Quirky Place Names - Pennsylvania Quiz

Answer: King of Prussia

The King of Prussia Inn was one of the major stopping places on the road to Lancaster and westward in colonial times. Urban growth left the inn high and dry on the median of a major highway for years. In 2000 it was moved and now is open to the public again.

Answer: Heartland

For all the reserve that the Amish seem to show in their everyday life, it is obvious that they had a sense of humor when it came to naming the places that they settled in the mid-1700s. Paradise and Gap are not too far from these other towns.

Answer: Willow Street

The willows lined the main street of the town but unfortunately became the victims of progress. When the street needed to be widened most of the trees had to be removed. Only a few remain today.

Answer: Eighty-four

84 Lumber Company was founded in Eighty-four, PA in 1956 and still maintains its corporate headquarters there. Many theories exist on the origin of the name. One that has been offered is that it commemorates the election of Grover Cleveland in 1884.

Answer: Georgia

Indiana, PA is northeast of Pittsburgh and the home of Indiana University of Pennsylvania. California, PA is south of Pittsburgh and home of California University of Pennsylvania. Both universities are part of the Pennsylvania's extensive public university system. Wyoming, PA is a small town just north of Wilkes-Barre.

It was the site of the Battle of Wyoming (or Wyoming Massacre) during the Revolutionary War.

Answer: North East

North East, PA is located on the shores of Lake Erie and is the last town before you get to New York state. The Lake Erie shoreline runs from the southwest to the northeast putting North East as the northeastern point along this shoreline.

Answer: State College

Penn State was founded in 1863 as a land grant institution. It is located almost in the geographic center of the state away from the urban centers of Philadelphia and Pittsburgh. While located in the borough of State College the post office for the university is University Park, PA 16802.

Collegeville, PA actually exists outside Philadelphia and is the location of Ursinus College.

Answer: Jersey Shore

Incorporated in 1825 the town got its name from where the original founders of the town (the Manning brothers) came from (New Jersey) and the fact that it was on the shores of the west branch of the Susquehanna River. The term was first used derisively by those settlers on the opposite side of the river but was officially adopted in 1826 when the town changed its name from Waynesburg to Jersey Shore.

Answer: Jim Thorpe

Jim Thorpe was an outstanding athlete coming out of the Carlisle Indian Industrial School in Carlisle, PA. He was of mixed American Indian and white heritage, raised as a Sac and Fox. He won multiple Olympic track and field medals in Stockholm in 1912 only to see them taken away when his amateur status was questioned.

He later played football, baseball, and basketball professionally. In 1983 the Olympic medals were restored to him posthumously. In 1950 the Associated Press voted him the greatest athlete of the first half of the twentieth century.

Answer: Wawa

The name is a Native American word meaning wild goose. In the 1970s Franklin Mint, a maker of collectibles, located their corporate headquarters across the street from Wawa Dairy. They were successful in getting the post office name changed to Franklin Center, a more dignified name than Wawa.