The Great Nevada Stay-In-Place quiz

For the next few weeks, I’ll be sharing Nevada trivia questions to help pass the time while we’re all staying in place (or should the order be lifted, to at least see how well you know the Silver State).

The questions will appear first, followed by the answers.

Now, let’s see how well you know your state.

1. What does the word, “Nevada,” mean?
2. Where in Nevada do three U.S. highways meet?
3. Where is the only wooden courthouse still in use in Nevada?
4. What is the longest road in Nevada?
5. What is the only city in Nevada where gambling is illegal?
6. What two Nevada communities operate on Mountain Standard Time rather than Pacific Standard Time like the rest of the state?
7. What famous 19^th century inventor/engineer/architect was raised in Carson City?
8. Where is the geographic center of Nevada?
9. What is the only city in Nevada named after a Native American?
10. What famous 19^th century American humorist started his writing career in Virginia City?

Answers:

1. The state’s name translates as “snow-capped” in Spanish. Although the driest American state, Nevada includes the Sierra Nevada Range (Spanish for “snow-capped mountains”).
2. U.S Highways 50, 93, and 6, all intersect in the eastern Nevada community of Ely.
3. The final wooden hall of justice in the state still in use is the Churchill County Courthouse in Fallon, built in 1903.
4. U.S. Highway 95 is the state’s longest road. It stretches some 665 miles from McDermitt, on the Nevada-Oregon border, to the southern tip of the state at a point about 70 miles south of Las Vegas, where the highway enters California.
5. Since 1931, when gambling was legalized, it has been prohibited in Boulder City. Federal officials developing the community for the workers on Hoover Dam, expressed banned gambling and the sale of alcohol in order to maintain worker productivity. Liquor finally became legal in 1969 but so far, no gambling.
6. The two are Jackpot, on the Nevada-Idaho border, and Wendover, on the Nevada-Utah boundary line.
7. George Washington Gale Ferris Jr., inventor of the Ferris Wheel, lived in a house at 311 West Third Street in Carson City during his boyhood years. His father worked as a horticulturist in the Capital City and planted many of the trees on the grounds of the state capital.
8. The geographic center of the state is located at a spot about 25 miles southeast of Austin in the Monitor Valley. A sign marks the location.
9. That would be Winnemucca, named by the Central Pacific Railroad in 1868 to honor the great Northern Paiute leader, Chief Winnemucca, who traditionally lived in the area. The community had originally been known as French Ford.
10. Samuel Langhorne Clemens, better known as Mark Twain, began his writing career at Virginia City’s Territorial Enterprise newspaper in September 1862. He began using his famous pen name in January 1863. There are several origins of his pseudonym, including a number of different explanations by Twain himself. Many historians, however, believe it was derived from the unique shorthand for keeping track of drinks bought on credit at a Virginia City bar. Apparently, when someone would buy two drinks on credit, the bartender would “mark twain” on the wall.

Rich Moreno writes about the places and people that make Nevada special.