Q 01/05

Oakland is the seat of which California county?

A) Alameda

B) Contra Costa

C) Marin

D) San Mateo

Answer · why

A) Alameda

Alameda County's seat left San Leandro in 1872, the same year Oakland absorbed its neighbour, a town called Brooklyn.

Q 02/05

Which Native people were the earliest known inhabitants of the Oakland area?

A) The Pomo

B) The Ohlone

C) The Chumash

D) The Miwok

Answer · why

B) The Ohlone

The Ohlone lived in independent villages, among them the Huchiun of the East Bay, until Spanish missionaries drew them into missions.

Q 03/05

Which family received the 1820 Spanish land grant that covered the future Oakland and Berkeley?

A) The Vallejos

B) The Castros

C) The Peraltas

D) The Estudillos

Answer · why

C) The Peraltas

The Peraltas lost most of Rancho San Antonio after the Gold Rush, as squatters and speculators settled the land that became Oakland.

Q 04/05

Oakland's first mayor, Horace Carpentier, was ousted in 1855 after gaining exclusive rights to what?

A) Its water supply

B) The town's waterfront

C) Its gas street lighting

D) Its public market

Answer · why

B) The town's waterfront

The town's waterfront: the deal handed him its wharf and dock fees for decades, and citizens who found out forced him from office.

Q 05/05

What kind of trees in the Oakland hills did sailors once line up to avoid a hidden rock in San Francisco Bay?

A) Monterey pines

B) Douglas firs

C) Coast redwoods

D) Blue gum eucalyptus

Answer · why

C) Coast redwoods

Coast redwoods: two tall ones on the ridge guided ships past submerged Blossom Rock, until loggers felled the forest to build the Gold Rush towns.