3. The American elm, almost wiped out by Dutch elm disease [Back]
4. Locals hoped to attract German investment in railroads passing through the area. [Back]
5. Louis L’Amour [Back]
6. The Norwegians [Back]
7. The fur trade [Back]
8. George Custer; it was his last command before he went to his “last stand” at Little Bighorn. [Back]
9. Roger Maris; Fargo was his hometown. [Back]
10. The International Peace Garden, a 2,300-acre landscaped park; the U.S. part is in North Dakota. [Back]
The Buckeye State, Ohio // Answers
1. Pro football [Back]
2. Tomato juice (It could have had a V8!) [Back]
3. Erie [Back]
4. Ivory, invented by Procter & Gamble [Back]
5. Columbus [Back]
6. The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame [Back]
7. The Wright brothers; they were pedalers before they were fliers. [Back]
8. Akron [Back]
9. Cincinnati, once well known as a pork-packing center [Back]
10. Oberlin; Finney, the Billy Graham of his day, served as president of the college from 1851 until 1866. [Back]
The Sooner State, Oklahoma // Answers
1. The Indian Territory [Back]
2. Will Rogers [Back]
3. Oral Roberts; it is in Tulsa. [Back]
4. Chili, naturally [Back]
5. The buffalo, or bison, naturally [Back]
6. Gene Autry; the town is now Autry. [Back]
7. Geronimo, who died at the fort [Back]
8. Merle Haggard [Back]
9. Pecans; over 5 million pounds are harvested annually, and there is a Pecan Festival every June. [Back]
10. Jim Thorpe, football player and Olympic medalist [Back]
The Beaver State, Oregon // Answers
1. Crater Lake; the volcano was known as Mount Mazano. [Back]
2. Furs [Back]
3. Salem, the capital [Back]
4. Astoria, named for John Jacob Astor [Back]
5. Japan; firing from a submarine, the Japanese were the first nation to fire upon the forty-eight states since the War of 1812. [Back]
6. The Armstrong Gold Nugget, weighing more than eighty ounces [Back]
7. Easter lilies [Back]
8. Whales, fairly common in that area [Back]
9. Those who have lost their lives at sea [Back]
10. Sea lions [Back]
The Keystone State, Pennsylvania // Answers
1. The crash of United Airlines flight 93 on September 11, 2001; the passengers on the hijacked plane prevented the hijackers from hitting their intended target, although sadly everyone on the plane died. [Back]
2. Football [Back]
3. The firefly (one of the rare insects that people actually like) [Back]
4. Hex signs [Back]
5. Philadelphia’s and Pittsburgh’s [Back]
6. Petroleum, the first oil strike in America [Back]
7. Bethlehem, founded in 1741 [Back]
8. Jimmy Stewart [Back]
9. George Whitefield, an Englishman who preached to huge crowds on both sides of the Atlantic in the colonial era; Benjamin Franklin, who helped establish the university, was an admirer of Whitefield. [Back]
10. The colony’s Quaker founder, William Penn, who wanted religious freedom—a noted change from Europe in that era [Back]
Little Rhody, Rhode Island // Answers
1. The Rhode Island red, a breed of chicken [Back]
2. Roger Williams, who advocated religious liberty in the new settlement; he had been booted out of Massachusetts for his religious views. [Back]
3. Brown University (In 1804, when he gave the gift, $5,000 went further than it now does.) [Back]
4. The State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations [Back]
5. The word Hope [Back]
6. An apple [Back]
7. Newport, with its palatial “cottages” [Back]
8. Baptist, founded in 1638 [Back]
9. Surfing; the New England Surfing Championship is held in February. [Back]
10. The Quakers, or Friends; their meeting house dates to 1699. [Back]
The Palmetto State, South Carolina // Answers
1. Myrtle Beach [Back]
2. The Carolina wren [Back]
3. The Civil War, of course; the fort is on an island near Charleston. [Back]
4. The Citadel, the state military college in Charleston; the controversy concerned the admission of a female student to the all-male school. [Back]
5. Charleston [Back]
6. King Charles II of England, ruler when the colony was founded in 1663 (The name Charles in Latin is Carolus.) [Back]
7. Greenville [Back]
8. The marines; their recruit depot has been on the island since 1915. [Back]
9. Bob Jones University, in Greenville [Back]
10. Indigo; modern chemical dyes have made indigo obsolete. [Back]
The Coyote State, South Dakota // Answers
1. The four presidents sculpture at Mount Rushmore [Back]
2. Deadwood [Back]
3. The ring-necked pheasant [Back]
4. Wind Cave in South Dakota; the cave, which blows air in or out, was first noticed in 1881 because settlers heard the whistling sound. [Back]
5. A contraction of “bridge on the Missouri,” or, even shorter, “Mo. bridge” [Back]
6. Four presidents’—Washington, Jefferson, Lincoln, and Theodore Roosevelt; this is Mount Rushmore. [Back]
7. North Dakota, naturally; both were admitted in 1889. [Back]
8. The Corn Palace, one of America’s unique buildings [Back]
9. U.S. presidents, of course; the Parade of Presidents also has other historical figures. [Back]
10. Gold [Back]
The Volunteer State, Tennessee // Answers
1. The Tennessee Walking Horse, of course [Back]
2. Presley’s home, Graceland [Back]
3. Knoxville, which still has the Sunsphere from the fair [Back]
4. Tobacco [Back]
5. Chattanooga [Back]
6. The Great Smoky Mountains [Back]
7. Memphis [Back]
8. North Carolina; the entire area at that time was Washington County. The state became independent in 1796. [Back]
9. The Southern Baptists [Back]
10. The Grand Ole Opry [Back]
The Lone Star State, Texas // Answers
1. Friendship [Back]
2. Sam Houston [Back]
4. The Lone Ranger [Back]
5. Mexico, which had just won independence from Spain [Back]
6. The Texas Rangers [Back]
7. O. Henry [Back]
8. Brownsville, Texas [Back]
9. Water (Call it serendipity.) [Back]
10. Hereford [Back]
The Beehive State, Utah // Answers
1. The Mormon Tabernacle in Salt Lake City [Back]
2. Brigham Young, leader of the Mormons in Utah [Back]
3. The Great Salt Lake [Back]
4. “Industry” [Back]
5. The Pony Express [Back]
6. Capitol Reef, in Utah [Back]
7. Pink; they can be seen at Coral Pink Sand Dunes State Park. [Back]
8. Snow [Back]
9. The seagull, the state bird; gulls saved the crops from crickets in 1848. [Back]
10. Auto racing; some of the world’s fastest cars race against the clock on the Flats, hoping to set new speed records. [Back]
The Green Mountain State, Vermont // Answers
1. Calvin Coolidge, born in 1872 in a store that is still operating [Back]
2. Red clover (edible for animals anyway) [Back]
3. New Hampshire (You didn’t think it was Connecticut, did you?) [Back]
4. Maple syrup and sugar; Rutland has the New England Maple Museum. [Back]
5. The Confederacy’s;
they robbed the town’s banks and fled to Canada with $200,000. [Back]
6. Ben & Jerry’s; free samples are given. [Back]
7. The Republic of Vermont, which existed until Vermont officially joined the U.S. in 1791 [Back]
8. The Green Mountain Boys, led by Ethan Allen [Back]
9. Norman Rockwell, famous for his Saturday Evening Post covers [Back]
10. The Green Mountains [Back]
The Old Dominion, Virginia // Answers
1. The Pentagon [Back]
2. Tobacco [Back]
3. Quantico [Back]
4. Elizabeth Taylor [Back]
5. Thomas Jefferson, third president [Back]
6. Eight U.S. presidents were born there. No other state has produced so many. [Back]
7. Elizabeth I, the unmarried and supposedly virgin queen; she was ruling when England’s first attempts at settlement in America were made. [Back]
8. Jerry Falwell [Back]
9. Danville, which is on (surprise!) the Dan River [Back]
10. Neptune [Back]
The Evergreen State, Washington // Answers
1. Mount St. Helens [Back]
2. Olympic, averaging about 134 inches of precipitation per year [Back]
3. Seattle [Back]
4. Bing Crosby, of course; the center has a Crosbyana Room with Bing’s Academy Award, gold records, and other memorabilia. [Back]
5. Walla Walla; the name is Indian and means “many waters.” [Back]
6. Skiing, running, canoeing, biking, and sailboating [Back]
7. Centralia, Washington’s; the park is named not for the first president but for a former slave with the same name. He went west and founded Centralia. [Back]
9. Lentils; the National Lentil Festival is held in September. [Back]
10. The Grand Coulee Dam, which allows the waters of the wild Columbia River to serve the useful purpose of irrigation [Back]
The Mountain State, West Virginia // Answers
1. The Hatfield-McCoy feud, which lasted eight years [Back]
2. Father’s Day, which was not officially a national holiday until 1972 [Back]
3. Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson; at the time of his birth, Clarksburg was still in Virginia; West Virginia was not a separate state. [Back]
4. Harpers Ferry; Brown’s gang intended to raid the federal arsenal and then arm the slaves, which would lead to a slave revolt. [Back]
5. Kanawha, the name of a major river in the area [Back]
6. The dandelion (which is a weed or flower or vegetable, depending on your point of view) [Back]
7. The mineral springs, with their supposed healing powers [Back]
8. Four railroad boxcars [Back]
9. Coal, long a mainstay of the economy [Back]
10. The capital, Charleston [Back]
The Badger State, Wisconsin // Answers
1. The cow (surprise!) [Back]
2. Milwaukee, which is famous for producing . . . [Back]
3. Their early discoverers thought there were twelve of them. [Back]
4. Eau Claire [Back]
5. OshKosh B’gosh (what else?) [Back]
6. Bees, of course; the museum is devoted to bee-keeping and honey production. [Back]
7. In Wisconsin Dells; the Ducks provide land-and-water tours of the Wisconsin River. [Back]
8. Swiss cheese [Back]
9. The Green Bay Packers [Back]
10. The capital, Madison [Back]
The Cowboy State, Wyoming // Answers
1. Old Faithful, in Yellowstone; the 74 is an average; the geyser has varied from 30 to 120 minutes between eruptions. [Back]
2. Jackson Hole [Back]
3. A bucking horse [Back]
4. The Devil’s Tower National Monument [Back]
5. It has been inscribed with more than fifty thousand pioneer names. [Back]
6. The stagecoach [Back]
7. At the appropriately named town of Thermopolis [Back]
8. Yellowstone, famed for the Old Faithful geyser [Back]
9. A dude ranch—for weekend cowboys and others [Back]
10. It is an all-girl rodeo. The rodeo also includes a goat-tying competition. [Back]
A Capital City, D.C. // Answers
1. The Korean War Memorial [Back]
2. China [Back]
3. Abraham Lincoln’s [Back]
4. The Capital Beltway, usually just called the Beltway [Back]
5. A cylinder; the building aroused controversy when it opened in 1974. [Back]
6. J. Edgar Hoover [Back]
7. The National Air and Space Museum [Back]
8. To the National Archives [Back]
9. The National Museum of American History [Back]
10. The War of 1812 [Back]
The Bible in America // Answers