Q 01/05

Sacramento sits at the confluence of the Sacramento River and which other river?

A) The Feather

B) The Yuba

C) The American

D) The Merced

Answer · why

C) The American

The American River is the city's main source of drinking water and the spot where gold was found at Sutter's Mill in 1848.

Q 02/05

Which indigenous people lived in the Sacramento area before the Spanish arrived?

A) Nisenan

B) Chumash

C) Ohlone

D) Yurok

Answer · why

A) Nisenan

The Nisenan are also called the Southern Maidu; acorns from the valley's oaks made up the bulk of their diet.

Q 03/05

Which Spanish cavalryman named the Sacramento River in 1808?

A) Juan Bautista de Anza

B) Gaspar de Portolá

C) Junípero Serra

D) Gabriel Moraga

Answer · why

D) Gabriel Moraga

A writer with his expedition compared the river air to champagne before exclaiming that it was like the Blessed Sacrament.

Q 04/05

The city's name ultimately refers to which Catholic sacrament?

A) Baptism

B) The Eucharist

C) Confirmation

D) Matrimony

Answer · why

B) The Eucharist

Río del Santísimo Sacramento means 'Most Holy Sacrament River', a reference to the Body and Blood of Christ.

Q 05/05

Which Swiss-born Mexican citizen founded the fort that Sacramento grew up around?

A) James Marshall

B) Samuel Brannan

C) John Sutter

D) Leland Stanford

Answer · why

C) John Sutter

He arrived in August 1839 with a 50,000-acre land grant and built an adobe fort with walls 18 feet high.