While past quizzes have focused on specific genre involving the National Park System, this is a more wide-open, undefined quiz of national park trivia. Answers are at the end.

1. True or False: Acadia National Park was the first "national park" established east of the Mississippi.

2. There are more masons employed by the National Park Service than
A. fisheries biologists
B. geologists
C. botanists
D. all of the above

3. True or False: Blue Ridge Parkway, a testament to landscape architecture, currently doesn't have enough money to employ a landscape architect.

4. Units of the National Park System that are deemed "national battlefield sites" failed to gain the more illustrious status of "national military park" because they
A. were too small in area
B. involved only minor Civil War skirmishes
C. were designated before the title "military park" came into use
D. are located South of the Mason-Dixon Line

5. The Green River runs through how many units of the National Park System?
A. one
B. two
C. three
D. four

6. True or False: Mammoth Cave is located in Utah.

7. Which is deeper, Kings Canyon in Kings Canyon National Park or the Grand Canyon in Grand Canyon National Park?

8. The first automobile permit for a national park was issued at
A. Mount Rainier National Park
B. Sequoia National Park
C. Yellowstone National Park
D. Yosemite National Park

9. An early superintendent at Yosemite National Park, in response to a woman dying from a rattlesnake bite in the park, considered using which of the following to beat down the rattlesnake population?
A. rangers
B. pigs
C. mongooses
D. short-eared owls

10. Long before Camp David became known as a mountain retreat for presidents, there was Camp Rapidan, a getaway built for President Hoover in 1929 and later added to Shenandoah National Park. Camp Rapidan was the setting of more than a few high-profile meetings. Which of the following DID NOT occur at this camp?
A. The president considered the use of Girl Scouts to help the country recover from the 1929 stock market crash.
B. President Hoover offered to buy Bermuda, Trinidad, and British Honduras to help England pay off its World War I debt.
C. A young boy presented President Hoover with an opossum for his birthday.
D. President Hoover personally designed many of the camp's cabins and layout.

Bonus Round:

11. The family crest of Confederate General Robert E. Lee's family bears the image of a ____. Lee is memorialized in the National Park System at Arlington House, which was his home for 30 years and now is a national memorial that is part of George Washington Memorial Parkway.
A. squirrel
B. fox
C. eagle
D. horse

Answers:

(1) False. Of course, some may quibble, but the first "national park" east of the Mississippi was Lafayette National Park, the precursor to Acadia, which was set aside on Feb. 26, 1919. It was renamed "Acadia" on Jan. 19, 1929. If you got this right, give yourself an added pat on the back if you knew that Lafayette National Park started out as Sieur de Monts National Monument, which was established July 8, 1916.

(2) D -- All of the above, as long as you take each separately. According to the National Park Service's Director's Report, 2007, there are 112 masons employed by the NPS versus 31 fisheries biologists, 42 botanists, and 46 geologists.

(3) True. None of the 173 landscape architects employed by the National Park Service is employed at Blue Ridge Parkway.

(4) A -- According to Dr. Harry A. Butowsky, a National Park Service historian, these battlefield sites were considered too small to be designated National Military Park.

(5) D -- The Green River of the West flows through Dinosaur National Monument, a sliver of Glen Canyon National Recreation Area, and Canyonlands National Park, while the Mid-Atlantic states' Green River flows through Mammoth Cave National Park.

(6) Quite true. Not Mammoth Cave National Park, but rather a collection of lava tubes known as Mammoth Cave that can be found in the Dixie National Forest just east of Cedar Breaks National Monument.

(7) Kings Canyon, according to the Guiness Book of World Records, has a maximum depth of 8,200 feet, while the Grand Canyon is just about 5,200 feet deep at its deepest point.

(8) A -- The first automobile permit for a national park was sold at Mount Rainier National Park on July 24, 1908. It cost $5 and was good for a year.

(9) B -- According to Death, Daring and Disaster, after a woman died from a rattlesnake bite on July 12, 1931, the park's superintendent briefly considered using wild hogs to eliminate the snakes.

(10) D -- Mrs. Hoover actually played a key role in deciding how the cabins should be designed.

(11) A -- The family crest of Confederate General Robert E. Lee depicts a squirrel with an acorn.