has a state park named for what great American artist famous for his paintings of birds? [Answer]
20. What baseball stadium has the street address 755 Hank Aaron Drive? [Answer]
Famous Cemeteries, Famous Occupants
1. John F. Kennedy and William Howard Taft are the only two presidents buried in what national cemetery? [Answer]
2. John Ritter, Ed McMahon, and dozens of other entertainers are buried in what California cemetery? [Answer]
3. The body of an American soldier killed during World War I in France is buried in what famous tomb in Arlington Cemetery? [Answer]
4. Sleepy Hollow Cemetery has an Authors’ Ridge, with the graves of Nathaniel Hawthorne, Henry David Thoreau, and Ralph Waldo Emerson. What state is it in? [Answer]
5. What general and World War I hero requested to be buried in Arlington Cemetery with only an enlisted man’s marker? [Answer]
6. What blonde movie queen of the 1950s is buried in California’s Westwood Memorial Cemetery? [Answer]