Q 01/05

Asa Lovejoy lost the 1845 coin toss that named Portland, Oregon. What did he want to call it?

A) Salem

B) Boston

C) Albany

D) Cambridge

Answer · why

B) Boston

Pettygrove, from Portland, Maine, won two out of three tosses, and the copper cent they used is on display at the Oregon Historical Society Museum.

Q 02/05

The coin used to name Portland, known as the Portland Penny, was minted in which year?

A) 1835

B) 1845

C) 1851

D) 1859

Answer · why

A) 1835

It turned up in a safe deposit box that Lovejoy left behind, a decade older than the toss itself.

Q 03/05

Portland sits at the confluence of the Columbia River and which other river?

A) Snake

B) Willamette

C) Deschutes

D) Rogue

Answer · why

B) Willamette

The city was first documented for Europeans in 1805 by Lewis and Clark, who found the Multnomah and Clackamas bands of Chinook people living there.

Q 04/05

Portland's early nickname 'Stumptown' came from what?

A) Trees cut to build it

B) A local brewery

C) A famous shipwreck

D) A newspaper column

Answer · why

A) Trees cut to build it

Before that the site was simply called 'The Clearing', and by its 1851 incorporation the town had just over 800 inhabitants.

Q 05/05

Portland's 'Rose City' nickname dates to 1888, but in what year did the city make it official?

A) 1907

B) 1962

C) 1988

D) 2003

Answer · why

D) 2003

Georgiana Pittock, wife of the Oregonian publisher, founded the Portland Rose Society in 1889, and the first official Rose Festival followed in 1907.