WAMC's Ian Pickus and resident quizzer Mike Nothnagel head into the wilderness for this week's show.
Last week's challenge
Start with the name COPERNICUS. Change one letter to an O (not that one that's already there, as usual), and you can rearrange the result to spell an adjective that might have described Copernicus as a young boy. What is the word?
Answer: If you change the N to an O, you can spell PRECOCIOUS.
THIS WEEK'S CATEGORY: NATIONAL PARKS
On-air questions: On February 26, 1919, President Woodrow Wilson signed an act of Congress that established Grand Canyon National Park. The original bill to designate it a National Park was introduced by then-Senator Benjamin Harrison in 1882; that and multiple subsequent bills were defeated, so instead of it becoming the second National Park, it became the fifteenth. The 1.2-million-plus national park was named a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1979. To commemorate President Wilson’s act, this week our quiz is about national parks.
1. Officially the first piece of land set aside by the federal government as a recreational area – even before the concept of a national park existed – Hot Springs National Park is also the smallest national park by area (just over 5500 square miles). It is located near its namesake town in what U.S. state?
2. Seven of the 10 largest national parks – including the four largest – are located in what state, which is home to Gates of the Arctic National Park, Glacier Bay National Park, and Denali National Park?
3. The only U.S. National Park named for a president is located in the badlands of South Dakota, in an area where he first went on a hunting trip in 1883, and later purchased two ranches, experiences which informed his conservationist policies during his term as president from 1901 to 1909. Which president is it?
4. Joshua Tree National Park, located in southern California, was named for a tree native to the southwestern U.S., and which is prevalent in the park. Contrary to popular belief, what rock band did not shoot the cover photos for their 1987 album The Joshua Tree in the park, but rather some 200 miles away?
5. The most visited national park in the U.S. – with more than twice as many visitors as the Grand Canyon in 2014 – is Great Smoky Mountains National Park. The 75th anniversary ceremony in 2009 featured a performance from what country singer, whose theme park is just north of the park in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee?
Extra credit
1. Three national parks have the word "cave" or "cavern" in their name. Two are Wind Cave National Park in South Dakota and Mammoth Cave National Park, located in Kentucky. What New Mexico national park is the third?
2. Located just off the coast of Maine, what national park is the oldest one east of the Mississippi River and contains the tallest mountain on the Atlantic Coast of the United States?
This week's challenge
Start with the phrase NATIONAL PARK. Rearrange the letters and you can spell the names (4 and 8) of two foods often used in Southern cooking. What are they?
ANSWERS
On-air questions
1. Arkansas
2. Alaska
3. Theodore Roosevelt
4. U2
5. Dolly Parton
Extra credit
1. Carlsbad Caverns National Park
2. Acadia National Park
