Ann Arbor Trivia
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99 free Ann Arbor trivia questions with answers — geography quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
45 free Ann Arbor trivia questions with answers. Ann Arbor is a college town with an outsized story, and this quiz covers it from the two founders' wives named Ann to the spinning cube outside the Michigan Union. There is the founding and the lost bid to be state capital, the university's 1837 arrival, the Huron River, Tree Town's 50,000 street trees, and the nicknames from A2 to '25 square miles surrounded by reality'. The Big House gets its due: the capacity, the first game, the record crowds for football, hockey and soccer. So do the town's exports and institutions: Domino's, Borders, Zingerman's, Duo Security, the Stooges, Hill Auditorium, the Michigan Theater's organ, the Art Fairs, the Film Festival, Hash Bash and the fairy doors. Plus the moments that made news: JFK's 2 a.m. Peace Corps speech, the first Vietnam teach-in, and Jonas Salk's Michigan years. Easy questions suit newcomers and freshmen; harder ones will test townies. Every answer was checked against Wikipedia's articles on the city, the university and its landmarks, and the source sentence appears under each question after you answer.
30 of 99 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Ann Arbor was founded in 1824 by which two land speculators?
John Allen and Elisha Rumsey
John Allen and Elisha Rumsey were both escaping money troubles when they met in January 1824; within weeks they had bought 640 acres of federal land for $800 and laid out a town.
Q 02By tradition, the 'Ann' in Ann Arbor honours what?
The founders' wives, both named Ann
The founders' wives, both named Ann, get the credit in most tellings, but historian Russell Bidlack argued that the name honours only one of them: the other wife's middle name was Ann, and she was not called by it.
Q 03The 'Arbor' in Ann Arbor's name refers to groves of which tree?
Bur oak
Bur oak. In Virginia, where one founder grew up, 'arbour' meant a bower of trees, which suited the sunshine and shadow under the scattered oaks; local historians call the wild-grape arbor tale a myth.
Q 04Ann Arbor is the seat of which Michigan county?
Washtenaw
Washtenaw. The speculators' brand-new village was picked for the county seat, a choice that all but guaranteed the young town would last.
Q 05Which city ranked second in Michigan in the 2020 census, three places above Ann Arbor?
Grand Rapids
Grand Rapids. It counted 198,917 people to Ann Arbor's 123,851, which was still enough for fifth place and well clear of Flint, a city that had outnumbered Ann Arbor as recently as 2000.
Q 06Ann Arbor lost a bid to become Michigan's state capital to which city?
Lansing
Lansing. It was still wilderness when lawmakers picked it in 1847 as a compromise, after Ann Arbor, Jackson and other established towns had all lobbied for the prize.
Q 07The University of Michigan began in which city before moving to Ann Arbor in 1837?
Detroit
Detroit. It was founded there in 1817 as the 'Catholepistemiad, or University of Michigania', and moved after Ann Arbor offered 40 acres of land for a campus.
Q 08Which insect killed thousands of Ann Arbor's trees after 2002?
Emerald ash borer
Emerald ash borer. Ash trees it killed were built into a new Ann Arbor library branch, with trunks stripped of bark so that visitors can see the beetle's tracks.
Q 09Which river runs through Ann Arbor?
Huron
Huron. Ann Arbor draws drinking water from the river and runs four dams on it, two of which generate hydroelectric power.
Q 10Which pizza chain is headquartered at a Frank Lloyd Wright-inspired complex just outside Ann Arbor?
Domino's
Domino's. When steelworkers building the complex in 1984 rang a Domino's store for pizza, they were told it was outside the delivery area, so rival Little Caesars fed them instead.
Q 11Tom Monaghan and his brother bought their first pizza shop in 1960 in which town next to Ann Arbor?
Ypsilanti
Ypsilanti. Within about eight months James wanted out, so Tom bought his brother's half of the shop with the Volkswagen they used for deliveries.
Q 12Which bookstore chain was founded in Ann Arbor in 1971 by two brothers?
Borders
Borders grew from one small Ann Arbor shop into a pioneer of the big-box bookstore, then was undone in the e-reader era: its last 399 stores were liquidated in 2011.
Q 13Which Ann Arbor eatery was days from opening in 1982 as Greenberg's when another Greenberg claimed the name?
Zingerman's
Zingerman's. With days to go, founders Paul Saginaw and Ari Weinzweig sat down with six-packs and phone books, hunting for a Jewish-sounding name that began with A or Z.
Q 21In 2013, a crowd of 115,109, then an NCAA record, filled Michigan Stadium for a game against which team?
Notre Dame
Notre Dame. The record stood until 2016, when 156,990 people watched Tennessee play Virginia Tech on a field laid inside a NASCAR track, Bristol Motor Speedway.
Q 22What is Ann Arbor's annual cannabis rally, held on the first Saturday of April, called?
Hash Bash
Hash Bash began as a celebration of the campaign that freed John Sinclair, the local activist sentenced to ten years in prison over two marijuana joints.
Q 23The Ann Arbor Art Fair fills the downtown streets with artists' booths each year in which month?
July
July. The first fair, in 1960, was a sideshow to the merchants' Summer Bargain Days: volunteers strung wire between parking meters on South University for 132 artists.
Q 14What is the central open space of the University of Michigan's Ann Arbor campus called?
The Diag
The Diag. Students and professors cutting from corner to corner of the open ground wore diagonal paths across it, and the main path's nickname spread to the whole space.
Q 15Which US president's presidential library is in Ann Arbor?
Gerald Ford
Gerald Ford played centre for Michigan and had offers from two NFL teams, the Lions and the Packers, but took a coaching job at Yale, where he later studied law.
Q 16On the steps of which Ann Arbor building did JFK first float the Peace Corps in a 2 a.m. speech?
Michigan Union
Michigan Union. Kennedy never said 'Peace Corps' on the steps: he asked how many future doctors would spend their days in Ghana, and gave the idea its name only later.
Q 17Michigan Stadium's official capacity ends in a '1', an extra seat said to honour which namesake of Michigan's basketball arena?
Fritz Crisler
Fritz Crisler. As athletic director he oversaw the expansion to 101,001 seats in the 1950s, and every official capacity since has kept his odd seat, though nobody knows where it is.
Q 18What is Michigan Stadium's nickname?
The Big House
The Big House was built in 1927 as a 72,000-seat stadium that could grow past 100,000, because Fielding Yost foresaw crowds of up to 150,000.
Q 19Which team beat the Red Wings in a shootout at Michigan Stadium in the 2014 NHL Winter Classic?
Toronto Maple Leafs
Toronto Maple Leafs. They won 3-2 and set an NHL attendance record of 105,491, a year late: the game was first set for New Year's Day 2013 and lost to a lockout.
Q 20Michigan Stadium was formally dedicated in October 1927 with a win over which rival?
Ohio State
Ohio State. Michigan won, five years after spoiling the dedication of the Buckeyes' own stadium; the true first game had come three weeks earlier, a 33-0 win over Ohio Wesleyan.
Q 24The Ann Arbor Film Festival, founded in 1963, is North America's oldest festival of what kind of film?
Experimental
Experimental. Filmmakers who screened early work at the festival include Andy Warhol, Yoko Ono, Gus Van Sant and George Lucas.
Q 25What tiny works of installation art are scattered around downtown Ann Arbor?
Fairy doors
Fairy doors first turned up inside the home of illustrator Jonathan B. Wright; in April 2005 one appeared outside a downtown coffee shop, and he has played their 'fairyologist' ever since.
Q 26Endover, the 2,400 lb steel sculpture on U-M's campus that spins at a gentle push, has what shape?
A cube
A cube. Sculptor Tony Rosenthal, a 1936 Michigan graduate, stood it on one corner over a pivot sunk into the ground, which is why more than a ton of steel turns so easily.
Q 27Tony Rosenthal's spinning sculpture at U-M was commissioned after residents of which city petitioned to keep its twin, Alamo?
New York
New York. Alamo was meant to move from Astor Place to Ann Arbor after six months, but locals petitioned to keep it, so Michigan's class of 1965 commissioned a new one instead.
Q 28Which proto-punk band was formed in Ann Arbor in 1967 by Iggy Pop and the Asheton brothers?
The Stooges
The Stooges made their debut at a Halloween party in 1967, when they were still calling themselves the Psychedelic Stooges.
Q 29Before he became a punk frontman, Iggy Pop played which instrument in his Ann Arbor high-school band, the Iguanas?
Drums
Drums. Jim Osterberg kept time for the Iguanas through high school, and the band's name gave him the nickname that became his stage name, 'Iggy'.
Q 30Which national left-wing campus group held its first major meetings in Ann Arbor in 1960?
Students for a Democratic Society
Students for a Democratic Society held its first meeting at the University of Michigan in 1960 and elected Alan Haber president; two years later Tom Hayden drafted its famous manifesto.