Great Smokies Trivia Quiz

The following is a semi-challenging list of Smoky Mountain trivia questions. Actually, people intimately familiar with the Smokies will probably find most of these questions to be fairly easy. However, there are a couple questions that may trip up even some of the most knowledgeable Smoky Mountain history buffs. Answers will be posted on this blog tomorrow. If you can’t wait until tomorrow, or if you’re looking for some clues, my web site, HikingintheSmokys.com, will provide answers for several of these questions – if you know where to look.

1. What name did the Cherokee Indians give to the Smoky Mountains?
a) “Place of Blue Smoke”
b) “Land of the Green Hills”
c) “Misty Mountains”

2. Roughly how many people visit the Smoky Mountains each year?
a) 5 million
b) 9 million
c) 13 million

3. High elevation balds such as Gregory Bald and Spence Field were used by early settlers for:
a) Grazing cattle
b) Hunting bears
c) Growing blueberries

4. In what year was Great Smoky Mountains National Park established?
a) 1934
b) 1940
c) 1927

5. Roughly how many species of living organisms are there in Great Smoky Mountains National Park?
a) 25,000
b) 75,000
c) 100,000

6. What is the most visited area of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park?
a) Cades Cove
b) Clingmans Dome
c) Newfound Gap

7. Which U.S. president dedicated the Great Smoky Mountains National Park in 1940?
a) Herbert Hoover
b) Franklin D. Roosevelt
c) Harry Truman

8. Based on last count, roughly how many black bears live inside the Park?
a) 1200
b) 1800
c) 2100

9. What was Gatlinburg’s original name?
a) Sugarlands
b) Oakley
c) White Oak Flats

10. What is the nickname for Lakeview Drive, the 6-mile scenic drive that ends at the mouth of a tunnel near Fontana Lake called?
a) Road to Nowhere
b) Dead-End Tunnel Road
c) The Big Dig South

11. Roughly how many miles of hiking trails lie within the Great Smoky Mountains National Park?
a) 500
b) 650
c) 850

12. The Park’s high elevation heath balds are treeless expanses where dense thickets of shrubs such as mountain laurel, rhododendron, and sand myrtle grow. Which one of these terms was not used by early settlers to describe these balds:
a) laurel slicks
b) gaps
c) hells

13. How many different species of flowering plants grow in the Smokies?
a) 300
b) 800
c) 1600

14. Which mountain in the Smokies did the Appalachian Trail originally traverse before the trail was re-routed?
a) Gregory Bald
b) Mt. LeConte
c) Mt. Sterling

15. Fodderstack is the original name for which famous point in the Smokies?
a) Charlies Bunion
b) Chimney Tops
c) Mt. Cammerer


Jeff
HikingintheSmokys.com Detailed information on trails in the Smoky Mountains; includes trail descriptions, key features, pictures, video, maps, elevation profiles, news, and more.

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