Q 01/05

Illinois's border was pushed north in 1818 to reach which Great Lake?

A) Erie

B) Michigan

C) Huron

D) Superior

Answer · why

B) Michigan

Lake Michigan frontage came from territorial delegate Nathaniel Pope, who had the border pushed north; the strip he added holds Chicago, which would o...

Q 02/05

Illinois calls itself the Land of Lincoln, but in which state was Abraham Lincoln born?

A) Indiana

B) Kentucky

C) Virginia

D) Tennessee

Answer · why

B) Kentucky

Kentucky is where Lincoln was born in 1809; his family moved to Indiana when he was seven, and he reached Illinois only at 21.

Q 03/05

Illinois's official motto pairs 'National Union' with which phrase?

A) Liberty and Justice

B) Prairie Freedom

C) State Sovereignty

D) Peace and Plenty

Answer · why

C) State Sovereignty

State Sovereignty comes first in the motto, which irked the Unionist official who redrew the seal in 1868: refused leave to swap the phrases, he twist...

Q 04/05

Long glossed as 'tribe of superior men', the name Illinois really comes from a Miami-Illinois phrase meaning what?

A) He walks the prairie

B) He follows the river

C) He speaks the regular way

D) He comes in peace

Answer · why

C) He speaks the regular way

He speaks the regular way is the linguists' gloss of irenwe·wa; French explorers learned the name second-hand from Ojibwe-speaking neighbours and spel...

Q 05/05

Which village, Illinois's first state capital, now sits west of the Mississippi with a Missouri ZIP code?

A) Kaskaskia

B) Cairo

C) Shawneetown

D) Prairie du Rocher

Answer · why

A) Kaskaskia

Kaskaskia was cut off in 1881 when a flood moved the Mississippi into a new channel east of the village, so its 21 residents (2020 census) can reach t...