St. Louis History Trivia Quiz

Answer: False

The city and county split in 1876 after the city voted to secede from the county. This was done since the fast growing city did not want to spend its tax dollars building the then rural county of St. Louis.

Answer: False

The city was named after King Louis IX of France, who was also known as Saint Louis. Early in the city's history, St. Louis went by another name. Near the present day Gateway Arch the mainly French population, which was staunchly Roman Catholic, had constructed the Basilica of St. Louis, King of France, then referred to as the St. Louis Cathedral.

As trappers crested the hills and caught sight of the St. Louis Cathedral, they are reported to have exclaimed "There's St. Louis!" Soon the trading village was known as St. Louis. King Louis XVI was the last king of France, and was no saint.

Answer: Marquette and Joliet

The lower Mississippi River was first documented, some say discovered, by Hernando Desoto in 1541. He is given credit for having explored as far north as the present day city of Memphis. Pere (Father) Jacques Marquette and Louis Joliet are given credit for having explored the northern Mississippi River from near present day Prairie du Chien, Wisconsin in 1673. They explored down river to the mouth of the Arkansas River before turning back north to avoid hostile natives.

Answer: The Piasa Bird

The Piasa Bird was a huge painting on the bluffs overlooking the Mississippi River near present day Elsah, Illinois. It was described as having the face of a man with a beard, antlers like a deer, a scaled body with wings and a long tail over twice as long as the body, ending like a fish's tail.

The First European to see it was Father Jaques Marquette in 1673 while exploring the Mississippi River valley.

Answer: The Cahokia Mounds State Historic Site

Cahokia Mounds is the modern-day name given to this hugh archaeological site dating from about 700 AD until about 1400 AD. The centerpiece of the site is Monks Mound, a 100' tall truncated pyramid. The entire site is reminiscent of the Mayan and Aztec archaeological sites in Mexico and Central America. Archaeological excavations show the city had a large, central plaza, and the truncated pyramids had dwellings on the large, flat top plateaus. The site even had a wood henge. This site is so close to down town St. Louis, one can see the Arch from the top of Monk's Mound.

Answer: Laclede and Chouteau

The city of St. Louis was founded by Pierre Laclede and his 13 year old step son, Auguste Chouteau, who had come up the Mississippi River from New Orleans to start a fur trading outpost. They decided on a location on the low bluffs 40 feet above the Mississippi River just a few miles down stream from the Missouri River in November of 1763.

Answer: 1764

The trading outpost we now call St. Louis, the site of which was decided on in November of 1763, was established on February 15, 1764. The construction was supervised by Pierre Laclede's 13-year-old stepson, Auguste Chouteau.

Answer: French

Pierre Laclede Liguest, referred to only as Pierre Laclede, was a native of France who arrived in New Orleans in 1755 where he was a partner in the fur trading company of Maxent, Laclede & Co. Pierre Laclede had Marie Therese Bourgeois Chouteau, AKA Madame Chouteau, as his common law wife. Laclede died in 1778. Rene Auguste Chouteau, Laclede's stepson, was born in September of 1749 in New Orleans, Louisiana. New France. Having been born in French-owned Louisiana he was considered a Frenchman. Chouteau died in St. Louis in 1829 and is buried in Bellefontaine Cemetery.

Answer: Laclede's Village

After the French gave the English everything east of the Mississippi River in the Treaty of Paris in 1763, the Frenchmen in what is now Illinois crossed the river into Laclede's Village. Since the village had been initially established by Pierre Laclede, the fur trading outpost was originally known as Laclede's Village. The name was later changed to St. Louis because of the Basilica of St. Louis, King of France which was located there.

Answer: France, Spain, France, USA

France first claimed the land where St. Louis is located, and all of the Louisiana district, in 1682 following the exploration of the entire river by Cavalier de la Salle. In 1762 France secretly ceded Louisiana to Spain in The Treaty of Fontainebleau. In 1800, under the Treaty of San Ildefonso, France regained ownership of Louisiana, and in 1803 Napoleon Bonaparte sold Louisiana to the USA.