Coincidental Iowa Town Names Trivia Quiz

Answer: Ames

Ed Ames is a singer/actor who played the role of Mingo in the TV series "Daniel Boone". As a singer he sang with his brothers as the Ames Brothers, and his cover single of "When the Snow Is on the Roses" reached number one on the US charts in 1967.

Ames is the home of Iowa State University. In 2012, it was ranked eighth in population among Iowa cities.

Answer: Huxley

Aldous Huxley published "Brave New World" in 1932. Written in 1931, the story is set in the year "632 A.F." (After Ford), which corresponds to the year 2540. The Modern Library ranked it number five in the top 100 English-language novels of the 20th Century.

Huxley's population was 3,317 in the 2000 census. It hosts an annual Prairie Festival. It is the site of the high school for the Ballard Community School District, as well as the hometown of the TV character of Riley Finn on "Buffy the Vampire Slayer".

Answer: Kingsley

Krishna Pandit Bhanji is the birth name of Ben Kingsley, who won an Academy Award for his performance as Gandhi in the film of the same name.

In 1883, when the railroad came to the area Kingsley is in today, a Vermonter named Nahum Kingsley was hired to lay out the town. Many of Kingsley's streets today have names that originated in Vermont. The Loess Hills along the Missouri River in western Iowa and Missouri, is the largest deposit of this wind-blown soil in the world, except for the Yunnan-Guizhou Plateau in China.

Only Merrill, of the incorrect choices, is in Plymouth County, although Pierson is Kingsley's partner in the Kingsley-Pierson school district, and together their Panthers have won state titles in boy's golf (1987), boy's track and field (1978), and softball (1966 and 1967).

Answer: Manning

Peyton Manning was the winning quarterback for the Indianapolis Colts in Superbowl XLI (2007), while his brother Eli was the winning QB for the New York Giants in Superbowls XLII (2008) and XLVI (2012).

Prior to the coming of the railroad, the Manning area was a swampy region used by the indigenous Iowa tribe, a Siouxan people also known as the Baxoje, for hunting. There were no nearby rivers and few trees. In 1881, a depot was built on the future site of the town of Manning where two railroad routes intersected, thus beginning the history of the town. In 1948 the small town high school's basketball team won a state championship by defeating the much larger Davenport High School by a score of 46-43, while Manning's football team won the 2002 Class A football title by a score of 52-0.

Answer: Denver

Bob Denver played the role of Gilligan on "Gilligan's Island", a CBS situation comedy which ran from 1964 to 1967, a "three hour tour" which lasted for 98 episodes.

Originally named Jefferson City, Denver is part of the Waterloo-Cedar Falls Metropolitan Statistical Area. The name change occurred in 1863 when a post office was established there, and it was incorporated as a town in 1896. After Waverly, the county seat, and Sumner, Denver's population of 1,780 (2010 census) is the largest in Bremer County.

Answer: Perry

"I Kissed a Girl" was a hit by Katy Perry that rose to the top spot on the US record charts in 2008, while Gaylord Perry went in to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1991 after a 22-year career. Opposing batters always claimed he threw the spitter, but he was never actually ejected for throwing it until 1982, in his 21st season.

Perry, Iowa, is home to the historic Hotel Pattee, and its long-time connection to the railroad. One of Perry's native sons is cartoonist V.T. Hamlin, who originated the "Alley Oop" strip.

Answer: Boone

Richard Boone played Paladin, the bounty hunter star of the CBS Western serial called "Have Gun -- Will Travel", which ran from 1957 through 1963. In addition to that series and its 225 episodes written by such writers as Gene Roddenberry and even Irving Wallace, Boone also starred in over 45 films, including three with John Wayne, two of which were "The Alamo" and "The Shootist".

Boone, county seat of Boone County, is the birthplace of Mamie Doud, wife of Dwight D. Eisenhower. Boone's summer offering is Pufferbilly Days, which celebrates the city's railroad heritage. Coal mining was important in the area before the town was established in 1865, and commercial mining was instituted after the arrival of the railroad in 1867.

Answer: Irwin

Known as "the Crocodile Hunter", Steve Irwin was a naturalist and zoologist who promoted conservation and preservation of endangered species in his TV shows.

The 2010 population of Irwin was only 341. It was established in 1881 on land belonging to F.W. Irwin. Combined with Kirkman and Manilla, the I-K-M Hawks won the Class A State Football Championship with a 33-13 win over Wapsie Valley. In 2008-9, IKM joined with Manning to become IKM-Manning.

Answer: Baxter

Anne Baxter won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress as Sophie MacDonald in "The Razor's Edge" and was nominated for Best Actress in her role as Eve in "All About Eve".

Baxter, Iowa had a population of 1,101 in the 2010 census. About seven miles west of Baxter, the Des Moines Astronomical Society operates the Ashton Observatory in Ashton-Wildwood County Park. Miles and Maquoketa are in Jackson County, while Granger is actually located partially in Dallas County and partially in Polk County.

Answer: Manson

"Helter Skelter" is a term intricately linked to the Tate-LaBianca Murders perpetrated by Charles Manson and his followers in 1969. Today the term can refer to a Beatles song quoted by Manson, as well as several books and films relating to the murders and Manson.

The city of Manson is closely linked to two meteorological events: the Manson Impact Crater which resulted from a meteorite event 74 million years ago and an F4 tornado which devastated parts of downtown Manson and surrounding areas in 1979. The middle school, 110 homes, and 25 of the town's 35 businesses were completely destroyed and another 139 homes were damaged.

Answer: Davenport

Lindsay Davenport won the Gold Medal in Women's Tennis Singles in Atlanta in 1996. She also won the Women's Singles titles in the 1998 US Open, 1999 Wimbledon Championships, and 2000 Australian Open.

Davenport is the largest of the Quad Cities and the county seat of Scott County. It is Iowa's third largest city (and the largest on this quiz) and is home to the Bix Beiderbecke Memorial Jazz Festival.

Answer: Preston

Robert Preston, who played Harold Hill in both the 1957 Broadway production of "The Music Man" and the 1962 film version, was born Robert Preston Meservey. And, yes, there is a Meservey in Iowa, located in Cerro Gordo County, which is where Mason City is located. Now there's a double coincidence, eh?

Preston, Iowa had a population of 1,012 in 2012. It is the hometown of Fred Schule, winner of the hurdles in the 1904 Olympics, as well as Al Feuerbach, who competed in the shot put in the 1972 and 1976 Olympics.

Answer: Roland and Gilbert

Gilbert Roland received Golden Globe nominations for his roles in "The Bad and the Beautiful" (1952) and "Cheyenne Autumn" (1964). Roland was born Luis Antonio Damaso de Alonso in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico in 1905. In the mid-1940s, Roland also played the Cisco Kid in a half dozen films.

Roland had a 2010 population of 1,284, while Gilbert's population was 1,082 at that time. For Iowans, Roland's best-known product was Gary Thompson, known as "the Roland Rocket", who played basketball at Iowa State, earning All America honors and being named Conference Player of Year as a senior, ahead of Kansas' Wilt Chamberlain.

Answer: Palmer

Jim Palmer is a Hall of Fame pitcher who played his entire 20-year career with the Orioles. He joined the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1990, being named on over 92% of the votes cast. Arnold Palmer, whose followers on golf courses during tournaments became known as Arnie's Army, was ranked as "Golf Digest's" sixth greatest golfer of all time.

Like many small Iowa towns, Palmer's origin began with the railroad, as the settlement began with the building of the Rock Island Line in the area back in 1899. In the 1980s, as one of Iowa's smallest high schools, Palmer's boys basketball team won a state record 103 straight games, including state championships in '86, '87, and '88.

Answer: Vinton

Bobby Vinton's 1963 cover of "Blue Velvet" hit number one on the charts, although it was originally a hit for Tony Bennett in 1951, reaching as high as number 16. By the way, there is also a Bennett, Iowa located in Cedar County. Other similar Vinton hits were "Mr. Lonely" and "Blue on Blue".

The city of Vinton (2010 pop. 5,257) is the home of the Iowa Braille and Sight Saving School, where Mary Ingalls, sister of Laura Ingalls Wilder, was a student around 1880 when it was called the Iowa College for the Blind. Vinton is also the county seat of Benton County.