Revealing Ruby Trivia Quiz

Answer: Nevada

Elko County, Nevada is one of the largest counties in all of the United States. Nestled up in the northeastern corner of the state, it justifies the size by containing the Ruby Mountain range, named as such because it was once a site where explorers found actual rubies. Created by glaciation years and years ago, the Ruby Mountains are home to picturesque canyons, surrounding desert valleys, and perhaps most interestingly, the Himalayan snowcock, a pheasant introduced from half a world away.

Answer: Olympic National Park

Part of the southern beaches in Olympic National Park, Ruby Beach is named as such because its sands seem to contain ruby-coloured crystals. Found near Kalaloch, WA, Ruby Beach is also famous for its distinctive sea stacks. A short distance offshore, visitors can also find Destruction Island, originally known for its now-decommissioned lighthouse, but now a part of the Quillayute Needles National Wildlife Refuge, established to protect coastal bird and sea life. Olympic National Park and the Olympic Peninsula became a UNESCO World Heritage site in 1981.

Answer: South Carolina

Part of the expansive Charlotte Metropolitan Area which straddles the border between North and South Carolina, Chesterfield County is actually one of the least-populated counties of South Carolina and is nearer to Charlotte than it is Charleston to the far south. Ruby, SC, with a rather small population, developed in the mid-to-late nineteenth century due in part to the railroad.

The area has, historically, been used for mining and is otherwise rural in its nature.

Answer: Colorado River

Ruby Canyon snakes along the border between Colorado and Utah, so it's easy to imagine the red sandstone cliffs that form the landscape there. Although Ruby Canyon is a popular rafting destination, it also runs alongside the tracks of the Union Pacific Railroad; its trains head along to Grand Junction, CO in one direction and Green River, UT in the other.

The river at this point in its course is relatively slow-moving, so the rapids found along it make for a popular beginner's white-water run. The Colorado River is 1,450 miles long; Ruby Canyon is about a fifth of the way to the ocean from the source.

Answer: They are all ghost towns

Yeah, unfortunately gem and mineral names don't tend to have a good track record in the United States as many communities built around gold rushes and mining had a tendency towards limited shelf lives. All of the Ruby Cities in the question are no longer permanently occupied. Ruby City in Idaho only lasted five years due to the growth of the nearby Silver City which, funnily enough, is also a ghost town nowadays.

In Nevada, Ruby City was a planned Mormon city built in the 1910s that crumbled fast due to poor infrastructure. Ruby City, North Carolina became the Balsam Mountain Preserve when it shut down.

Answer: It's found underground

Located within Lookout Mountain, the site of Ruby Falls is actually a high point found at the border between Tennessee, Georgia, and Alabama. The location was the site of battle during the American Civil War and has significance to the Native Americans of the region. Within is Ruby Falls which falls 145 feet through an open vertical cave shaft before joining the Tennessee River upon leaving the mountain.

It was discovered in 1928 and, along with the Cave Systems of Lookout Mountain, became a National Historic Landmark.

Answer: Idaho

Although the name Ruby Ridge wasn't popularly used until 1992, it refers to one of the ridges that form the larger Bottleneck Mountain range near the Canadian border in the uppermost reach of Idaho. It's found near the town of Naples, Idaho in Boundary County and close to the city of Sandpoint.

The name Ruby Ridge, unfortunately, comes with a bit of baggage as it was the site of a standoff between an armed citizen and both the U.S. Marshals and the FBI. The events there in August of that year were some of the most concerning from a news standpoint, at least in the U.S., for that year.

Answer: Alaska

Ruby, Alaska, established in 1911 on the banks of the Yukon River in the middle of the state, was developed chiefly to serve the prospectors of the gold rush. Isolated, the city and its thousands of residents could only be accessed by boat for many years (although in modern times it's possible to visit by plane). That said, the town barely lasted ten years before population went on the decline and it was occupied by Native Alaskans over the next decades.

The Nowitna National Wildlife Refuge, of which Ruby is a part, is home to birds and mammals of all sorts, most of which only stay in the short summer months due to the bitter cold experienced during the harsh, dark winters.

Answer: Mississippi

Though both of these Rubies are unincorporated towns, they're situated in some unique parts of the state of Mississippi, mainly because it's an expansive state with centralized populations that just don't happen to be near these two spots. The Leflore County Ruby is in the Mississippi Delta and is known for its social history. Settled for the creation of cotton plantations, the county has had, historically, the highest child poverty rates in the United States as a whole.

The Copiah County Ruby, further south near Jackson, Mississippi, is known for its rural areas; the nearby town of Crystal Springs was once, during the Great Depression, believed to be the Tomato Capital of the World.

Answer: Mining

Despite being nowhere near the state of Montana, Montana Camp (later renamed Ruby) was formed in the late nineteenth century as a mining camp at the base of Montana Peak. Despite being a bit of an anomaly during the 1930s, generating money all through the Great Depression, the mine closed in 1940 just as World War II was beginning and the citizens of the town departed almost immediately after.

The town became a preserved site in the decades to follow. It's found in Santa Cruz County on the Mexican border.