50 free Congaree National Park trivia questions with answers — geography quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
This Congaree National Park trivia quiz covers the floodplain forest southeast of Columbia, South Carolina that holds the largest tract of old-growth bottomland hardwood left in the United States and one of the tallest deciduous canopies on Earth. Questions cover the champion trees (a 170-foot loblolly pine among them), bald cypress and its mysterious knees, the oxbow lakes and sloughs, and the synchronous fireflies whose May display now requires a lottery pass. The history runs from the Congaree people and de Soto to John Lawson's 1701 journey, the planters' dikes and ferries, the maroons who found refuge in the swamp, Francis Beidler's cypress loggers, newspaper editor Harry Hampton's long campaign, the 'Congaree Action Now' activists, the 1976 monument, the 1988 wilderness and the 2003 act that finally dropped 'swamp' from the name. Questions run from easy to expert with the difficulty shown on each one. Every answer was checked against a reference page and each question carries its citation. If you enjoy this one, try our Everglades and US National Parks quizzes next.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Congaree National Park is in which US state?
South Carolina
It lies in the Midlands about 18 miles southeast of the state capital.
Q 02What does the park preserve that exists nowhere else in the United States on the same scale?
The largest tract of old-growth bottomland hardwood forest
Logging and farming left only scattered remnants of a forest type that once blanketed the Southeast.
Q 03Which state capital lies about 18 miles northwest of the park?
Columbia
The Congaree River itself begins in that city where the Saluda and Broad rivers meet near the Fall Line.
Q 04In which year did Congress redesignate the monument as Congaree National Park?
2003
The act dropped the misleading word 'swamp' from the name and added about 4,576 acres to the authorised boundary.
Q 05What was the area called when it was first federally protected in October 1976?
Congaree Swamp National Monument
Two senators introduced the legislation in 1975 after renewed logging in 1969 spurred a grassroots campaign.
Q 06Why is 'swamp' considered a misleading name for Congaree?
It is a floodplain that floods only periodically
A swamp has water flowing over it all year; a floodplain or bottomland is only covered by water at times, when the rivers spill over.
Q 07Which Chicago lumberman bought some 15,000 acres of the floodplain in the 1890s to log its cypress?
Francis Beidler
His Santee River Cypress Logging Company floated the giants downstream to become shingles and pilings from 1898 until the work became too costly around 1914–17.
Q 08Harry Hampton, for whom the visitor center is named, made his living as what?
A newspaper editor
A member of a local hunt club and co-editor of The State, he used his columns to argue that the floodplain was the last of its kind and worth saving.
Q 09What was the rallying cry of the 1970s activists who lobbied Congress to protect the forest?
Congaree Action Now
They joined forces with the Sierra Club and persuaded the landowners to sell and Congress to act.
Q 10The Congaree floodplain served as a refuge for maroons. Who were they?
Enslaved people who escaped to live free
Rather than risk the long journey north, many stayed hidden near family and supplies, sometimes for years, facing slave catchers and floods.
Q 11Which Spanish explorer passed through the area in the early 1540s en route to Cofitachequi?
Hernando de Soto
His expedition's hogs, brought along as food, still roam the park as feral pigs; European diseases devastated the native chiefdoms.
Q 12Which English surveyor travelled up the Santee in 1701 and called the Congaree people 'kind and affable'?
John Lawson
He noted that neighbouring tribes just 10 or 20 miles apart differed sharply in features, customs and speech.
Q 13Only one word of the Congaree people's language survives. What does 'Cassetta' mean?
King or chief
The tribe merged into the Catawba in the 1700s; a linguist has suggested the name Congaree may itself be a Catawban word meaning 'over there, out of sight'.
Q 21The bald cypress is unusual among conifers because it does what?
Sheds its needles every autumn
Its lacy foliage turns russet-red before dropping; it is the state tree of Louisiana.
Q 22Which species of synchronous firefly draws thousands of visitors to the park each May?
Photuris frontalis
Nicknamed the 'Snappy Single Sync', its males fly low and flash every 0.65 seconds; the Great Smokies' famous species is a different one.
Q 23How many North American firefly species are capable of complete synchronisation?
Three
The others are Photinus carolinus of the Appalachians and Photinus knulli of the Arizona deserts; roughly 170 firefly species live in North America overall.
Q 14The Congaree River is formed at the state capital by the meeting of which two rivers?
The Saluda and the Broad
It runs only about 53 miles before joining another river above Lake Marion to form the Santee.
Q 15Which river joins the Congaree just below the park to form the Santee?
The Wateree
It is really the lower Catawba under another name, and it too floods the park's eastern bottomlands each winter.
Q 16Which park tree species was both the tallest and largest of its kind on record as of 2025?
Loblolly pine
The national champion has a circumference over 15 feet; the species is the second most common tree in the US after red maple.
Q 17How tall is the park's national champion pine, per the park's own figures?
About 170 feet
The average canopy in the park tops 100 feet, the highest concentration of champion-sized trees anywhere in North America.
Q 18The park holds the tallest known examples of how many tree species?
15
Champions include a 157-foot sweetgum, a 154-foot cherrybark oak, a 135-foot American elm and a 127-foot common persimmon.
Q 19How old are some of the park's cypress trees?
Well over 500 years
The oldest known bald cypress anywhere, on North Carolina's Black River, is more than 2,600 years old, the oldest living tree in eastern North America.
Q 20The woody 'knees' on bald cypress roots are thought most likely to serve what purpose?
Structural support in soft, flooded soil
The old textbook idea that they are snorkels for the roots has little evidence: trees whose knees are removed keep thriving.
Q 24The park's fireflies flash in groups on slightly different tempos, a mix of synchrony and asynchrony called what?
A chimera state
Physicists had only produced the phenomenon in the lab; the park's forest floor is one of the only places it can be seen in nature.
Q 25In 2021, what system did the park introduce to control crowds at its firefly event?
A lottery for vehicle passes
An estimated 25,000 to 30,000 people came between 2017 and 2019, and firefly activity in the viewing area visibly declined; the lottery copies the Great Smokies model.
Q 26Fireflies are not flies. What kind of insect are they?
Beetles
They belong to the family Lampyridae; more than 2,000 species exist worldwide, and adults typically live only a few weeks.
Q 27The chemical that fireflies combine with an enzyme to make light is called what?
Luciferin
It reacts with luciferase, oxygen, magnesium and ATP in the abdominal 'lantern'; some species glow steadily and some produce no light at all.
Q 28How long is the elevated Boardwalk Loop that most visitors walk?
Roughly 2.5 miles
It keeps feet off the delicate fungi and plants of the forest floor; numbered posts match a free self-guided brochure.
Q 29The park's marked 20-mile canoe trail follows which waterway?
Cedar Creek
The park does not rent boats; outfitters in the capital do, and a fishing licence from the state lets you fish.
Q 30Which is the longest of the park's hiking trails?
King Snake Trail
It runs 11.1 miles; the Oakridge is 7.5, Weston Lake Loop 4.6 and the Bluff Trail just 0.7.