Turkey, football, parades – and a pop geography quiz

Full of turkey and stuffing? About to OD on football and Thanksgiving parades? Here’s a diversion: How about trying your hand at a pop geography quiz with questions drawn from the stories shared on this PostcardsfromthePerimeter blog?

Many of you seemed to enjoy the geography quiz posted here in September. Now that Georges and I are nearly three-quarters of the way though our Year on the Edges of America adventure, the time is ripe for a second quiz. Accordingly, below is a short list of questions with a maximum point potential of 12.

All the questions are based on fun facts we’ve learned on our perimeter trip (and written about on this blog) since we posted the last quiz from the Pacific Northwest. I’ll include the answers at the bottom of my next blog post, just like last time.

In the meantime, see how many of these questions you can answer. (No fair googling!) Feel free to discuss the questions and possible answers in the comments section below.

Reminder that all questions refer to the contiguous United States – e.g. excluding Alaska and Hawaii. And in the interest of full disclosure, I should note that I’d surely have flunked this quiz prior to taking this trip.

Enjoy!

Question 1:

What was the first permanent European settlement on the West coast? (Half point for either the correct city or state, full point for both.)

Question 2:

Where did Meriwether Lewis of Lewis and Clark fame carve his name that is still visible today? (Half point for either the correct city or state, full point for both.)

Question 3:

What is known as the Ellis Island of the West?

Question 4:

True or false: The largest forest of Joshua Trees in the U.S is in Joshua Tree National Park, California.

Question 5-6:

Name the four deserts of North America. (Half point for each correct desert. Maximum points available: Two.)

Question 7:

Which Colorado River is bigger, the one in Texas or the one that forms part of the Arizona border?

Question 8:

What does the Mojave Indian word “Havasu” mean in English?

Question 9:

What is the deepest dam in the world?

Question 10:

What Arizona town less 100 miles from the Mexican border played a key role in the U.S. government’s “Camel Corps” experiment in the mid-19th century?

Question 11:

Where is the site of the westernmost battle of the American Civil War?

Question 12:

What is the southernmost ski slope in the United States?

Answers will appear at the bottom of the next blog post.