This Washington state trivia quiz has 50 free questions with answers and covers the Evergreen State from the Pacific coast rainforests to the wheat country of the Palouse. It takes in the giants born or based there (Boeing, Microsoft, Amazon, Starbucks, Costco, Nordstrom), the mountains (Rainier and the 1980 eruption of Mount St. Helens), the landmarks (Space Needle, Pike Place Market, Grand Coulee Dam, the ferries), the music (Jimi Hendrix, Nirvana and grunge) and the odd history (the Pig War, the Great Seattle Fire, Galloping Gertie, Hanford's plutonium). Early questions are the ones any Washingtonian should get: the capital, the biggest city, the state fruit. Later ones are for people who really know the place: what Amazon was first called, why Tacoma Narrows Bridge collapsed, and who or what the tunnel machine 'Bertha' was named after. Use it for a Washington trivia night, a Seattle-visitor warm-up or a classroom unit on the state. Every answer has been verified against a documented source shown under the explanation. Note: this covers Washington state, not Washington, D.C.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Washington was admitted to the Union in 1889 as which numbered state?
42nd
It is the only state named after a U.S. president.
Q 02Washington Territory was almost given what name before it honoured a president?
Columbia
A Kentucky congressman thought that name too close to the District of Columbia, so the territory was named for George Washington instead.
Q 03What is the capital of Washington state?
Olympia
It was named the territorial capital in 1853; Seattle is the most populous city.
Q 04Washington's widely used nickname is what?
The Evergreen State
It was proposed in 1890 but, despite appearing on licence plates, has never been formally adopted.
Q 05Washington is the largest U.S. producer of which fruit?
Apples
It also leads the nation in hops, pears, blueberries and sweet cherries.
Q 06The state vegetable of Washington is which sweet onion?
Walla Walla
The state fruit is the apple and the state song is 'Washington, My Home'.
Q 07The state tree of Washington is which conifer?
Western hemlock
The state flower is the coast rhododendron and the state fish is the steelhead.
Q 08Washington's highest point, an active stratovolcano, is which mountain?
Mount Rainier
At over 14,400 feet it is the most heavily glaciated peak in the lower 48 states.
Q 09The state's highest peak is also known by which Native American name?
Tahoma
Because it could erupt near a major city, it is listed among the world's Decade Volcanoes.
Q 10On 18 May 1980, which Washington volcano erupted after the largest landslide in recorded history?
Mount St. Helens
The blast killed about 57 people and dropped ash on 11 states.
Q 11About how many people were killed by the 1980 volcanic eruption?
57
Among the dead was Harry R. Truman, an innkeeper who had refused to leave his home near Spirit Lake.
Q 12The Space Needle was built for which event?
The 1962 World's Fair
The design blends a napkin sketch of a tethered balloon with an architect's flying-saucer restaurant.
Q 13The Space Needle stands how tall?
605 feet
It was once the tallest building west of the Mississippi and is built to withstand 200 mph winds.
Q 14Which company was founded in Seattle in 1916 by a lumber industrialist?
Q 21The 1859 'Pig War' between the U.S. and Britain was a bloodless standoff over which archipelago?
The San Juans
The only casualty was a pig shot by an American farmer while eating his potatoes.
Q 22The Great Seattle Fire of 1889 was started by an overheated pot of what?
Glue
It destroyed the entire central business district and reshaped the Pioneer Square neighbourhood.
Q 23The first Tacoma Narrows Bridge, which collapsed in 1940, was nicknamed what?
Galloping Gertie
It fell apart in a 40 mph wind just four months after opening, undone by aeroelastic flutter.
Boeing
William Boeing's original firm was called the Pacific Aero Products Company.
Q 15Microsoft, headquartered in Redmond since 1986, was founded in 1975 in which city?
Albuquerque
Gates and Allen started it to sell a BASIC interpreter for the Altair 8800, then moved home to Washington.
Q 16Jeff Bezos first named the company that became Amazon what?
Cadabra
He renamed it Amazon later in 1994 after relocating from New York to Bellevue.
Q 17Starbucks opened its first store in 1971 at which Seattle landmark?
Pike Place Market
The founders took the name Starbuck from the first mate in Moby-Dick.
Q 18Seattle's historic public farmers' market, home to the first Starbucks, opened in which year?
1907
Its founding goal was to let shoppers 'meet the producer' directly.
Q 19The Grand Coulee Dam holds what national distinction?
Largest U.S. power station by capacity
It was completed on the Columbia River in 1942.
Q 20The Hanford Site in eastern Washington produced plutonium for which World War II bomb?
The Fat Man dropped on Nagasaki
Its B Reactor was the first full-scale plutonium production reactor in the world.
Q 24The only living casualty of the Tacoma Narrows collapse was what?
A cocker spaniel named Tubby
The dog was trapped in an abandoned car as the deck twisted apart.
Q 25Which Seattle-born guitarist headlined the Woodstock festival in 1969?
Jimi Hendrix
He was born in Seattle in 1942.
Q 26The band Nirvana, pioneers of grunge, formed in 1987 in which Washington town?
Aberdeen
Kurt Cobain and Krist Novoselic released their first album, Bleach, on Seattle's Sub Pop label in 1989.
Q 27Which Seattle prep academy did Bill Gates attend, meeting his future Microsoft co-founder there?
Lakeside
He befriended Paul Allen there and later dropped out of Harvard to start Microsoft.
Q 28The Seattle Seahawks joined the NFL in which year?
1976
Their fans, the '12s', twice set the Guinness record for loudest crowd noise during the 2013 season.
Q 29Which Seattle Mariner got a record 99.32% of the vote for the Baseball Hall of Fame in 2016?
Ken Griffey Jr.
He had been the first overall pick of the 1987 draft.
Q 30David Lynch's TV series Twin Peaks was shot in and around which Washington town?
Snoqualmie
The Salish Lodge above Snoqualmie Falls stood in for the Great Northern Hotel.