50 free Missouri trivia questions with answers. Missouri trivia for the Show Me State, whether you are a St. Louisan, a Kansas Citian or somewhere in the Ozarks between. The quiz covers how the state got its name and nicknames, the Missouri Compromise, the Gateway Arch, the 1904 World's Fair and its ice cream cones and iced tea, and famous Missourians from Mark Twain and Harry Truman to Chuck Berry and Walt Disney. It also takes in Branson's theatres, Lake of the Ozarks and Bagnell Dam, Kansas City barbecue and toasted ravioli, Anheuser-Busch, the Pony Express, the Dred Scott case, Cahokia, the New Madrid earthquakes, the Cardinals' eleven World Series and the Chiefs' beginnings as the Dallas Texans. Easy questions come first; the harder ones will stretch lifelong Missourians. Every answer has been checked against the Wikipedia articles on the state, its cities, landmarks and people, and each question shows its source once you have answered.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01What is the capital of Missouri?
Jefferson City
It is only the 16th-largest city in the state and the ninth-least-populous state capital in the country.
Q 02What is Missouri's famous unofficial nickname, printed on its licence plates?
The Show Me State
Congressman Willard Vandiver is credited with the phrase in an 1899 speech: 'I'm from Missouri, and you have got to show me.'
Q 03Missouri is also called the Cave State because it has more than how many recorded caves?
7,300
Only Tennessee has more; Perry County has the most caves and the single longest one.
Q 04The state is named after a river, which was named after the Missouria people. What does their name mean?
One who has dugout canoes
French colonists adapted the Illinois-language name Wimihsoorita.
Q 05Missouri joined the Union in 1821 on what terms?
Slave-holding, under the 1820 Compromise
Maine was admitted as a free state to keep the balance, and slavery was banned in Louisiana Purchase lands north of 36°30'.
Q 06Which free state was admitted alongside Missouri under the Missouri Compromise?
Maine
The Senate tied the two bills together; Henry Clay broke the House deadlock.
Q 07Where was Missouri's temporary capital before the 1826 move to its Missouri River home?
St. Charles
St. Charles was also the starting point of the Lewis and Clark Expedition in 1804.
Q 08Which was the first permanent European settlement in Missouri, founded by the French in 1735?
Ste. Genevieve
St. Louis followed in 1764; the whole territory came to the US with the Louisiana Purchase in 1803.
Q 09How tall is the Gateway Arch in St. Louis?
630 feet
It is the world's tallest arch and Missouri's tallest accessible structure, clad in stainless steel.
Q 10Which Finnish-American architect designed the Gateway Arch?
Eero Saarinen
He won the design competition in 1947; construction ran from 1963 to 1965 at a cost of $13 million.
Q 11What is the Gateway Arch's mathematical shape?
A weighted catenary
It commemorates westward expansion and is officially dedicated 'to the American people'.
Q 12Mark Twain's boyhood home, the setting for Tom Sawyer, was which Missouri river town?
Hannibal
He was born in nearby Florida, Missouri, and moved to Hannibal at four.
Q 13In which tiny Missouri village was Samuel Clemens, later Mark Twain, born in 1835?
Florida
Missouri has all four of those town names; Clemens was the sixth of seven children.
Q 14Twain was born shortly after the appearance of what, and predicted he would 'go out with it'?
Q 21Which drink's popularity 'rapidly increased' after Richard Blechynden served it at the 1904 fair?
Iced tea
It had been around since the 1860s but the sweltering fair made it a national habit.
Q 22The barbecue style of the state's biggest western city is known for a thick, sweet sauce made with what?
Brown sugar, molasses, tomatoes
Henry Perry is credited as its originator, and burnt ends are the local speciality.
Q 23Which St. Louis-based company is the world's largest beer producer?
Anheuser-Busch
It has been owned by Belgium's AB InBev since a 2008 hostile takeover.
Halley's Comet
He did: he died in April 1910, the day after the comet's closest approach.
Q 15Which US president was born in Lamar, Missouri, and raised in Independence?
Harry S. Truman
He became president when FDR died in 1945.
Q 16What does the 'S' in the 33rd president's name stand for?
Nothing; it honours both grandfathers
Anderson Shipp Truman and Solomon Young both got a nod, a common Southern practice.
Q 17What business did Truman open after returning from World War I?
A haberdashery
He then became a Jackson County judge and a US senator before the vice presidency.
Q 18St. Louis hosted a World's Fair in 1904 to mark the centennial of what?
The Louisiana Purchase
The same year the city hosted the first Olympic Games held in the United States.
Q 19Which sporting event did St. Louis host in 1904, a first for the United States?
The Summer Olympics
They ran alongside the World's Fair.
Q 20Which treat was reputedly born at the 1904 St. Louis fair when a vendor ran out of paper cups?
The ice cream cone
Syrian concessionaire Ernest Hamwi supposedly rolled a waffle into a cone; historians still argue about it.
Q 24Adolphus Busch was the first American brewer to do what, in 1876?
Use refrigerated railroad cars
He was also first to pasteurise beer and to bottle it extensively.
Q 25Which musical genres does the state claim as its birthplace?
Ragtime, KC jazz, St. Louis blues
Scott Joplin published in Sedalia; Chuck Berry, Tina Turner and Sheryl Crow are all Missourians.
Q 26Which 'Father of Rock and Roll' was born into a middle-class St. Louis family in 1926?
Chuck Berry
He ran his own club, Berry's Club Bandstand, in the city.
Q 27Walt Disney was born in Chicago but raised largely in which Missouri metropolis from 1911?
Kansas City
He attended Benton Grammar School there and discovered vaudeville and movies through a classmate.
Q 28The Pony Express ran from Sacramento to which Missouri city?
St. Joseph
It promised delivery in ten days but lasted only 18 months before the telegraph killed it in 1861.
Q 29How long did the Pony Express operate?
18 months
It cut cross-country message time to about 10 days but went bankrupt when the telegraph arrived.
Q 30In which Missouri city did the 1857 Dred Scott case begin?
St. Louis
Scott's owner had settled in St. Louis in 1830; Chief Justice Taney wrote the 7-2 opinion.