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Quiz about Coincidental Iowa Town Names
Quiz about Coincidental Iowa Town Names

Coincidental Iowa Town Names Trivia Quiz


Can you name these Iowa towns or cities that coincidentally share their names with well-known people? Have fun!

A multiple-choice quiz by shvdotr. Estimated time: 5 mins.
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Author
shvdotr
Time
5 mins
Type
Multiple Choice
Quiz #
367,828
Updated
Dec 03 21
# Qns
15
Difficulty
Average
Avg Score
11 / 15
Plays
436
Awards
Top 20% Quiz
Last 3 plays: Guest 104 (7/15), Guest 97 (7/15), Guest 217 (14/15).
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Question 1 of 15
1. This cyclonic Iowa college town is coincidentally linked with TV's Daniel Boone and the 1967 hit "When the Snow Is on the Roses". Which city is it? Hint


Question 2 of 15
2. This small central Iowa town may have seemed like a brave, new world in 1902 when it was founded. Now part of "Iowa Metropolitan Statistical Area", according to Wikipedia, can you identify it by name and its coincidental association with a dystopian novel published in 1932? Hint


Question 3 of 15
3. Which Plymouth County town located on the edge of the Loess Hills in western Iowa is coincidentally linked to Mahatma Gandhi and Krishna Pandit Bhanji? Hint


Question 4 of 15
4. Which Carroll County community in west central Iowa is coincidentally linked with Super Bowls XLI, XLII, and XLVI? Hint


Question 5 of 15
5. Moving into northeastern Iowa, what Bremer County town is coincidentally linked with "Gilligan's Island"? Hint


Question 6 of 15
6. What Dallas County, Iowa town, located on the Raccoon River Valley Trail, is coincidentally linked to a Hall-of-Fame spitballer and a song called "I Kissed a Girl"? Hint


Question 7 of 15
7. Which of Iowa's 99 county seats, home of the Iowa High School Athletic Association, is coincidentally linked with a chess piece on a business card which reads, "Have Gun -- Will Travel"? Hint


Question 8 of 15
8. Crikey! Incorporated in 1892, which Shelby County town in western Iowa is coincidentally linked with hunting crocodiles, but also with conserving the environment and protecting endangered animal species? Hint


Question 9 of 15
9. Which town in Iowa's Jasper County is coincidentally linked to such films as "All About Eve" and "The Razor's Edge"? Hint


Question 10 of 15
10. Which Iowa city in Calhoun County is coincidentally linked to "Helter Skelter"? Hint


Question 11 of 15
11. Which Iowa member of the Quad Cities is coincidentally linked to a tennis gold medal in the Games of the XXVI Olympiad in Atlanta, Georgia, USA? Hint


Question 12 of 15
12. Since Meredith Willson was born in Mason City, Iowa, it is NOT a coincidence that his musical "The Music Man" takes place in a town patterned after his hometown. However, there is a small Jackson County town that IS coincidentally linked to the musical. Can you name it? Hint


Question 13 of 15
13. Now this is too good to be true... What TWO towns in Iowa's Story County are coincidentally linked to Golden Globe nominations from "The Bad and the Beautiful" and "Cheyenne Autumn"? Hint


Question 14 of 15
14. Which Pocahontas County hamlet in northwest Iowa is coincidentally linked to three Baltimore Oriole World Championships as well as 62 PGA tour wins, including seven majors? Hint


Question 15 of 15
15. "Blue Velvet" and "Mr. Lonely" are coincidentally linked to what city in Benton County, Iowa? Hint



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Today : Guest 104: 7/15
Today : Guest 97: 7/15
Aug 26 2024 : Guest 217: 14/15

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quiz
Quiz Answer Key and Fun Facts
1. This cyclonic Iowa college town is coincidentally linked with TV's Daniel Boone and the 1967 hit "When the Snow Is on the Roses". Which city is it?

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.
2. This small central Iowa town may have seemed like a brave, new world in 1902 when it was founded. Now part of "Iowa Metropolitan Statistical Area", according to Wikipedia, can you identify it by name and its coincidental association with a dystopian novel published in 1932?

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".
3. Which Plymouth County town located on the edge of the Loess Hills in western Iowa is coincidentally linked to Mahatma Gandhi and Krishna Pandit Bhanji?

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).
4. Which Carroll County community in west central Iowa is coincidentally linked with Super Bowls XLI, XLII, and XLVI?

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.
5. Moving into northeastern Iowa, what Bremer County town is coincidentally linked with "Gilligan's Island"?

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.
6. What Dallas County, Iowa town, located on the Raccoon River Valley Trail, is coincidentally linked to a Hall-of-Fame spitballer and a song called "I Kissed a Girl"?

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.
7. Which of Iowa's 99 county seats, home of the Iowa High School Athletic Association, is coincidentally linked with a chess piece on a business card which reads, "Have Gun -- Will Travel"?

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.
8. Crikey! Incorporated in 1892, which Shelby County town in western Iowa is coincidentally linked with hunting crocodiles, but also with conserving the environment and protecting endangered animal species?

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.
9. Which town in Iowa's Jasper County is coincidentally linked to such films as "All About Eve" and "The Razor's Edge"?

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.
10. Which Iowa city in Calhoun County is coincidentally linked to "Helter Skelter"?

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.
11. Which Iowa member of the Quad Cities is coincidentally linked to a tennis gold medal in the Games of the XXVI Olympiad in Atlanta, Georgia, USA?

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.
12. Since Meredith Willson was born in Mason City, Iowa, it is NOT a coincidence that his musical "The Music Man" takes place in a town patterned after his hometown. However, there is a small Jackson County town that IS coincidentally linked to the musical. Can you name it?

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.
13. Now this is too good to be true... What TWO towns in Iowa's Story County are coincidentally linked to Golden Globe nominations from "The Bad and the Beautiful" and "Cheyenne Autumn"?

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.
14. Which Pocahontas County hamlet in northwest Iowa is coincidentally linked to three Baltimore Oriole World Championships as well as 62 PGA tour wins, including seven majors?

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.
15. "Blue Velvet" and "Mr. Lonely" are coincidentally linked to what city in Benton County, Iowa?

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.
Source: Author shvdotr

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