by Karl Kurtz
A U.S. geography quiz in today's Christian Science Monitor feeds The Thicket's appetite for state capital trivia. The quiz includes one of our favorites, Which state capital has the smallest population?, as well as some classics like the state capitals that begin with the letter "S" or the letter "C" or the ones that are named after presidents.
There are 25 questions in the CSM quiz. I got 23 right, missing the one on the state that has two panhandles and suffering from my frequent confusion of which state has the smaller land area, Delaware or Rhode Island.
Here are some more state capital trivia questions:
- What are the five state capitals that begin with "A"? (Hint: Four of them are east of the Mississippi R.)
- What is the highest elevation state capital? (Hint: It's not Denver.) The lowest?
- What are the four state capitals that begin with the same letter as their states?
- What three state capitals border another state or country?
- What six (maybe seven) state capitals lie on salt water?
Answers below the jump.
- Albany, Annapolis, Atlanta, Augusta, Austin
- Santa Fe is the highest at about 7,000 feet (Denver is third after Cheyenne). Honolulu is the lowest.
- Dover, Delaware; Honolulu, Hawaii; Indianapolis, Indiana; Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
- Trenton (borders Pennsylvania), Carson City (California), Juneau (British Columbia)
- Annapolis, Boston, Providence, Olympia, Juneau, Honolulu. (Salt Lake City is a potential trick answer. It doesn't appear on a map to border the Great Salt Lake, but when I asked authorities in Utah I was told there is no definitive answer: Because the borders of the lake shift frequently, whether the city and the lake border each other depends on the year and the map.) 2/13 update: See the comments below about Baton Rouge and Lake Ponchartrain.
I made up that last one about salt water capitals without any confirmation that it is correct, other than the investigation of Salt Lake City. Corrections and contributions of new state capital trivia questions are welcome.