Q 01/05

Yosemite National Park is in which U.S. state?

A) Nevada

B) California

C) Oregon

D) Colorado

Answer · why

B) California

It spreads across four counties in the central Sierra Nevada.

Q 02/05

Which president signed the 1864 Yosemite Grant, the first US land set aside for preservation?

A) Ulysses S. Grant

B) Abraham Lincoln

C) Andrew Johnson

D) James Buchanan

Answer · why

B) Abraham Lincoln

He signed it in the middle of the Civil War, and it set the precedent for Yellowstone in 1872.

Q 03/05

Under the 1864 grant, the valley and the big sequoia grove were handed to whom to manage as a park?

A) The U.S. Army

B) The Sierra Club

C) The State of California

D) The Central Pacific Railroad

Answer · why

C) The State of California

The state kept the valley until 1906, when Roosevelt signed a bill returning it to federal control.

Q 04/05

In what year did Congress create Yosemite National Park after a naturalist's campaign?

A) 1890

B) 1899

C) 1906

D) 1916

Answer · why

A) 1890

Century Magazine editor Robert Underwood Johnson was Muir's key ally in the lobbying.

Q 05/05

Which Scottish-born naturalist led the campaign for the 1890 park and co-founded the Sierra Club?

A) John Muir

B) Galen Clark

C) Ansel Adams

D) Frederick Law Olmsted

Answer · why

A) John Muir

He was also among the first to argue, against the state geologist, that glaciers rather than earthquakes carved the valley.