Ohio River Trivia Player?

Let's see how you score

Hello friends,

I have been told I have a “trap mind” because it traps and holds onto random facts and scenes. For example, I remember the leopard-printed socks that my friend Carola bought 34 years ago when our oldest children were in their strollers. Obviously, my trap mind is unpredictable and undiscriminating, but it occasionally serves me well—for example, trivia nights and marital arguments disagreements discussions.

How about you? Would you love some Ohio River trivia to whip out at your next office lunch or PTA fundraiser? Look no further. I’ve got you covered.

I asked the Substack AI to generate an image for “questions” and got this

Here’s a quiz about the six states that border the Ohio River. ANSWERS IN THE FOOTNOTES, so don’t click them until you’ve finalized your answers.

QUESTIONS

1. Easy first question: name the six states that border the Ohio River.¹

2. After Alaska, which Ohio River border state has more navigable miles of water than any other in the union?²

3. Blennerhassett Island sits between Ohio and West Virginia. Which former Vice President of the United States used it to stage a conspiracy for taking over the Texas Territories and the Louisiana Territory?³

4. Name the only U.S. state with a continuous border of rivers running along three of its sides.⁴

5. Before the Civil War, which river city was known as “The Northernmost Southern City”?⁵

6. Before the American Revolution, which two states fought over the ownership of Pittsburgh?⁶

7. Faithful newsletter readers will know this one: which two states fought over a large boulder in the Ohio River known as “Indian Rock” or “Indian Head Rock”?⁷

8. What famous man was born in a small cabin on Sinking Spring Farm near Hodgenville, Kentucky in February 1809?⁸

9. Name the four rivers that join within 40 miles of Paducah, Kentucky.⁹

10. Southern Illinois has been called Little Egypt for two reasons. Name one of them.¹⁰

Quiz Intermission Message

I hate taking a quiz when the answers are printed too close to the questions and spoil the fun of figuring them out. That’s why I’m taking this space to invite you to hear me speak about the racial history of the Ohio River Valley region this December:

Meet me in Kentucky?

For longtime readers of my newsletter, yes, Hindman is indeed where I lost my new motorcycle to the thousand-year flood in 2022.

Alright, please comment with your favorite bits of Ohio River trivia and I’ll include it in the next round.

ANSWERS

1. Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Ohio, Kentucky, Indiana, Illinois

2. Shockingly, it’s Kentucky.

3. Aaron Burr. This is a doozy, and too long for a footnote, so check it out.

4. If you got #2 this one is easy. Kentucky is bordered on the north by the Ohio River, to the west by the Mississippi River, and to the east by the Big Sandy River and its Tug Fork.

5. Wheeling, West Virginia. BONUS if you remember that Wheeling was Virginia until that state joined the Confederacy.

6. Pennsylvania and Virginia, known as Lord Dunmore’s War. This ties into my recent newsletter about Tecumseh too. In early 1774 the Virginia militia seized Fort Pitt and renamed it Fort Dunmore for their royal governor. The Moravian-influenced Delaware Indians remained peaceful, but the inflamed Shawnee sprang to the defense of their homelands. The major confrontation occurred October 10 at the Battle of Point Pleasant, in which the Shawnee under Chief Cornstalk (Tecumseh’s mentor) were decisively defeated. To protect their families from attack, Shawnee chiefs quickly agreed in the Treaty of Camp Charlotte to relinquish their hunting grounds to the white settlers.

7. Ohio and Kentucky. Here’s the VERY INTERESTING scoop, which is part of a bigger question: who owns the Ohio River?

8. C’mon. You know it’s Abe Lincoln!

9. Paducah is part of the Four Rivers Region because the Ohio, Mississippi, Tennessee and Cumberland join nearby.

10. The first reason is the most common: the rich soil there and frequent inundations from the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers resembled the Egyptian Delta (River Nile). The second is more obscure, namely, the perceived similarity in shape between the Ohio River mounds built by the Native Americans this area and the ancient pyramids of Egypt. I need to write about the mounds dotting the landscape around the Ohio River soon.