St. Louis History, Part II Trivia Quiz

Answer: Lewis and Clark

After the Louisiana Purchase of 1803, President Thomas Jefferson wanted to know exactly what he had bought for the U.S.A., so he hired his personal secretary, Meriwether Lewis and former army officer William Clark to head the Corps of Discovery, which we now call the Lewis and Clark Expedition.

They left St. Charles, Missouri with a group totaling 33 in May of 1804 and were gone so long that the people of St. Louis were certain they had all died. They returned triumphantly to St. Louis in September of 1806 after traveling up the Missouri River to its headwaters then crossing the Rocky Mountains and finally having reached the Pacific Ocean.

Answer: The Gateway to the West

With the westward expansion of the U.S.A. that began with the opening of Oregon and the Pacific Northwest to American settlers in 1841, St. Louis saw a constant flow of settlers passing through. Most of these settlers came up the Mississippi River by steam boat to St. Louis where they would begin gathering supplies before moving further west to the head of the Oregon Train in Independence, Missouri. Since so many of the western settlers and fortune hunters looking for gold in California passed through St. Louis, it gained the nickname of Gateway to the West.

Answer: The Mound City

Early St. Louis had several ceremonial mounds from the same time period of the Mississippian Culture at Cahokia Mounds. This appeared to be a satellite settlement, or a prehistoric suburb of this huge cultural center. These mounds were destroyed and used for land fill in the 19th century. It was because of these mounds that St. Louis had the early nickname of Mound City.

Answer: The 1904 Summer Olympics

The 1904 Summer Olympic Games were supposed to be held in Chicago, Illinois, but all eyes were truly on St. Louis. St. Louis was hosting the Louisiana Purchase Exposition, aka the World's Fair, and the organizers refused to allow another world event to be held during the same time frame as the World's Fair.

They began to organize their own sporting events and informed the Chicago Olympic Committee that St. Louis intended to overshadow the Olympics if they were held in Chicago. The founder of the modern Olympic games gave in and the 1904 Summer Olympics were moved and held in St. Louis from July through November of 1904.

It was the first game where gold, silver and bronze medals were awarded to the top three in each event.

Answer: The Louisiana Purchase Exposition

The St. Louis World's Fair was officially named The Louisiana Purchase Exposition in honor of the 100th anniversary of the Louisiana Purchase and the Lewis and Clark Expedition. Not only did the fair celebrate this anniversary, it was a place for the world to showcase the advancements that had been achieved since 1804.

Answer: the ice cream cone

The waffle-style ice cream cone was born at the 1904 Wold's Fair out of necessity. When an ice cream vendor ran out of dishes, a neighboring vendor named Ernst Hamwi, who made and sold a crisp pastry cooked in a hot waffle-patterned press called zalabia, came to his rescue by rolling a warm zalabia into a cone. With the marriage of ice cream and a zalabia rolled into a cone, the ice cream cone was born.

Answer: Forest Park

St. Louis's Forest Park is the large urban park in the same style of New York's Central Park. The park is found near the western edge of the city's boundary, though it is near the center of the metropolitan area. The park houses seven of the city's major attractions, and numerous sporting venues. Some of the larger attractions in Forest Park with remnants of the Louisiana Purchase Exposition are the St. Louis Zoo, the St. Louis Art Museum and the World's Fair Pavilion.

Answer: Will Rogers

Charles Lindbergh was an airmail pilot out of St. Louis before his famous solo flight across the Atlantic. Vincent Price was born in St. Louis on May 27, 1911. Scott Joplin, one of America's most famous musicians and a composer of ragtime. He lived in St. Louis from 1900 through 1903. While there he wrote "The Entertainer", "Elite Syncopations", "March Majestic", and "Ragtime Dance". Will Rogers, the famous American humorist from the Dust Bowl Era, was born on in 1879 the Dog Iron Ranch in what became Oklahoma. He never lived in St. Louis.

Answer: Eads Bridge

Eads Bridge was designed and built by Captain James B. Eads. It was completed in 1874. It has an overall length of 6442 feet (1,964 m), or 1162 feet longer than a mile. There is NO superstructure above the road bed, making this bridge unique.

Answer: the Mississippi and the Missouri Rivers

The confluence of the Missouri and the Mississippi Rivers is just a few miles north of the northern city limits of St. Louis where the Missouri River empties into the Mississippi River. The Missouri also forms the northern boundary of St. Louis County, which surrounds the city. The Mississippi River was the main north/south transportation route during the great age of the steam boats. The Missouri River took settlers further to the west where they could connect to the Oregon Trail.