Q 01/05

Which American author failed as a silver miner before taking a reporting job at a Virginia City newspaper in the 1860s?

A) Mark Twain

B) Bret Harte

C) Ambrose Bierce

D) Jack London

Answer · why

A) Mark Twain

Mark Twain first signed that pen name at the Territorial Enterprise in 1863 and later wrote humorously about his lack of success in the mines. By his ...

Q 02/05

Which NFL team takes its name from the prospectors who poured into California during the Gold Rush?

A) Los Angeles Rams

B) San Francisco 49ers

C) Los Angeles Chargers

D) Denver Broncos

Answer · why

B) San Francisco 49ers

San Francisco 49ers' first logo showed a mustached gold miner leaping in midair and firing a pistol from each hand. The nickname marks 1849, the peak ...

Q 03/05

Which US president made his fortune as a mining engineer and translated a Latin mining textbook into English?

A) Calvin Coolidge

B) Theodore Roosevelt

C) Woodrow Wilson

D) Herbert Hoover

Answer · why

D) Herbert Hoover

Herbert Hoover and his wife Lou, both trained in geology at Stanford, published their English version of De re metallica in 1912. He had earlier manag...

Q 04/05

Which dry goods merchant financed tailor Jacob Davis's 1873 patent for riveted work pants worn by Western miners?

A) Levi Strauss

B) Marshall Field

C) John Wanamaker

D) Rowland Macy

Answer · why

A) Levi Strauss

Levi Strauss supplied the cloth and the money, but the copper rivets at the stress points were Davis's idea. Blue jeans only became fashion after 1950...

Q 05/05

Which American family, later famous for its art museums, built its fortune on mining and metal refining?

A) Vanderbilt

B) Whitney

C) Guggenheim

D) Rockefeller

Answer · why

C) Guggenheim

Guggenheim patriarch Meyer became a mining magnate after emigrating from Switzerland in 1847. One of his seven sons, Benjamin, went down with the Tita...