Exploring Connecticut Trivia Quiz

Answer: steel mill

Though apparently not a large mill, American steel was first produced in Connecticut. Steel making at the time was a slow and costly procedure, so most of the steel produced was used to make expensive items, such as knives and swords.

Answer: F4U Corsair

The Corsair was designed and produced by the Chance Vaught Corporation of East Hartford. It became one of the best fighter aircraft used by the U.S. Navy in World War II. There was such a demand for the plane that two other companies were authorized to produce it.

The plane was powered by a Pratt & Whitney 2,000 horsepower engine, also made in East Hartford. Also used in the Korean war, over 12,000 Corsairs were produced. Connecticut's state legislature named it the state airplane in 2005.

Answer: Pequot War

The first armed confrontation between natives and settlers, the Pequot War lasted from 1634 to 1638. Connecticut and Saybrook Colony soldiers, along with colonists from Massachusetts Bay and Plymouth colonies fought the Pequots and their allies, the Narragansetts and Mohegans.

The Pequots were overwhelmingly defeated; there were so few left they were no longer a viable tribe. It took them over 350 years to regain economic and social power.

Answer: it became a prison

Copper was discovered in Simsbury. Mining took place from 1707 to 1745 in nearby East Granby. The tunnel complex was then turned into Newgate Prison, named after Newgate Prison in London. Besides local criminals, it housed Loyalists and British prisoners during the American Revolution. The prisoners simply called the place "hell".

Answer: Mount Frissel

While the tallest peak in Connecticut is Bear Mountain, the highest elevation is the slope of Mount Frissel at 2,380 ft (725 m). The peak of the mountain, 2,453 ft (747 m) is in Massachusetts.

Lefty? William "Lefty" Frizzell was an American country music singer.

Answer: minting coins

A physician and blacksmith, in 1728 Dr. Higley was appointed by the Connecticut government to be the exclusive steel maker in the state for ten years. As his commission drew to a close he used his knowledge of steel to make dies to strike coins, made of copper, which he mined on his own property.

They were not an official colony coin, more of a local barter item. There are few remaining examples since most were apparently melted down for their high copper content.

Answer: Mum City

At one time, chrysanthemums were a major part of Bristol's economy. At their height of popularity, over 80,000 were produced yearly and sold all over the U.S. and into Canada. The Bristol Mum Festival has been ongoing since 1963, although in 2014, with mums accounting for less of the city's income, the city council decided to seek a new image.

Answer: first automobile law

Worried about drivers controlling the new horseless carriages, Connecticut passed a law setting the speed limit for automobiles at 12 miles per hour in cities and 15 miles per hour in the countryside. Drivers were also cautioned to slow down, or stop completely, around horses. In 1937, Connecticut became the first state to issue permanent license plates.

Answer: dinosaurs

Many dinosaur fossils have been found in the Connecticut River Valley. In 1966, a bulldozer operator excavating for a new state government building in Rock Hill uncovered hundreds of dinosaur tracks. The state authorized Dinosaur State Park to be built around the site and currently about 500 tracks are visible in a geodesic dome.

Many more are covered for preservation. They date to the Jurassic period, about 200 million years ago. The tracks belong to the Eubrontes, which has become the state fossil.

Answer: Nautilus

The USS Nautilus, named in honor of the submarine in Jules Verne's "Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea" was authorized by Congress in 1951 and launched from Groton, Connecticut in 1954. The patch for crew members' uniforms was designed by the Walt Disney Company. The ship now resides at the Submarine Force Library and Museum in Groton.