Q 01/05

Which landmark stands in the Black Hills of South Dakota, west of Badlands National Park?

A) Mount Rushmore

B) Scotts Bluff

C) Devils Tower

D) Chimney Rock

Answer · why

A) Mount Rushmore

Mount Rushmore was carved between 1927 and 1941 by Gutzon Borglum and nearly 400 workers; Borglum died months before the end, leaving his son Lincoln ...

Q 02/05

Besides its eroded buttes and pinnacles, Badlands National Park protects the largest undisturbed expanse of what in the US?

A) Old-growth ponderosa forest

B) Mixed-grass prairie

C) Alkali salt flat

D) Cottonwood river bottom

Answer · why

B) Mixed-grass prairie

Mixed-grass prairie grows here because rainfall sits between that of the wetter tallgrass prairie to the east and the dry shortgrass plains to the wes...

Q 03/05

Which is the nearest major urban centre to Badlands National Park, and the second largest in South Dakota?

A) Sioux Falls

B) Rapid City

C) Pierre

D) Aberdeen

Answer · why

B) Rapid City

Rapid City, west of the park, was founded in 1876 during the Black Hills gold rush and grew as the eastern gateway to the hills.

Q 04/05

French-Canadian trappers named the Badlands 'les mauvaises terres' because the land was bad for doing what?

A) Travelling across

B) Growing crops

C) Trapping beaver

D) Grazing cattle

Answer · why

A) Travelling across

Travelling across: the trappers' phrase meant bad lands to travel through, echoing the Lakota name mako sica, 'land bad', for the rugged terrain and l...

Q 05/05

Which president signed the 1929 law authorising Badlands National Monument on his final day in office?

A) Herbert Hoover

B) Calvin Coolidge

C) Woodrow Wilson

D) Warren Harding

Answer · why

B) Calvin Coolidge

Calvin Coolidge signed the act on 4 March 1929, his last day in office, but its conditions, including land purchases and a new highway through the Bad...