The Spirit of St. Louis Trivia Quiz

Answer: Mounds

The Mississippian culture were some of the most prominent mound builders of North America. The mounds were commonly found near waterways including the Great Lakes, Ohio River and the Mississippi River. St. Louis had 40 platform mounds constructed by Native Americans but most of them were destroyed in the 19th and 20th centuries. Measuring 40 feet (12 m) tall, 100 feet (30 m) north to south and 75 feet (23 m) east to west, Sugarloaf Mound is the last remaining platform mound in St. Louis.

This question was mounted into the quiz by Phoenix Rising teammate and Red Crew member Triviaballer as part of the team's 2022 World Tour.

Answer: Mississippi

The Mississippi river forms a confluence with the Missouri River very close to St. Louis. Marquette and Joliet (Joliett) were sent by Governor Frontenac of New France (now Canada) to find the river as it supposedly would lead to China, or Mexico. The explorers mapped out the area from the Great Lakes to the Gulf of Mexico and followed the Mississippi to Arkansas. Marquette was a French Jesuit missionary, and his partner Joliet was an unlikely match, as he was a fur-trader and explorer, who became a competent map maker. Unfortunately, on the journey back to Quebec, his canoe overturned, and his maps and journals were lost in the lake. He redrew them from memory.

Red Crew's smpdit is always astounded by the bravery of man, stepping into the unknown.

Answer: American War of Independence

The battle was fought on May 26, 1780 between the defending Spaniards and the British, assisted by several Native American tribes. There were about 100 casualties, most of who were civilians. It was also known as the Battle of Fort San Carlos. The Spanish Governor, Fernando de Leyba, successfully defended the fort, despite his force being badly outnumbered. The site of the battle is not very far from a St. Louis major attraction, the Gateway Arch.

Question submitted by ozzz2002, who can spell Mississippi!

Answer: The Louisiana Purchase

The Corps of Discovery Expedition, better known as the Lewis and Clark Expedition, was commissioned by Thomas Jefferson following the aquisition of new land after the Louisiana Purchase. Lewis and Clark left Camp Dubois, a few miles outside St. Louis in 1804 to map the area and to establish that it belonged to the Americas rather than any European powers. They reached the Pacific ocean at Fort Clatsop in 1805 and then returned to St. Louis in 1806. They had many encounters with Native Americans as they travelled, the most famous being Sacagawea, commonly thought of as being a 'guide' for the expedition, it is felt she was more likely a diplomatic aide, being a woman with an infant son, showing that the expedition was a peaceful one.

Red Team's smpdit left one point, wandered around a bit, then returned to where she started.

Answer: Zebulon Pike

The first steamship to arrive in St Louis in 1817 was the "Zebulon M Pike". It could travel from the Mississippi to the Ohio River. Zebulon Montgomery Pike was an explorer and army officer. Although his exploration party never made it quite to the top, Pike's Peak was named for him.

Sitting on the Mississippi River, St Louis became an important working port with the introduction of steamships. The ships allowed passenger travel and transportation of goods and products. Once the product reached St Louis, it could work its way north or west via land trails.

The steamboats weren't without troubles. Native American attacks, boiler explosions, and snags were the top dangers to steamboat travel. Steamboats made the western expansion easier with trade and travel until the introduction of trains. By the 1880s, there many miles of rail, and trains proved to be much faster and more efficient than that of steamboats. But for over 60 years, the steamboat earned its place in the western expansion of the US.

Jaknginger of Phoenix Rising's Red Crew sailed this question straight into the quiz.

Answer: Anheuser-Busch

Having 13 U.S. breweries at the start of 2022, Anheuser-Busch began in St. Louis, MO in the 1850s and continued to house their headquarters in this great mid-western city. Anheuser-Busch has strong German roots. The St. Louis brewery is a National Historic Landmark.

D.G. Yuengling & Son is headquartered in Pottsville, PA and was founded in 1829. It claims the slogan "America's Oldest Brewery". Pabst Brewing was founded in Milwaukee, Wisconsin in 1844. Molson Coors is based in Chicago, Illinois. Molson was a Canadian brewery founded in 1786. A Colorado company, Coors was founded in 1873. The Molson Coors merger took place in 2005.
Jaknginger of the Phoenix Rising Red Crew would love to have a cold Budweiser while traveling on our Global Tour.

Answer: Games of the III Olympiad

The World Fair was held to commemorate the centennial of the Louisiana Purchase in 1903. Originally, the fair was due to begin in 1903, but was held back until the following to allow up to 50 foreign countries to take part. The site was an astonishing 1200 acres and comprised some 1500 buildings. Exhibits ranged from educational, scientific and cultural to travel, music, theatre troupes and food from around the world.

The Olympic Games held in St. Louis, alongside the fair was the first time the games had been held outside Europe. Very few international athletes were able to compete, as the Russo-Japanese War made travel difficult. The games were marred somewhat by the organisers of the Fair including a demonstration called 'Anthropology Days', which has since been vilified around the world.
Red crew's leith90 crafted this question and exhibited it in the quiz.

Answer: Shelley v. Kraemer

The case of Shelley v. Kraemer came about after a black family purchased a home in an area that restricted housing by members of their race. A neighbor challenged the purchase and the challenge was upheld by the Supreme Court of Missouri blocking the black family's purchase of the home. The U.S. Supreme Court took the case after appeal and the majority opinion concluded that the 14th amendment prohibits racially restrictive housing covenants.

This question was codified into the quiz by Phoenix Rising teammate and Red Crew member Triviaballer as part of the team's 2022 World Tour.

Answer: Severe smog event

St. Louis had a long-standing problem with air quality principally because most homes and industries burned bituminous or soft coal. Attempts to control this came to naught until after Black Tuesday when the air turned so dark cars had to use headlights during the day. Brought on by a temperature inversion, the event lasted nine days. The city quickly imported anthracite coal and instituted other measures. Air quality has vastly improved, although ozone continues to be an occasional issue.

Player pusdoc burned up this question as part of the Red Crew journey on Phoenix Rising's Global Tour 2022

Answer: St. Louis and St. Louis

The St. Louis Blues (NHL) and the St. Louis Cardinals (MLB) both started their journeys in St. Louis. The Blues are placed in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Central Division in the Western Conference. They were founded in 1967 as one of six teams in that year's NHL expansion which joined the original six. They are named after the W. C. Handy song "Saint Louis Blues". The team won the Stanley Cup in 2019.

St. Louis' Major League Baseball franchise is the Cardinals, founded in 1882 as the St. Louis Browns, known briefly as the Perfectos and playing in the National League as the Cardinals since 1892. The team won its first World Series in 1926 and when it won its 11th in 2011, this was the most in the National League and only second to the New York Yankees.
St. Louis was home to two National Basketball Association (NBA) teams, the St. Louis Bombers played in 1949-50 and the St. Louis Hawks played between 1955-1968, winning the title in 1958.

St. Louis has been the home of four National Football League (NFL) franchises: All-Stars (1923); Gunners (1934); Cardinals (1960-1987) and the Rams who played from 1995-2015. The latter was the only successful franchise appearing in the Super Bowl twice winning Super Bowl XXXIV over the Titans.

Question slugged into the quiz by Phoenix Rising Tour Guide 1nn1.