Cities With Tree Names Trivia Quiz

Answer: Oak Ridge

Oak Ridge, located 25 miles from Knoxville, was built in 1942 to provide a secret place to develop an atomic bomb as part of the Manhattan Project. It has many nicknames including "Science City USA", "The Secret City", "The Atomic City" and "The City Behind the Fence".

The project forced many families who lived within the 60,000 acres acquired to move from their homes with no explanation. After the war the city came under civilian control and is now a part of the Knoxville Metropolitan Area.

Answer: Iowa

With its named derived from the Ioway Native-American tribe, Iowa became the 29th state in the USA when it was admitted to the union in 1846. In most years Iowa leads the nation in corn production. Madison County is known for its historic covered bridges made famous by Robert James Waller's novel "The Bridges of Madison County" (1992) and the movie of the same name (1995) starring Clint Eastwood and Meryl Streep. "The Field of Dreams" was a baseball movie filmed in Iowa in 1989 starring Kevin Costner. The baseball field which was built in a cornfield is a famous tourist attraction.
The Cedar River runs from Minnesota into the Mississippi River in Iowa. Cedar Falls is the home of the University of Northern Iowa. Its location along the river made it an important industrial center for Eastern Iowa. In 1863, the Civil War Soldier's Orphan Home was built. That institution spawned the university that has made the city an educational center for the region.

Cedar Rapids is the second largest city in Iowa behind Des Moines. Located about sixty miles south of Cedar Falls, it is a city known for its diverse population. According to PBS, "More people of Czech ancestry live in Cedar Rapids than in any other city in the world, outside of the Czech capital, Prague." Also, it has one of the oldest mosques in America. The Mother Mosque of America was built in 1934.

Answer: Donald Trump

Mar-a-Lago is Spanish for "sea to lake" reflecting the fact that the estate's property connects the Atlantic Ocean to the Lake Worth Lagoon, extending from one side of Palm Beach Island to the other. The estate was built in 1927 by Marjorie Post, the heiress to the General Foods Corporation and her husband, financier E.F. Hutton.

After years of diverse use, the estate was declared a National Historical Site in 1969. At her death in 1973, Post gave the estate to the US Government. However, costs of maintaining the estate and lack of use forced the government to return the property to the family eight years later.

In 1985 real estate magnate Donald Trump bought Mar-a-Lago. He restored the property and turned it into a club for the wealthy and a part-time private residence. After becoming President in 2017 he dubbed his Florida property as the new "Winter White House". When he returned to the presidency in 2025, he used the estate as his headquarters to prepare for his second term. He was the 45th and 47th President being the second man to serve two non-consecutive terms.

Although palms are referred to as trees, technically and biologically speaking, they are not. Unlike trees, palms do not have bark and do not grow in diameter as they age. However, because most people consider palms trees, this question was included in this quiz.

Answer: Charles II

Royal Oak, Michigan is located north of Detroit. In 1819 Lewis Cass, who served as the territorial governor of Michigan, a US Senator, Andrew Jackson's Secretary of War, and James Buchanan's Secretary of State, saw a large oak tree in the area where the settlement was to be located and named it Royal Oak.

It was named after a famous tree located in Boscobel near the Welsh border, that Charles II hid in while escaping William Cromwell's army after the Battle of Worcester. The conflict, which was a part of a series of wars to determine control of the region, led to the death of King Charles I and the decade long dissolution of the monarchy and the establishment of the Commonwealth of England. Cromwell's death led to the eventual collapse of the Commonwealth in 1660, and Charles II became king, restoring the monarchy. The king loved to tell how the oak tree aided him in his escape and for almost 200 years the day was set aside as a holiday commemorating the restoration of the Stuart Dynasty.

Royal Oak, Michigan is a city of over 50,000 people and is home to the Detroit Zoo.

Answer: East

Oakland is located in the East Region of the San Francisco Bay area. It is home to the largest port in Northern California. Oakland has the infamous distinction of losing professional teams from the three major US sports. The National Football League's Oakland Raiders, Major League Baseball's Oakland Athletics and basketball's Golden State Warriors all moved from Oakland within a five-year time frame in the early 2020s.

The exodus left the city without a major league professional sports team for the first time since 1959.

Answer: Myrtle Beach

Myrtle Beach is one of America's most famous beach towns. The Grand Strand refers to a narrow-raised strip of beach that runs 60 miles along the Atlantic Coast.

Myrtle Beach was a railroad hub, called New Town. It was established to transport timber inland in the late 1800s. One of the timber company's owners, Frank Burroughs, wanted to make New Town a tourist area and built a hotel on the coast in 1901. Around that same time a contest was held to rename the growing settlement, and Burrough's wife suggested naming the town after the bayberry tree, also called the southern wax myrtle tree. It was decided to call the area Myrtle Beach. The small tree was once used to make bayberry scented candles by boiling down the berries and using the extract to make the candles.

Answer: Silicon Valley

Redwood City is the county seat of California's San Mateo County. It is located between San Francisco and San Jose. Incorporated in 1867, the town got its name because of the lumber industry. Redwood trees that were harvested around the region were transported to Redwood City where the lumber was loaded and shipped from the town's deepwater harbor.

Silicon Valley was first used to describe the region around 1970. The region became world famous for its entrepreneurship in technology. The presence of prestigious schools like Stanford University is a contributing factor to the area's success. The name comes from the chemical element that is used to make computer chips. Companies like Google, Intel and Netflix have a presence there. Redwood City is considered to be the heart of Silicon Valley.

Answer: Adelaide

Adelaide is the capital city located near Tea Tree Gully. Tea Tree Gully was named because of the abundance of Wooly Teatrees that were present in a nearby fertile valley. The plants' leaves were used as a tea substitute for early settlers. The area was established around 1858. Located northeast of Adelaide, the city of over 100,000 residents is known for its hiking trails and spas.

Answer: Aspen Colorado

Denver and songwriter Mike Taylor's song "Rocky Mountain High" was released in 1972. In his autobiography, Denver says inspiration for the song came after viewing a meteor shower near Aspen. He had moved to Aspen a few years earlier and was captivated by the area's beauty.

Aspen is a world renowned ski resort town known for its beauty, expensive real estate and as a haven for celebrities. It was founded in 1879 as a silver mining town. In 1893 an economic downturn devastated the town's economy, and Aspen remained a sleepy mountain town until the first ski resort was built in the 1950s. Today the city is known as one of the best areas for skiing in the world.

Originally named Ute City, the name was changed to Aspen because of the large number of aspen trees in the area.

Answer: Sir Walter Scott

The town is commonly called Ashby, whose etymological roots come from a Danish- Anglo word meaning "a settlement surrounded by ash trees". The name was extended to Ashby-de-la-Zouche when the La Zouche family gained possession of the town after the Norman conquest of England. The family lived in a manor house that was turned into a fortified castle after the property was granted to William, Lord Hastings in 1462. After his death the property remained in the family where the castle had a turbulent history.

In Scott's 1819 novel, "Ivanhoe", the castle was the setting for a tournament scene. Because of the popularity of the book, the ruins of Ashby Castle became a tourist attraction. Presently, the castle is under the management and protection of English Heritage and is recognized as an important historical and archaeological site.