Pacific Northwest
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50 free Pacific Northwest trivia questions with answers — geography quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
The Pacific Northwest packs a lot into one corner of the map: snow-capped volcanoes, temperate rainforest, a rugged coastline and some of the most recognisable companies and bands of the last half-century. Washington, Oregon and Idaho form its core, with British Columbia just across the border. This quiz covers the region's geography and state capitals, its frontier and boundary history, the food it grows and catches, its wildlife, and the music, television and businesses it gave the world. A handful of questions head out to the Olympic Peninsula, and a few stranger local stories turn up along the way. It suits anyone who lives in the Northwest, is planning a road trip there, or is studying the northwest states for school. Every question comes with a short explanation, so you will pick up something new even when you miss.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01The 1859 US–British standoff on San Juan Island, Washington, began with the shooting of which animal?
A pig
A pig was the only casualty of the so-called Pig War. The dispute dragged on until arbitration under German Emperor Wilhelm I settled who owned the islands.
Q 02Which city would Portland, Oregon, be named after had its founders' 1845 coin toss gone the other way?
Boston
Boston was the hometown of co-founder Asa Lovejoy, who lost the best-of-three toss to Francis Pettygrove of Portland, Maine. The penny is now on display at the Oregon Historical Society.
Q 03Highway engineers in Florence, Oregon, used dynamite in 1970 to dispose of which beached animal?
A sperm whale
A sperm whale 45 feet long had washed ashore. The engineer in charge said he was not sure how much dynamite the job needed, and got it because his supervisor had gone hunting.
Q 04Which legendary creature has been illegal to kill in Skamania County, Washington, since a 1969 ordinance?
Bigfoot
Bigfoot, or Sasquatch, is protected by an ordinance Skamania County passed on April 1, 1969. The first version threatened a $10,000 fine and five years in jail, cut in 1984 to $1,000 and one year.
Q 05Which annual holiday was first celebrated in Spokane, Washington, in 1910 at the urging of Sonora Smart Dodd?
Father's Day
Father's Day grew from Sonora Smart Dodd's wish to honor her own father, a Civil War veteran who raised six children as a single parent.
Q 06Which animated series took the names Flanders, Lovejoy and Quimby from streets in Portland, Oregon?
The Simpsons
The Simpsons creator Matt Groening grew up in Portland and borrowed its street names for his characters. Kearney and Powell come from the same city map.
Q 07Which kitchen appliance did Oregon coach Bill Bowerman ruin while making a new Nike running-shoe sole?
A waffle iron
A waffle iron belonging to Bowerman's wife gave him the grid pattern he wanted: a rubber sole that gripped yet stayed light. The shoe became the Waffle Trainer.
Q 08Which name is given to the hijacker who parachuted from a 1971 Portland–Seattle flight with $200,000?
D. B. Cooper
D. B. Cooper bought his ticket as Dan Cooper; a reporter rushing to meet a deadline garbled the name. The hijacking is the only documented unsolved air piracy case in commercial aviation history.
Q 09Which Cascade Range volcano erupted on May 18, 1980, killing about 57 people in southwest Washington?
Mount St. Helens
Mount St. Helens erupted after its north face slid away in the largest landslide in recorded history. Ash from the blast fell on 11 US states.
Q 10Which coffee chain, named for a character in Moby-Dick, opened its first shop in Seattle in 1971?
Starbucks
Starbucks took its name from the chief mate in Moby-Dick. It started out selling coffee beans, not drinks, and became an espresso-bar chain later under Howard Schultz.
Q 11Which Seattle landmark from the 1962 World's Fair was once the tallest building west of the Mississippi?
Space Needle
The Space Needle rises about 605 feet and took the western height record from a Kansas City office tower that had held it since 1931.
Q 12Which company's factory in Everett, Washington, is the largest building in the world by volume?
Boeing
Boeing's Everett plant encloses about 472 million cubic feet, enough room to fit all of Disneyland inside. It was put up in the 1960s to assemble the 747.
Q 13Which body of water, home to Wizard Island, is the deepest in the United States at 1,949 feet?
Crater Lake
Crater Lake fills the collapsed Oregon volcano Mount Mazama. No rivers flow in or out, so rain and snow alone keep it topped up.
Q 21Which active volcano, also called Tahoma, is the highest mountain in the state of Washington?
Mount Rainier
Mount Rainier was named by explorer George Vancouver for a friend, Rear Admiral Peter Rainier. It is also the most topographically prominent mountain in the contiguous United States.
Q 22Which city became capital of the Oregon Territory in 1851, taking the title from Oregon City?
Salem
Salem, founded in 1842, is still the state capital. It lies about 47 miles south of Portland, the far larger city many people guess.
Q 23Which Idaho state capital is home to a college football stadium famous for its blue artificial turf?
Boise
Boise State laid its blue field in 1986. The city's name is said to come from French trappers who called its tree-lined waterway the wooded river.
Q 14Which grunge band was formed in 1987 by two former students of Aberdeen High School in Washington?
Nirvana
Nirvana began with Kurt Cobain and Krist Novoselic, who met at Aberdeen High. Their 1991 album Nevermind was later certified thirteen-times platinum in the US.
Q 15Which rock guitarist who headlined Woodstock in 1969 was born in Seattle and is buried in nearby Renton?
Jimi Hendrix
Jimi Hendrix was born Johnny Allen Hendrix in Seattle in 1942. A post office about a mile from his grave was renamed in his honor in 2019.
Q 16Which Olympic Peninsula town does Bella Swan move to from Phoenix in Stephenie Meyer's Twilight novels?
Forks
Forks got the part after Stephenie Meyer searched Google for rainy settings. The old timber town now draws fans of the books and films.
Q 17Which Idaho crop made J. R. Simplot a billionaire after he agreed in 1967 to supply it frozen to McDonald's?
Potatoes
Potatoes, sold as frozen french fries on a handshake deal with Ray Kroc, made Simplot the oldest billionaire on the Forbes 400 when he died at 99.
Q 18Where did the NBA's Seattle SuperSonics relocate in 2008 after failing to secure a new arena?
Oklahoma City
Oklahoma City renamed the franchise the Thunder. The Sonics, NBA champions in 1979, left after a $45 million settlement over the lease on their old home.
Q 19Which sitcom follows a psychiatrist who hosts a call-in radio show at Seattle station KACL?
Frasier
Frasier was a spin-off of Cheers, sending Kelsey Grammer's psychiatrist back to his hometown to give advice on air.
Q 20Which daredevil tried to leap Idaho's Snake River Canyon in 1974 aboard a rocket called the Skycycle X-2?
Evel Knievel
Evel Knievel's jump failed when the parachute opened too early, just as the Skycycle left its launch rail. He came away with only minor injuries.
Q 24Which city on the southern tip of Vancouver Island is the capital of British Columbia?
Victoria
Victoria, named for the British queen, has had British settlers since 1843. The much bigger city of Vancouver sits across the water on the mainland.
Q 25Which pair of explorers spent the winter of 1805–06 at Fort Clatsop, near the mouth of the Columbia River?
Lewis and Clark
Lewis and Clark built the fort after their Corps of Discovery reached the Pacific. It was the expedition's last encampment before the long trip home to St. Louis.
Q 26Which software company, started in Albuquerque in 1975, moved to the Seattle suburb of Bellevue in 1979?
Microsoft
Microsoft was started by childhood friends Bill Gates and Paul Allen. It moved again in 1986 to nearby Redmond, where its headquarters remain.
Q 27Which 1990 TV mystery series filmed its small-town exteriors around Snoqualmie and North Bend, Washington?
Twin Peaks
Twin Peaks creators David Lynch and Mark Frost began their location search in Snoqualmie on a friend's tip. Both towns now celebrate Twin Peaks Day every February 24.
Q 28Which martial arts star studied at the University of Washington and is buried in Seattle?
Bruce Lee
Bruce Lee moved to Seattle in 1959 and enrolled at the university two years later, studying drama and philosophy long before his films made him famous.
Q 29Which Washington span, nicknamed Galloping Gertie, twisted apart in a 1940 windstorm months after opening?
Tacoma Narrows Bridge
The Tacoma Narrows Bridge tore apart in 40 mph winds. Its only fatality was Tubby, a three-legged cocker spaniel left in a car on the deck.
Q 30Which orchard fruit does Washington grow more of than any other US state, well over half the national crop?
Apples
Apples from Washington are shipped to more than 60 countries, with about a third of the state's crop sold abroad each year.