Ghost towns, real and fake
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Ghost Towns, Real and Fake — Daily trivia Thursday, October 1, 2026: questions and answers
All 10 questions with answers and explanations. Play this daily
Q 01Why did the US build a Nevada town, stock its houses with canned food and fill them with mannequins?
- ATo train police recruits
- BTo film a Western
- CTo study an atomic blast
- DTo test earthquake safety
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To study an atomic blast
To study an atomic blast. Some of the houses survived the blast and still stand at the Nevada test site today.
Q 02Interstate 40 all but emptied Amboy, a California desert town, by bypassing which famous old highway?
- ALincoln Highway
- BPacific Coast Highway
- CDixie Highway
- DRoute 66
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Route 66
Route 66. In 2005 the founder of Juan Pollo, a rotisserie chicken chain, bought the whole town for $425,000.
Q 03Which John Green novel sends its hero to Agloe, a New York hamlet mapmakers made up to catch copiers?
- APaper Towns
- BLooking for Alaska
- CThe Fault in Our Stars
- DTurtles All the Way Down
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Paper Towns
Paper Towns. When Agloe turned up on a rival's map, the rival said a real business there bore the name.
Q 04Whose bust still watches over Pyramiden, a largely abandoned Soviet coal town in Arctic Norway?
- AVladimir Lenin
- BLeonid Brezhnev
- CKarl Marx
- DYuri Gagarin
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Vladimir Lenin
Lenin. A treaty lets citizens of every signatory nation mine on Svalbard, which is how a Soviet town ended up in Norway.
Q 05Holdouts may stay in Centralia, Pennsylvania, above its mine fire, until death. Who gets their homes?
- ATheir families
- BThe state government
- CThe coal company
- DThe local church
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The state government
The state government. Pennsylvania seized the homes through eminent domain in the early 1990s; holdouts accused officials of eyeing the coal beneath, which officials deny.
Q 06Henry Ford built a town of American-style houses deep in the Amazon rainforest to grow what?
- ACoffee
- BRubber
- CSoybeans
- DSugarcane
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Rubber
Rubber, for Ford's cars. Leaf disease ravaged the trees, and Henry Ford never once visited the town.
Q 07Mel Gibson filmed a scene in Craco, an abandoned Italian hilltop town, for which film he directed?
- ABraveheart
- BHacksaw Ridge
- CThe Passion of the Christ
- DThe Man Without a Face
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The Passion of the Christ
The Passion of the Christ. Craco's ruins played the place where Judas hangs himself; landslides began emptying the town in 1963.
Q 08Which car legend helped found the famous chili cook-off in the Texas ghost town of Terlingua?
- AA. J. Foyt
- BJim Hall
- CTerry Labonte
- DCarroll Shelby
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Carroll Shelby
Carroll Shelby. The Cobra's creator also put his name on a chili kit, still sold today with its spices in separate packets.
Q 09North Korea's border village Kijong-dong, said to be empty with lights on timers, won a height contest with what?
- AA statue
- BA watchtower
- CA flagpole
- DA clock tower
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A flagpole
A flagpole. North Korea answered the South's 100-metre village flagpole with one about 160 metres tall.
Q 10Which state's official map once showed two fake towns across its border, 'beatosu' and 'goblu'?
- AWisconsin
- BMichigan
- CPennsylvania
- DIndiana
Show answer
Michigan
Michigan. Highway commission chair Peter Fletcher, a Michigan fan, hid 'Beat OSU' and 'Go Blue' in Ohio, and Michigan beat Ohio State 14–3 that year.
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