Catch the Cities Trivia Quiz

Answer: California

The main reason I'm mentioning Bakersfield in this quiz is because I'm a fan of Korn, and they're probably the most famous non-country band to have come from there, Bakersfield having spawned the more honky-tonk influenced 'Bakersfield Sound'. In the local music museum, they had various local country singers...and Korn right at the end. Fittingly, Bakersfield is in Kern County.

Music aside, Bakersfield became a city during the California Gold Rush, and later attracted oil companies, with Kern County being one of the biggest producers of oil in the US. It is also part of the San Joaquin Valley, a major agricultural area of California known for its grape and nut production.

Answer: California

With its cable cars, Alcatraz Island lying off the coast and Chinatown, San Francisco is one of the most famous cities in California. (My main memory of it was the weather being very windy, buying a Sleater-Kinney album in Borders and riding in a cable car.)

It has been immortalised in song by musicians from the Bee Gees and Scott McKenzie to the Beautiful South and the Arctic Monkeys, and became famous in the '60s for its hippy culture, particularly in the Haight-Ashbury neighbourhood. Its Chinatown is also considered to be the birthplace of Chinese-American cuisine. If you go down to the seafront, you might see the local California sea lion population.

Answer: California

Connected to Los Angeles (which we visited, the highlight being Universal Studios) by Highway 101, the lovely city of Santa Barbara lies on the Pacific coastline and is nicknamed the 'American Riviera' because of its beaches and pleasant climates. It was originally settled by Spanish missionaries and you can still see the Spanish influence today in the city's white architecture and places such as the Mission Santa Barbara. Nearby lie the Santa Ynez Mountains. From 1984 to 1993, a soap opera named after and filmed in the city ran on NBC.

Answer: Nevada

Reno is Nevada's third most populous city and home of its oldest university, the University of Nevada, Reno. In the early 20th century, it became popular with people moving there to get a divorce, due to its relatively liberal divorce laws; like Las Vegas, it is popular with gamblers, while hikers like it because of its proximity to the Sierra Nevada, and geologists because of its rich supply of gems and minerals.

Several films have been shot there, including 'Magnolia', 'Sister Act', 'The Misfits' and the original 'Ocean's Eleven'; Johnny Cash also sang about shooting a man there just to watch him die in 'Folsom Prison Blues'.

Answer: Nevada

For Brits, imagine Blackpool on steroids, with desert instead of seaside, and you have Las Vegas aka Sin City, Nevada's most populous and most famous city, beloved by gamblers, shoppers and fans of the various pop stars with residencies along the Strip. (The Strip itself is not much fun for children, as many restaurants there were based in casinos and wouldn't let us in due to my brother and I both being underage at the time.) It isn't all casinos, however; it's also home to multiple museums and gardens, and lies in the Mojave Desert, with the Red Rock County Conservation Area nearby.

Answer: Nevada

Carson City, named for the mountain man Kit Carson, is the capital of Nevada, although it's overshadowed in popularity by the other Nevada cities in this quiz. On the discovery of the Comstock Lode, a silver lode under Mount Davidson, prospectors flocked to the area and the little stopover town grew into a city.

It is home to the Lake Tahoe-Nevada State Park, which features a mixture of beaches and hiking trails and hosts the Lake Tahoe Shakespeare Festival; Lake Tahoe is also popular with skiers.

Answer: Utah

Founded by a group of Mormon settlers led by Brigham Young, Salt Lake City is the capital of Utah. It gets its name from the Great Salt Lake, one of the world's largest saltwater lakes and the American equivalent of the Dead Sea, although droughts have caused its level to drop in recent years. The nearby Wasatch Mountains are popular with skiers in winter and hikers in summer; Salt Lake City even hosted the Winter Olympics in 2002. Basketball fans will know that it is the home city of Utah Jazz.

(As an aside, when my dad went to the US on business, he brought back multiple souvenirs for my mum, my brother and me, and one of them was a little ball of salt from Salt Lake City.)

Answer: Utah

Originally known as Battle Creek, Pleasant Grove was established by Mormon settlers in 1850. It is known for both its trees - its nickname is the City of Trees - and its strawberry cultivation; it even has its own festival dedicated to strawberries, Strawberry Days, which was set up in response to Brigham City's Peach Days. Fans of Stephen King might know that parts of the TV series version of 'The Stand' were filmed in Pleasant Grove.

The Christa McAuliffe Space Centre is a local museum about space aimed at children, named after the teacher who died in the Challenger disaster.

Answer: Utah

As you'd expect from a state with the US's biggest Mormon population, Lehi is named after a prophet from the Book of Mormon. It is Utah's centre of population and was originally settled by Mormon pioneers; it was previously known as Evansville after David Evans, a Mormon bishop, and had its name changed to Lehi in 1852.

It is part of the Silicon Slopes technology community (while California is known for its valleys, Utah is more mountainous). It is home to Lehi Roller Mills, a co-operatively run flour mill, and Thanksgiving Point, a natural history museum and garden complex.

Answer: Arizona

Tucson is Arizona's second most populous city, the capital of the Arizona Territory before it was overtaken by Phoenix, and home to the University of Arizona. Along with the metropolitan areas of Phoenix, Prescott, Sierra Vista-Douglas and Nogales on the Mexican border, it is part of the ever-expanding Sun Corridor area.

It is also surrounded by the Sonoran Desert, making it popular with hikers, while holidaymakers known as 'snowbirds' flock to Tucson in the winter because of its relatively mild climate. From January to February, it is home to the Tucson Gem and Mineral Show, displaying shiny rocks from all over the world.

Answer: Arizona

Flagstaff is in Coconino County, which also houses part of the Grand Canyon National Park. (Like any British tourist who visits Arizona, my family and I went to the Grand Canyon and it really is a marvel of nature - I had never seen anything like it before).

It is also close to a forest of ponderosa pines - local legend says that the city got its name from a flag being raised on a ponderosa - and Mount Elden/Hovi'itstuyqa, one of the many dormant volcanoes of the San Francisco Volcanic Field. The Arizona Snowbowl ski resort lies nearby, and has faced protests from both environmentalists and local Native American tribes, for whom the San Francisco Peaks are sacred ground.

Answer: Arizona

Immortalised in song by Glen Campbell, Phoenix is the capital of Arizona and was a major agricultural centre, thanks to its proximity to the Arizona Canal. Its economy was based on the 'five Cs': copper, cotton, capital, citrus and climate (a hot one!) Phoenix was originally part of Mexico before Arizona joined the United States following the Mexican-American War, and now lies close to the Mexican border.

It is home to a wide variety of animals and plants, including the saguaro cactus and a population of feral rosy-faced lovebirds.

Another species often spotted there is the golfer; Phoenix is home to over 200 golf courses.