Signal Hill Trivia Quiz

Answer: St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador

St. John's is the capital city of the easternmost province of Canada, and is the easternmost city of mainland North America, located on the Avalon Peninsula on the island of Newfoundland. John Cabot is thought to have entered the harbour in 1497, and the city-to-be is indicated on maps dating from before 1520.

The first settlers were English fishermen, who established seasonal fishing villages. The entrance to the harbour is a very narrow, shallow channel with extremely steep rocky walls, very difficult to negotiate. Ships trying to make an entrance were fairly easy targets for defenders on the hilltops. Protection for the settlement was needed in the early days against pirate raiders; during subsequent times of war, the strategic value of St. John's made it valuable territory.

The fortified site now known as Signal Hill was constructed on the north side of the Narrows, starting in the 17th century. Fort Amherst was built on the south head starting in 1763.

Answer: Ladies' Lookout

The name for this peak is supposed to have its origins in the women who would hike up there to look out for the returning ships of their menfolk. Fishing, the main industry of the area when the settlement was developing, was a dangerous trade, and one which often took men away from their families for lengthy periods of time. Anxious relatives could make their way to the top of the hill in hopes of getting a sight of returning vessels. (On the coast of New England, an architectural type developed that included a railed walkway at the bottom of a house's roof, called a widow's walk, said to have been named for the same reason.) The original name for the entire hill was simply The Lookout; now only the peak retains that word.

Answer: British

The Seven Years' War (1756-1763) was fought across multiple continents, and involved most of the major European powers. At that time, Great Britain and France were struggling for control of the North American colonies, and the series of battles they fought in North America has become known as the French and Indian War. French colonists and British colonists were both supported by their parent countries, and both had allies from the Native American tribes in the regions.

In 1762, French troops led by the Comte d'Haussonville captured St. John's, and the English took it back in September.

They landed at Torbay (north of St. John's), which the French could not defend, so French troops were stationed on Signal Hill as a better site for defence. However, the British managed to land undetected behind the hill, and won a decisive victory.

A few days later they had captured all French troops in the area, and Great Britain had control of the entire eastern part of North America. Lt. Colonel William Amherst, commander of the British forces, renamed the hill Signal Hill, because of its use for sending signals to communicate between land and sea forces.

Answer: The city had more pressing needs for which the money could have been used

St. John's suffered a number of major fires during the 19th century, each of which destroyed a large part of the city, and reconstruction after the Great Fire of 1892 was still underway. Financial constraints caused by a bank crash in 1894 meant that funds were tight, and most citizens would have preferred to see the money go to a more useful project, such as a new wing for the hospital. Nevertheless, Cabot Tower was duly constructed, and opened in 1900.

Its basic function at the time was improved flag signalling.

The Gothic-Revival design of the sandstone building was the work of a local architect, William Howe Green.

Answer: Reception of the first transatlantic wireless transmission

Marconi's receiver was located in an abandoned hospital near Cabot Tower, where it was constructed in a rush after the original planned receiver on Cape Cod was severely damaged by storms The first transmission was short and sweet - the letter S in Morse code, which is three dots.

A century later, what with all the subsequent developments in wireless communication, this may not seem very impressive. While it was not much in terms of content, the fact that his assistant in Cornwall was able to send a detectable message across the Atlantic was a major communications breakthrough. Or was it? It has been suggested by of scientists that it may not have actually happened, that Marconi just heard atmospheric crackle, which he desperately wanted to be the sounds he was waiting to hear, the stream of three dots being sent out from Cornwall. Whatever the facts, Signal Hill has gone down in history - and radio technology kept improving by leaps and bounds.

Answer: Anti-aircraft gun emplacement

In 1941, in return for supplying the United Kingdom with some sorely-needed destroyers, the (at the time still neutral) United States was given 99-year leases on a number of important sites for establishing defensive bases. One of these was Fort Pepperrell in St. John's, planned to be used by the US Air Force in air defence.

When fully constructed, the fort held over 5,000 personnel. Anti-aircraft guns were placed in several locations. Two guns placed on Signal Hill early on were later moved to Red Cliff, in another part of Fort Pepperrell.

The specific type of gun was an 8-inch M1888 railway gun. These were developed around 1900 and used extensively for coastal defence from that time on. The original M1888 had a fixed mounting, but during World War I many of them were converted to sit on a railway flatcar, allowing them to be moved as needed. Signal Hill was also prepared for the planned installation of two 155 mm guns, a design copied from a French artillery piece in World War I called the 'Grande Puissance Filloux' (Great Power Filloux, named after its designer Colonel Louis Filloux), which explains the metric measurement used in its designation.

Answer: The Battery

While the other neighbourhoods have much to offer to visitors, it is The Battery that is located at the harbour entrance on the lower slopes of Signal Hill. It is known for its colourful buildings (like much of St. Johns) and the steepness of the site. Although there have only been a few major landslides in The Battery, small landslides and avalanches are a regular concern, and a few events have been serious. In 1921 an avalanche destroyed a number of houses, mostly unoccupied at the time; in 1959 two homes were destroyed, five people killed, and many more injured.

The Battery, situated at the Narrows, is the site of Chain Rock, which was famously connected to Pancake Rock (174 metres away on the other side of the water) by a defensive chain to keep enemy ships from entering the harbour. In World War II, this was modified to include an underwater steel mesh as protection from submarines.

Answer: Memorial University

The full title (Memorial University of Newfoundland and Labrador) is quite a mouthful, and is usually abbreviated to Memorial University or MUN. It was founded in 1925 to provide an ongoing tribute to the soldiers from Newfoundland and Labrador (at that time still a dominion of the United Kingdom, not yet part of Canada) during World War I and to give residents access to higher education without having to travel to Canada or England. It remains Newfoundland and Labrador's only university.

When the Battery Hotel closed its doors in 2012, the university bought the property and redeveloped it to set up a permanent home for activities that had been using rented premises. This includes accommodation for graduate students, a conference centre, and the Emera Innovation Exchange, a centre that tries to improve the interactions between university and community (especially businesses with money to invest in research).

Answer: To learn about the geology of the area

In 1987 St. John's businessman Paul Joliffe Johnson established the Johnson Family Foundation to preserve historic sites in Newfoundland. One of their projects was the development of the Johnson Geo Centre, which is primarily located underground, in a large space that was created by removing the peat that filled a glacially-formed cavity, exposing the underlying rock.

The rocks in Newfoundland are among the oldest on the surface of the planet, dating back around 3.87 of the estimated 4.5 billion years of its existence.

The rocks you can see exposed at Signal Hill are over 550 million years old. A striking glass building was constructed on top, which is used for displays and educational purposes (which includes a range of scientific and historic topics). Most of the activity is underground, of course, as you can explore the various rock formations, and learn about the significance of what you observe.

There are also trails above ground with information displayed about the surface rock formations and plants.

Answer: True

All three of the sites selected in 1951 are located in St. Johns: Signal Hill, Fort Amherst (directly across the Narrows) and the Fort Townshend archaeological site. Fort Townshend (in use between its construction in 1775 and its abandonment in 1871) left few visible remains, but what there is can be seen by visiting The Rooms, a museum built on the site.

The original Fort Amherst (built in the 1770s and named for the general who won the Battle of Signal Hill) is also gone, although some remnants of later fortifications can still be seen - pillboxes and guns from World War II, for example.