50 free Cuyahoga Valley National Park trivia questions with answers — geography quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
This Cuyahoga Valley National Park trivia quiz covers the unusual national park squeezed between Cleveland and Akron along the Cuyahoga River, the only one in Ohio and the only one that began life as a national recreation area. Questions cover the river that caught fire in 1969, the Ohio and Erie Canal and its towpath, the Valley Railway that became a scenic railroad, Brandywine Falls, the Ledges, the Everett Covered Bridge and the Krejci Dump that became a Superfund cleanup. History ranges from the Hopewell mound builders and the Lenape through the Treaty of Greenville, the canal diggers of 1825–32, Hayward Kendall's gift of the Ledges, the CCC's Happy Days Lodge, Gerald Ford's reluctant 1974 signature, the 2000 redesignation and the 2024 sister-park deal with Dartmoor. There are also questions on Blossom Music Center, Hale Farm, the Richfield Coliseum site and the park's ranking among America's most visited. 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 US National Parks quiz next.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Cuyahoga Valley National Park lies between which two Ohio cities?
Cleveland and Akron
That proximity makes it one of the dozen most-visited national parks in the country.
Q 02What was Cuyahoga Valley's status when it joined the park system in 1974?
National recreation area
It became a national park 26 years later and remains the only national park that started out as a national recreation area.
Q 03Which president signed the bill protecting the valley in December 1974 despite his administration urging a veto?
Gerald Ford
The administration argued the valley 'possesses no qualities which qualify it for inclusion in the National Park System'.
Q 04In which year did Congress redesignate the area a national park?
2000
The change came through an Interior appropriations bill rather than a stand-alone park act.
Q 05How many national parks does Ohio have?
One
It is one of three in the Great Lakes Basin, alongside Isle Royale in Lake Superior and Indiana Dunes on Lake Michigan.
Q 06The Cuyahoga River famously did what on 22 June 1969, helping spur the environmental movement?
Caught fire
A spark from a passing rail car lit an oil slick; the river had burned on at least 14 occasions, and the 1969 blaze did about $50,000 of damage, mainly to a rail bridge.
Q 07Which magazine's article, illustrated with a photo of a 1952 blaze, made the 1969 Cuyahoga River fire famous?
Time
No photos of the 1969 fire exist; the article launched the magazine's Environment section in the same issue that covered the Apollo 11 landing and Chappaquiddick.
Q 08Which Cleveland mayor took reporters to the river in 1969 to draw attention to its pollution?
Carl Stokes
He had already won a $100 million bond to clean up the city's rivers and later testified to Congress; the EPA and Clean Water Act amendments followed.
Q 09Which band's 1986 song is titled 'Cuyahoga'?
R.E.M.
Randy Newman's 1972 'Burn On' also mocks the burning river, and Great Lakes Brewing named its Burning River Pale Ale after it.
Q 10The name Cuyahoga is usually said to mean what?
Crooked river
The claim traces it to a Mohawk word, though the Mohawk never lived here; a Seneca phrase meaning 'on your chin' is another candidate, since the river's V shape looks a bit like a jawbone.
Q 11Which city sits at the base of the river's 'V' before it turns north to Lake Erie?
Cuyahoga Falls
The northern arm follows an ancient preglacial valley filled with 400 feet of glacial drift; the southern arm is much newer drainage.
Q 12The park's most popular trail follows the towpath of which historic waterway?
The Ohio and Erie Canal
Mules once towed boats along it; the 20-mile park section is part of a route running almost 70 miles to Zoar.
Q 13The canal, built between 1825 and 1832, linked Cleveland on Lake Erie with which town on the Ohio River?
Portsmouth
Before it, Ohio was a wilderness where getting crops to market was nearly impossible; the canal connected the state to the East.
Q 21The Everett Covered Bridge holds what distinction?
The last of its kind left in Summit County
Ohio once led the nation in covered-bridge building with more than 2,000; this one uses Robert W. Smith's 1867 patented truss.
Q 22What happened to the Everett Covered Bridge in 1975?
A spring flood lifted it off its abutments
Schoolchildren and locals raised money and the Park Service rebuilt it faithfully in 1986; legend ties its origin to a farmer who drowned crossing Furnace Run in 1877.
Q 23Which Cleveland businessman's estate donated 430 acres around the Ritchie Ledges to the state in 1929?
Q 14How long was the full canal whose towpath the park trail follows?
308 miles
The park's Canal Exploration Center occupies a canal-era building where passengers waited to pass through Lock 38.
Q 15The park's scenic railroad runs on the route of which line, opened to passengers in 1880?
The Valley Railway
It was later the Baltimore and Ohio's Valley Division; today cyclists can ride the train one way with their bikes for a small fee.
Q 16Which outdoor amphitheatre inside the park is the summer home of the Cleveland Orchestra?
Blossom Music Center
George Szell wanted year-round work for his musicians; the pavilion seats 6,051 with room for 15,000 more on the lawn.
Q 17Which work opened the Blossom Festival on 19 July 1968 under George Szell?
Beethoven's Ninth Symphony
It was broadcast live on local television; the next year's Fourth of July concert was led by Meredith Willson, composer of The Music Man.
Q 18What is the tallest waterfall in the park?
Brandywine Falls
It is the fifth-tallest in Ohio; about 100 waterfalls tumble off the valley's side creeks.
Q 19What hard rock caps the park's tallest waterfall, protecting the softer shales beneath?
Berea Sandstone
The Bedford and Cleveland shales below break in thin chunks, giving the water its bridal-veil look; the sandstone was quarried for grindstones and canal locks.
Q 20What did George Wallace build at the top of the park's tallest waterfall in 1814?
A saw mill
Grist and woollen mills followed and the village of Brandywine grew up around them, mostly lost later to Interstate 271; his son's house is now a bed and breakfast inn.
Hayward Kendall
His will said the land must be 'perpetually used for park purposes'; it was named Virginia Kendall Park after his mother.
Q 24The Ledges are outcrops of which resistant rock, which caps the valley's highest hills?
Sharon Conglomerate
As the shale beneath washes away, huge blocks settle and frost pries them apart, opening the talus caves among the boulders.
Q 25Which New Deal agency built the Happy Days Lodge and the Ledges and Kendall Lake shelters?
Civilian Conservation Corps
The lodge near Peninsula was built in 1938–39 as a camp for city children and is now used only for special events.
Q 26The Krejci Dump, acquired by the park in 1985, was declared what in 1986?
A Superfund site
Ford, GM, Chrysler and others settled; 3M fought and lost at trial. Some 371,000 tons of toxic soil were removed by 2012 and restoration finished in 2015.
Q 27Which company refused to settle over the Krejci Dump and lost at trial?
3M
The 47-acre dump held wastes from carmakers, oil and chemical firms; the site is now restored.
Q 28The site of which demolished sports arena is now a grassy meadow and birdwatching spot in the park?
Richfield Coliseum
The Cavaliers' former home was torn down in 1999 and the land came into the park the following year.
Q 29In 2024 the park signed a first-of-its-kind 'sister park' agreement with which English national park?
Dartmoor
It was the first such deal between the National Park Service and an English national park, focused on conservation.
Q 30Which living-history museum in Cuyahoga Valley National Park began as a Connecticut farmer's 1810 homestead?
Hale Farm and Village
Its recreated village of Wheatfield re-enacts the Civil War years in sequence, and craftspeople demonstrate glass-blowing, brick-making and blacksmithing.