Nine of the following ten statements are true. Can you tell which one is false? Try the extra credit question too.

1. True or false? The first concrete-paved highway in America that was assigned a route number is in a national park.

2. True or false? The longest undammed river in the contiguous 48 states flows through a national park.

3. True or false? At Eisenhower National Historic Site, the President’s Farm leaseholder can raise any kind of cattle he wants as long as it is black Angus beef cattle.

4. True or false? The world's most complete pygmy mammoth skeleton was discovered in
California's Channel Islands National Park.

5. True or false? A submarine once spent the night inside historic Fort Jefferson at Dry Tortugas National Park.

6. True or False? A hotel in Golden Gate National Recreation Area was the first national park lodge to receive LEED certification by the U.S. Green Building Council.

7. True or false? The National Park System has several National Park-designated units in the Lower 48 that are administered by other national parks.

8. True or false? Several Everglades National Park employees have the job title “Geographer.”

9. True or false? The American flag is flown 24 hours a day at multiple locations in the National Park System.

10. True or false? There are more than 100 natural arches in Big South Fork National River and Recreation Area.

Extra Credit Question:

11. True or false? One wading bird species that breeds in Alaska's Gates of the Arctic National Park can remain airborne for more than a week at a time.

Answers:

(1) False. In 1891, a small section of Main Street near the courthouse in Bellefontaine, Ohio, became the first concrete-paved street in America. In 1909, Woodward Avenue in Detroit, Michigan, became the world's first concrete-paved road to be assigned a route number when the mile-long section between Six Mile and Seven Mile was paved with concrete. It is designated M-1 (Michigan Hwy 1) because of that distinction.

(2) True. The longest undammed river in the coterminous states is the nearly 700 mile-long Yellowstone River, which originates in the Absaroka Range and flows through Yellowstone National Park (feeding and draining Yellowstone Lake) en route to its confluence with the Missouri River.

(3) True. The leaseholder, a local farmer, operates the President’s Farm under terms of a lease requiring him to employ sound management practices (strip farming, rotation, and contour plowing) and to graze black Angus cattle just as President Eisenhower did.

(4) True. At one time during the Pleistocene, mammoths that were only four to six feet tall roamed the grasslands and forests of the Channel Islands. In 1994, scientists conducting research on Santa Rosa Island in Channel Islands National Park dug up a nearly complete skeleton of one of these pygmy mammoths.

(5) True. In May 2010 the autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) "Waldo" was retrieved from the water near Fort Jefferson, stored overnight in the fort, and then flown to Key West. The little submarine purportedly spent the night in a cell.

(6) True. In 2010 the Cavallo Point Lodge at Golden Gate NRA's historic Fort Baker became the first national park lodge to receive LEED certification for green design and construction features.

(7) True. There are a number of National Park-designated units in the coterminous states that are administered by other National Park-designated Units, including Dry Tortugas National Park (administered by Everglades National Park), and Arches National Park (administered by Canyonlands National Park). Sequoia National Park and Kings Canyon National Park are also supervised by a single superintendent (Kings Canyon does not have its own listing in the online National Park Service People and Places Directory and its four-letter code is the same as Sequoia's -- SEKI).

(8) True. According to the National Park Service People and Places Directory, at least three employees at on the Everglades National Park staff have the job title "Geographer."

(9) True. By Presidential proclamation, federal laws, and custom, the American flag is flown continuously (24/7) at a number of locations in the National Park System, including Fort McHenry National Monument and Historic Shrine, the Washington Monument, Valley Forge National Historical Park, the USS Arizona Memorial, and the White House.

(10) True. Big South Fork National River and Recreation Area in Kentucky and Tennessee has hundreds of sandstone arches.

(11) True. In 2007, scientists verified that a wading bird called the bar-tailed godwit (some of which breed in Gates of the Arctic) can make a nonstop migration flight of about 7,100 miles across the Pacific Ocean, a feat that requires it to remain airborne 24/7 for about nine consecutive days. This is the longest known nonstop flight of any bird.