Which State? Trivia Quiz

Answer: West Virginia

Harpers Ferry is a town in Jefferson County, West Virginia. It was here that abolitionist John Brown mounted an armed slave revolt in 1859 in an attempt to retain control of the arsenal located there. In his attempt, Brown tried to recruit Harriet Tubman and Frederick Douglass, but neither participated. The raid was defeated by the U.S. Marines, and Brown was hanged later that year.

Answer: Oklahoma

Actor, cowboy, author and humorist Will Rogers (1879-1935) was born in Oologah, Oklahoma. Rogers was brought up on a ranch, and was partly of Cherokee descent, i.e., both a cowboy and an "Indian" (Native American). Among his writings was "The Illiterate Digest" published in 1924. Among his famous sayings: "I never met a man I didn't like" and "Everything is funny as long as it's happening to somebody else".

Answer: Virginia

The Jamestown settlement in Virginia was the first permanent settlement in the "New World". It was founded in May 1607, by the Virginia Company, on the banks of the James River. Initially plagued by famine, disease and conflict with native tribes, the colony almost failed.

In 1610, with the arrival of new supplies and colonists, it began to thrive, with tobacco as a profitable export. It was there that John Rolfe married Pocahontas, daughter of an Algonquian chief.

Answer: Vermont

Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield were schoolmates from New York. They became friends and decided to start a company. They originally considered bagels, but the equipment was too expensive. Cohen and Greenfield completed a correspondence course in ice cream making and, on May 5, 1978, opened an ice cream parlor in Burlington, Vermont.

In 1980, they started selling ice cream in pints. The following year, Ben and Jerry opened their first franchise in Shelburne, Vermont.

Answer: Ohio

The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame opened in 1983. It is located in downtown Cleveland, Ohio. The Hall displays the history of rock and roll, i.e., the musicians, bands and producers. The categories are: performers, non-performers, early influences, lifetime achievement and sidemen. New inductees in the performer category become eligible 25 years after their first record was released. Among the first inductees were Chuck Berry, Ray Charles, James Brown and Elvis.

Answer: New Jersey

Princeton University is one of the top Ivy League schools in the United States. The school is a private institution, founded in 1746 in Elizabeth, New Jersey, as the College of New Jersey, established before the American Revolutionary War. In 1747, the school was moved to Newark; it moved again in 1756 to its current site.

In 1896, it was renamed Princeton University. The institution provides training and instruction in liberal arts, natural sciences and engineering.

Answer: Maryland

Pimlico is a thoroughbred race course located in Baltimore, Maryland. The course first opened in 1870, with the running of the Dinner Party Stakes; the name of the winning horse for the event was named Preakness. Named in his honor, in 1873 they held the first running of the Preakness Stakes.

The Preakness is the second leg of horse racing's Triple Crown, after the Kentucky Derby and before the Belmont Stakes. The Preakness was first run two years before the Kentucky Derby.

Answer: North Dakota

Theodore Roosevelt (1858-1919), 26th President of the United States, was born and raised in the state of New York. So why, one might ask, is his eponymous National Park located in western North Dakota? It seems that, after the presidential election of 1884, Roosevelt moved west and built a ranch outside Medora, North Dakota.

He had always been an outdoorsman and naturalist, and it was at this ranch that he learned to rope and hunt on the banks of the Little Missouri.

Answer: Connecticut

Owned by Native Americans, the Foxwood's Resort Casino opened on July 5, 1986. The hotel and casino is located in Leyard, Connecticut, on the Mashantucket Pequot Indian Reservation. The Mashantucket Pequot Tribe acquired federal recognition and legal rights to their reservation through an Act of Congress in 1983, despite President Ronald Reagan's veto.

The original bingo hall was financed by Malaysian Lim Goh Tong, and has subsequently added table games and slot machines.

Answer: North Carolina

"Tobacco Road" was originally the title of a 1932 novel by Erskine Cauldwell, about Georgia sharecroppers. The phrase moved to central North Carolina, however, due to the state's dominance in tobacco production. It also refers to the universities in that area, i.e., Duke, UNC, North Carolina State and Wake Forest, and their participation in college basketball, as part of the Atlantic Coast Conference.