50 free Anaheim trivia questions with answers — geography quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
Anaheim was a German wine colony called Campo Alemán long before Walt Disney bought 160 acres of orange and walnut trees there. This quiz covers the whole arc: the 50 families from Rothenburg, the $2-an-acre land deal, the vine disease of 1884, Helena Modjeska's Polish circle, the boysenberry and the Klan takeover of 1924. Then it turns to the city Disneyland built: the 1955 opening, Jack Wrather's hotel, California Adventure and Cars Land, the Angels' arrival in 1966, the Big A and the Rally Monkey, the Rams years, Disney's Mighty Ducks and the Arrowhead Pond, the West Coast's largest convention center, the Packing House and ARTIC's glass wall. Every answer is sourced from Wikipedia pages on the city and its landmarks. Play in sets of ten, then try the Disneyland, Anaheim Ducks or California quizzes.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01What record high temperature did Anaheim reach on July 6, 2018?
115 °F
The record low is 30 °F, set on February 15, 1990; winters are warm and summers essentially rainless.
Q 02Settlers from which country founded Anaheim in 1857?
Germany
Fifty German-American families from San Francisco bought the land to grow grapes.
Q 03The '-heim' in Anaheim comes from the German word for what?
Home
The 'Ana' half refers to the nearby Santa Ana River, so the name means 'home by the Santa Ana River'.
Q 04The founders' families originated in which Bavarian town?
Rothenburg ob der Tauber
The group of 50 had been living in San Francisco and toured the state looking for land to grow grapes.
Q 05What did the founders pay per acre for the land from Juan Pacífico Ontiveros' rancho?
$2
They bought about 1,165 acres of the Rancho San Juan Cajón de Santa Ana, making Anaheim the oldest American-founded city in Orange County.
Q 06What was the founders' primary agricultural goal?
Wine-making
Most of the settlers were mechanics and carpenters with no wine experience, yet the area led California wine output for 25 years.
Q 07What destroyed Anaheim's wine industry in 1884–85?
A grapevine disease
Walnuts, lemons and oranges soon replaced the vines, and citrus dominated the town for decades.
Q 08What did Spanish-speaking neighbors call the new German settlement?
Campo Alemán
The name means 'German Field'; the settlers themselves first spelled the town Annaheim.
Q 09In which year was Anaheim incorporated?
1876
It was the second city incorporated in Los Angeles County; Orange County did not split off until 1889.
Q 10Which famous Polish actress settled in Anaheim in the 1870s?
Helena Modjeska
She came with novelist Henryk Sienkiewicz; Helena Street, Clementine Street and Modjeska Park recall her stay.
Q 11Which berry was created by Anaheim's first park superintendent, Rudolph Boysen?
Boysenberry
Walter Knott later named the hybrid after him and built Knott's Berry Farm on its success.
Q 12Which group won control of Anaheim's city council in 1924 on a prohibition platform?
The Ku Klux Klan
Opponents bribed a member for the secret roster and recalled the councilmen in 1925; the chapter quickly collapsed.
Q 13On what date did Disneyland open to the public?
July 17, 1955
Construction had begun almost exactly a year earlier, on July 16, 1954.
Q 21In what year did the Angels move from Los Angeles to Anaheim?
1952
They had played at Dodger Stadium from 1962 to 1965 while Anaheim Stadium was built.
Q 22Which NFL team played at Anaheim Stadium from 1980 to 1994?
Los Angeles Rams
They moved to St. Louis in 1995 and returned to Los Angeles two decades later.
Q 23What is Angel Stadium's unofficial nickname?
The Big A
Herald Examiner sports editor Bud Furillo coined it; only Fenway, Wrigley and Dodger Stadium are older active MLB parks.
Angel Stadium's center-field rock formation with a waterfall is called what?
Q 14What grew on the 160 acres where Disneyland was built?
Orange and walnut trees
The opening set off a tourism boom that quickly surrounded the park with neon-lit motels Walt Disney had hoped to avoid.
Q 15Which TV network broadcast Disneyland's dedication the day before it opened?
ABC
Disney had bought the site in 1953 after a Stanford Research Institute study identified Anaheim.
Q 16Which Hollywood producer built and ran the original Disneyland Hotel?
Jack Wrather
Walt Disney's funds were drained by the park, so he struck a deal for Wrather to build the hotel across the street.
Q 17Disney California Adventure opened in which year?
2001
It was built on Disneyland's original parking lot after a planned western EPCOT was scrapped.
Q 18Which cancelled project preceded the idea for Disney California Adventure?
WestCOT
The California-themed park concept came out of a 1995 executive meeting after WestCOT was scrapped.
Q 19The 2012 re-dedication of California Adventure added Buena Vista Street and which area?
Cars Land
The five-year overhaul was announced in 2007 after years of disappointing attendance.
Q 20Disney bought which property in 1998 for just under $100 million to expand the resort?
Fujishige Strawberry Farm
The site now holds a Hilton hotel and the 'Toy Story' parking lot.
California Spectacular
Fireworks shoot from the rocks before every game and after every home run or home win.
Q 25Which motorsport championship has run at Angel Stadium since 1976?
AMA Supercross
The stadium often hosts the season opener and multiple rounds each year.
Q 26Who founded the Angels franchise in 1961?
Gene Autry
The singing cowboy owned the team for 36 years; 'Win One for the Cowboy' became a fan mantra.
Q 27Under what geographic name did the Angels win the 2002 World Series?
Anaheim
The owner added 'Los Angeles' to the name in 2005, prompting a lawsuit from the city.
Q 28Which owner renamed the team the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim in 2005?
Arte Moreno
Mayor Curt Pringle argued the change violated the stadium lease; the courts sided with the team in 2006.
Q 29The Angels' Rally Monkey was born in 2000 from a clip of which film?
Ace Ventura: Pet Detective
The team then hired Katie, a white-haired capuchin, to star in the scoreboard videos.
Q 30Who founded the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim in 1993?
The Walt Disney Company
The name came from Disney's 1992 film; the Samueli family bought the team in 2005 and dropped 'Mighty'.