Spokane Trivia
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58 free Spokane trivia questions with answers — geography quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
Spokane invented Father's Day, hosted the first environmental World's Fair, calls itself Hooptown USA and was the smallest city ever to stage a world exposition. This Spokane trivia quiz covers the second-largest city in Washington from the fur-trading post of 1810 to today: the tribe whose name means children of the sun, the incorporation as Spokane Falls, the Great Fire of 1889 and the Romanesque downtown Kirtland Cutter built afterwards, the railroads, the mining rushes and Expo '74. There are questions on Gonzaga and the Zags, Whitworth, the Bloomsday Run, Hoopfest, Pig Out in the Park, the Chiefs and their Memorial Cups, the Indians and the Velocity, Riverfront Park's carousel, Manito Park, the Davenport Hotel, why the airport code is GEG, why the city gets less than half of Seattle's rain, and the locals who made good: Bing Crosby, John Stockton, Ryne Sandberg, Tom Foley, Craig T. Nelson and Ryan Lewis. Every answer was checked against Wikipedia's articles on the city and its people, and each question shows its source once you have answered.
30 of 58 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Spokane is the second-most populous city in which US state?
Washington
Washington's second city after Seattle, Spokane edged Tacoma for the title at the 2020 census; it lies about 280 miles east of Seattle along Interstate 90, near the Idaho border.
Q 02Spokane is known as the birthplace of which national holiday?
Father's Day
Father's Day began in Spokane on 19 June 1910, organised by a local woman who had heard a Mother's Day sermon at the Central Methodist Episcopal Church; it became a permanent national holiday in 1972.
Q 03Which Spokane woman started the movement for a national holiday honouring fathers?
Sonora Smart Dodd
Sonora Smart Dodd, raised by her widowed Civil War veteran father William Jackson Smart, organised the first celebration in Spokane on 19 June 1910 after hearing a Mother's Day sermon in 1909.
Q 04What is Spokane's long-standing unofficial nickname, taken from a flowering shrub?
Lilac City
Lilac City dates from the early 20th century, when lilacs planted across town thrived in the climate; the Lilac Festival, begun in 1938, has run each May with an Armed Forces Torchlight Parade.
Q 05What basketball-themed nickname has Spokane earned by hosting the world's largest 3-on-3 tournament?
Hooptown USA
Hooptown USA is the basketball brand Spokane adopted in 2019, a nod to the 3-on-3 tournament that fills downtown streets each June and to the city's deep basketball roots.
Q 06What does the name of the Spokane tribe mean in Salishan?
Children of the sun
Children of the sun is the usual translation of Spokane, the name of the Salish-speaking tribe whose villages stood by the river's falls; the tribe's reservation lies at Wellpinit, northwest of the city.
Q 07The Spokane House trading post, founded in 1810, was established for which British fur-trading concern?
The North West Company
The North West Company of Montreal built Spokane House in 1810 at the junction of the Spokane and Little Spokane rivers; it passed to the Hudson's Bay Company in the 1821 merger and was abandoned in 1826 for Fort Colvile.
Q 08Which explorer-geographer sent the trappers who built the 1810 trading post on the Spokane River?
David Thompson
David Thompson, the fur trade's great surveyor, dispatched Jaco Finlay and Finan McDonald to build Spokane House in 1810, having founded Kullyspell House and Saleesh House in today's Idaho and Montana the year before.
Q 09Under what name was the city officially incorporated in 1881?
Spokane Falls
Spokane Falls was the name when the city incorporated in November 1881, and it shortened its name to plain Spokane in 1891, keeping the falls of the river at the heart of downtown.
Q 10In which year did the Great Fire destroy Spokane's downtown commercial district?
1889
1889's Great Fire broke out just after 6 p.m. on 4 August and burned 32 blocks of downtown; the city rebuilt in brick and stone, producing much of the architecture that survives around Riverside Avenue.
Q 11Why were firefighters unable to douse the Great Fire when it started?
A pump station failure left the city with no water pressure
A pump station failure left the city with no water pressure: the hydrants ran dry as the fire spread through the wooden downtown on the evening of 4 August, so crews dynamited buildings to starve the flames.
Q 12Which self-taught architect designed much of the rebuilt downtown, including the Davenport Hotel?
Kirtland Cutter
Kirtland Cutter came to Spokane in 1886 to work in his uncle's bank, taught himself architecture, and after the Great Fire designed the Davenport Hotel, the Spokane Club and the Patsy Clark mansion.
Q 13The Davenport Hotel opened in 1914 with novel technology for its day, including which feature?
Q 21Which NBA all-time assists leader was born and raised in Spokane and stayed home to play for Gonzaga?
John Stockton
John Stockton, born in Spokane in 1962 and a Gonzaga Prep graduate, played for the Zags from 1980 to 1984 before 19 seasons with the Utah Jazz, finishing with 15,806 assists, the NBA record.
Q 22Which Hall of Fame Chicago Cubs second baseman was born in Spokane in 1959?
Ryne Sandberg
Ryne Sandberg was born in Spokane on 18 September 1959 and graduated from North Central High School; the 1984 NL MVP played 15 seasons for the Cubs, who retired his number 23 in 2005.
Q 23Which Spokane-born congressman served as Speaker of the US House from 1989 to 1995?
Tom Foley
Air cooling and chilled water
Air cooling and chilled water were among the Davenport's 1914 novelties, and Louis Davenport's hotel boasted it was among the first in the country with air conditioning; it closed in 1985 and reopened in 2002 after the Worthys' restoration.
Q 14Which world's fair did Spokane host in 1974?
Expo '74
Expo '74 ran from 4 May to 3 November 1974 on islands in the Spokane River, drawing some 5.2 million visitors; Spokane was then the smallest city ever to host a world's fair.
Q 15What was historically notable about the focus of Spokane's 1974 World's Fair?
It was the first with an environmental theme
It was the first with an environmental theme: the 1974 fair was billed as 'Celebrating Tomorrow's Fresh New Environment', and preparing the site cleared rail yards and trestles from the riverbanks and islands downtown.
Q 16The former World's Fair grounds became which 100-acre downtown green space?
Riverfront Park
Riverfront Park occupies the Expo grounds on Havermale Island and the riverbanks beside the falls; its landmarks include the 155-foot Clocktower left from the 1902 Great Northern depot and the SkyRide gondola over the falls.
Q 17Gonzaga University was founded in 1887 by which religious order?
The Jesuits
The Jesuits, led by Italian-born Father Joseph Cataldo, opened Gonzaga College in 1887, naming it for the 16th-century Jesuit saint Aloysius Gonzaga; it became a university in 1912.
Q 18Whitworth University, founded in 1890 and moved to Spokane in 1914, is affiliated with which church?
Presbyterian
Presbyterian from the start, Whitworth was founded in 1890 at Sumner, near Tacoma, by George Whitworth, moved into Tacoma itself in 1899 and settled on its north Spokane campus in 1914, keeping its Presbyterian Church (USA) affiliation.
Q 19In which year did Gonzaga's men's basketball team reach its first Final Four?
2017
2017 brought Gonzaga's first Final Four: the Zags beat South Carolina in the national semifinal before losing the title game to North Carolina 71-65, and they returned to the final in 2021 only to fall to Baylor.
Q 20Who was promoted from assistant to Gonzaga Bulldogs head coach in 1999?
Mark Few
Mark Few, on the staff since 1989, became head coach in July 1999 when Dan Monson left for Minnesota after the Elite Eight run, and Few opened his tenure with a Sweet Sixteen in 2000.
Tom Foley, a Spokane native, represented the 5th district from 1965 and was Speaker from 1989 to 1995; his 1994 defeat made him the first sitting Speaker to lose re-election since 1862, and Spokane's federal courthouse bears his name.
Q 24Which legendary crooner was raised in Spokane and has a downtown theater named in his honour?
Bing Crosby
Bing Crosby moved to Spokane from Tacoma as a toddler in 1906, attended Gonzaga High School and Gonzaga University, and the old Clemmer Theatre downtown was renamed the Bing Crosby Theater in 2006.
Q 25Which actor, star of Coach and the voice of Mr. Incredible, was born in Spokane in 1944?
Craig T. Nelson
Craig T. Nelson was born in Spokane on 4 April 1944; he won a 1992 Emmy for Coach and voiced Bob Parr, Mr. Incredible, in The Incredibles (2004).
Q 26Which Spokane-born producer forms half of the hip-hop duo behind The Heist and "Thrift Shop"?
Ryan Lewis
Ryan Lewis, born in Spokane in 1988, met Macklemore through MySpace in 2006 and produced The Heist (2012), whose single 'Thrift Shop' topped the Billboard Hot 100 and helped the duo win four Grammys in 2014.
Q 27Spokane International Airport's code GEG is a legacy of which former name?
Geiger Field
Geiger Field, named for Army aviator Major Harold Geiger, who died in a 1927 crash, was the airport's name until it became Spokane International Airport in 1960, but the three-letter code GEG stayed.
Q 28Which US Air Force unit, the area's largest employer, is based at Fairchild Air Force Base near Spokane?
The 92d Air Refueling Wing
The 92d Air Refueling Wing flies KC-135 Stratotankers from Fairchild Air Force Base; the base opened in 1942 as an Army air depot, took General Muir Fairchild's name in 1951 and has been Spokane County's largest employer.
Q 29Why does Spokane receive less than half of Seattle's annual rainfall?
It sits in the rain shadow of the Cascades
It sits in the rain shadow of the Cascades: Pacific storms drop most of their moisture on the range's western slopes, leaving Spokane about 16.5 inches of precipitation a year against Seattle's roughly 39.
Q 30Which tree is the official tree of the City of Spokane?
Ponderosa pine
Ponderosa pine is Spokane's official city tree; botanist David Douglas collected the specimens from which the species was named near Spokane in 1826, and the long-needled pines dominate the South Hill and Riverside State Park.