Congaree National Park Trivia
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47 free Congaree National Park trivia questions with answers — geography quiz, new questions added Oct 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 47 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Congaree National Park is in which US state?
South Carolina
South Carolina's only national park lies in the Midlands, where river floods regularly cover the forest floor and leave the fresh, rich soil that grows its record-size trees.
Q 02In which season do floods most often sweep through Congaree's forest?
Winter
Winter, although summer is the rainiest season here: the floods come from rain falling far upstream, across a watershed about the size of Maryland, so the forest can go under on a dry day.
Q 03Before becoming a national park in 2003, Congaree was a national what?
Monument
Monument status came in 1976, on about 15,000 acres; the 2003 law that made it a national park also dropped the word 'Swamp' from its name and let it grow.
Q 04Which 1989 hurricane toppled many of Congaree's champion trees and tore open gaps in the canopy?
Hurricane Hugo
Hurricane Hugo destroyed many of the 7 national and 14 state champion trees then on record, but seedlings and vines soon filled the sunlit gaps, which is how the forest renews itself.
Q 05By Congaree rangers' own definition, what sets a true swamp apart from the park's floodplain forest?
Water covers it all year
Water covers it all year, in the park's definition of a swamp; Congaree's forest floor goes under about ten times a year and is dry for most of it, which is why 'Swamp' left its name in 2003.
Q 06Which Chicago lumberman bought some 15,000 acres of the Congaree floodplain to log its giant cypress?
Francis Beidler
Francis Beidler's loggers floated giant cypresses downstream to become shingles and pilings; by the park's account the work proved so difficult and costly that it stopped, sparing the forest's core.
Q 07Harry Hampton, for whom Congaree's visitor center is named, made his living as what?
A newspaper editor
A newspaper editor at The State, Hampton hunted the floodplain with a local club and used his 'Woods and Waters' column, which ran from 1930 to 1964, to argue the forest was worth saving.
Q 08The Congaree floodplain sheltered communities of maroons, a name given to whom?
Enslaved people who escaped to live free
Enslaved people who escaped to live free often stayed near family rather than risk the journey north, hiding for years in forest too dense for slave catchers to cross easily.
Q 09Which Spanish explorer crossed the Congaree region around 1540 on his way to the chiefdom of Cofitachequi?
Hernando de Soto
Hernando de Soto was met at Cofitachequi by a woman chief carried on a litter, who gave the Spaniards pearls and food; finding no gold, he marched on with her as his hostage.
Q 10Which English surveyor travelled up the Santee in 1701 and called the Congaree people 'kind and affable'?
John Lawson
John Lawson published his account of the journey in London in 1709; two years later Tuscarora warriors captured and killed him, and the Tuscarora War followed.
Q 11In the 1700s the surviving Congaree people merged into which larger nation upriver?
Catawba
Catawba villages took in the survivors after smallpox, war and slave raids had nearly wiped the Congaree out; an English census of 1715 found only 22 men and 70 women and children.
Q 12The Congaree River forms at the state capital where which two rivers meet?
The Saluda and the Broad
The Saluda and the Broad meet at the fall line, so the Congaree starts with a mile of rapids and shoals before it slows and begins to meander across the coastal plain.
Q 13Which river joins the Congaree just below the park to form the Santee?
The Wateree
Q 21Which crow-sized woodpecker chisels wood chips from the standing dead trees along Congaree's boardwalk?
Pileated woodpecker
Pileated woodpecker holes in dead 'snags' become homes for other birds and mammals; Congaree's old wood supports every woodpecker of the coastal plain except the red-cockaded.
Q 22In 2021, what system did Congaree introduce to control crowds at its annual firefly viewing?
A lottery for vehicle passes
A lottery for vehicle passes replaced open access after some 25,000 to 30,000 visitors in three seasons left firefly activity in the viewing area visibly reduced; in 2026 it admitted 145 cars a night.
Q 23Congaree's famous fireflies are not flies but which kind of insect?
The Wateree floods the park too: its waters and the Congaree's sweep through the forest together, at times deep enough for visitors to kayak among the trees.
Q 14Congaree's tallest tree, a national champion about 170 feet high, belongs to which species?
Loblolly pine
Loblolly pine copes with wet ground better than other pines and rises above the rest of the canopy here, which makes the tallest ones the forest's favourite targets for lightning.
Q 15Which tree with a swollen, bottle-shaped base grows beside the bald cypress in Congaree's sloughs?
Water tupelo
Water tupelo grows only where water is plentiful; moss on the lower trunk marks how high past floods reached, a tide line visitors can read from the boardwalk.
Q 16Tribes along the Congaree River used bald cypress, a wood that is easy to work, to make what?
Canoes
Canoes made of bald cypress lasted, because the wood resists water and rot; for the same reason it was later cut into roof shingles.
Q 17Congaree's rangers say the woody 'knees' on bald cypress roots most likely serve what purpose?
Structural support in soft, flooded soil
Structural support in soft, flooded soil is the park's best guess, bracing the tree against floods and high winds; the old idea that knees are breathing tubes for the roots has never been settled.
Q 18The bald cypress is unusual among conifers because it does what?
Sheds its needles every autumn
Sheds its needles every autumn, after they turn russet-red; its rot-resistant timber, sold as 'wood eternal', is why loggers left so few old giants standing.
Q 19Besides Congaree, which national park is famous for a yearly show of synchronous fireflies?
Great Smoky Mountains
Great Smoky Mountains made the spectacle famous: so many people came to its Elkmont woods each June that viewing there had to be rationed, years before Congaree drew the same crowds.
Q 20Where do fireflies like Congaree's spend most of their one- to two-year lives?
In the soil, as larvae
In the soil, as larvae, they hunt worms, snails and small insects for a year or two; the flashing adults last only three or four weeks, and some never eat at all.
Beetles
Beetles of the family Lampyridae: Congaree's species belongs to Photuris, a genus whose females are known to mimic other fireflies' flashes to lure in their males and eat them.
Q 24The chemical that Congaree's fireflies combine with an enzyme to make light is called what?
Luciferin
Luciferin reacts with the enzyme luciferase, oxygen and ATP in the firefly's 'lantern'; both names come from the Latin lucifer, 'light-bringing'.
Q 25The dark 'Dorovan muck' beneath Congaree's boardwalk, a layer eight feet thick, does what for the floodplain?
Filters pollutants from the water
Filters pollutants from the water: this mix of clay and old leaves traps contaminants and breaks them down into harmless compounds, which helps keep the Congaree River clean.
Q 26Congaree's marked canoe trail follows which waterway through the heart of the park?
Cedar Creek
Cedar Creek's level can swing by as much as ten feet: at low water paddlers drag their boats over fallen logs, and above flood stage the park advises staying off it.
Q 27Which is the longest of Congaree's hiking trails?
King Snake Trail
King Snake Trail runs more than 11 miles through remote backcountry, where blazes can vanish under fallen trees and floodwater, so the park tells hikers to carry a map and compass.
Q 28The colonial-road trail on the park's east side runs inside a former bend of the Congaree. What is that bend today?
A large oxbow lake
The road dates to colonial times; a Union–Confederate skirmish took place nearby in 1865 as Sherman marched through, and the trail opened in 2015.
Q 29During Prohibition, Congaree's rough terrain and tall trees made the floodplain a perfect hiding place for what?
Moonshine stills
Moonshine stills turned corn mash into illegal liquor deep in the floodplain, and the rusting iron box of one can still be seen from the boardwalk.
Q 30The earthen mounds found in Congaree's backcountry were built for what purpose?
To protect cattle during floods
To protect cattle during floods, enslaved workers piled up these mounds as high ground for herds grazing the low ground; six survive, among old dikes now returning to forest.