Q 01/05

Legend says a French speaker gave Boise its name by shouting what at the sight of its river valley?

A) The woods!

B) The water!

C) The valley!

D) The green!

Answer · why

A) The woods!

The woods! Legend puts the cry "Les bois!" at an exploring party's first sight of the river's cottonwoods, though evidence is lacking; French-Canadian...

Q 02/05

How do most longtime Boise residents pronounce the city's name?

A) BOY-zee

B) BOY-see

C) BWAH-zay

D) BOH-eez

Answer · why

B) BOY-see

BOY-see, with a soft s, is how locals say it; outsiders, national sportscasters among them, tend to say BOY-zee, so the name works as a shibboleth.

Q 03/05

Boise is the county seat of which Idaho county?

A) Canyon

B) Gem

C) Ada

D) Owyhee

Answer · why

C) Ada

Ada County, home to about 27% of Idahoans, has Boise as its seat; confusingly, Boise County is a different, rural mountain county next door.

Q 04/05

Which city in Idaho's north was the territory's first capital before the government moved to Boise?

A) Idaho City

B) Pocatello

C) Coeur d'Alene

D) Lewiston

Answer · why

D) Lewiston

Lewiston lost the capital after gold strikes pulled Idaho's population south; the acting governor carried the territorial seal off to Boise, and the f...

Q 05/05

What is Boise's long-standing nickname?

A) City of Trees

B) City of Oaks

C) The Forest City

D) The Elm City

Answer · why

A) City of Trees

City of Trees: settlers irrigated the high-desert townsite and planted orchards and shade trees so eagerly that by 1869 the local paper reported a tre...