120 Fun Facts About St. Louis

St. Louis, founded by French fur traders in 1764, was named after which French monarch?

The crusader Louis IX was canonised as Saint Louis in 1297, which is why the city carries a saint's name rather than a plain royal one.

The fur traders who founded St. Louis in 1764 had set out from which French colonial city?

New Orleans was home to Pierre Laclède, who headed upriver in August 1763 with his stepson Auguste Chouteau, chose a bluff safe from floods, and laid out the new town's streets on the New Orleans plan.

How tall is the Gateway Arch?

630 feet is also the distance between its legs at ground level, so the Arch is exactly as wide as it is tall; in a 150 mph wind its top is designed to sway by up to 18 inches.

Which Finnish-American architect designed the Gateway Arch?

Eero Saarinen beat a field that included his own father, Eliel, in the 1948 competition, but died of a brain tumour in 1961, before construction of his Arch had even begun.

The Gateway Arch tram is half elevator, half which ride?

Ferris wheel cars gave designer Dick Bowser his answer: he drew up the tram in two weeks, though it did not open until 1967, well after the Arch was finished in October 1965.

The Gateway Arch is clad in which material?

Stainless steel covers the Arch, and it is no mere decoration: the monument has no skeleton inside, so its inner and outer skins carry the load themselves.

Which mathematical curve does the Gateway Arch follow?

A catenary is the curve a hanging chain makes; the Arch's is a weighted version of it turned upside down, which keeps the whole structure in compression.

To fit the Gateway Arch's final section in 1965, what did engineers have to do to its two legs?

Jack them apart is what it took: jacks pushing with more than 500 tons of force held the legs open while the last piece was lowered in on 28 October 1965, after a truss had braced them on the way up.

Which world's fair did St. Louis host in 1904?

The Louisiana Purchase Exposition celebrated the 1803 land deal a year late, in 1904, and still drew close to 20 million visitors to the city's largest park.

Which food is most famously said to have been popularised at the 1904 St. Louis fair?

The ice cream cone had been patented months earlier, but the fair gave it its legend: a waffle seller is said to have rolled his pastry into a cone when the ice cream stall beside him ran out of containers.

Which soft drink was introduced to a national audience at the 1904 St. Louis fair?

Dr Pepper had been poured in Waco, Texas, since 1885, a year before Coca-Cola existed, yet it took the 1904 fair to put it in front of the whole country.

Cass Gilbert designed the only palace of the 1904 St. Louis fair built to last; which institution occupies it today?

The Saint Louis Art Museum's home was the fair's Palace of Fine Arts, the only major building there put up as a permanent structure; every other grand palace was built to be temporary.

The giant pipe organ that played at the 1904 St. Louis fair ended up in a department store in which city?

Philadelphia merchant John Wanamaker bought the organ in 1909 and needed thirteen freight cars to haul it from St. Louis; its builder had already gone bankrupt on the cost.

Which sport vanished from the Olympics after the 1904 St. Louis Games and did not return until 2016?

Golf's 1904 champion, Canada's George Lyon, was 46. In 1908 he was the only entrant left after a British boycott, and he refused the gold medal he was offered by default.

Gold medals first appeared at the 1904 St. Louis Olympics; what had the champions of 1896 received instead?

Silver medals went to the winners at Athens in 1896 and a lesser medal to the runners-up, with no prize at all for third place; St. Louis introduced gold, silver and bronze for the top three.

American gymnast George Eyser won six medals at the 1904 Games despite what?

Having a wooden left leg went back to his youth, when a train ran over him. He still won gold on the parallel bars, the vault and the rope climb.

The 1904 Olympic marathon winner Thomas Hicks was helped along by his handlers with what?

Strychnine and brandy, with raw eggs, were his handlers' idea of a pick-me-up. Hicks ran the last miles in agony and was practically carried across the finish line.

Cuban runner Andarín Carvajal finished fourth in the 1904 marathon despite doing what mid-race?

Napping after eating spoiled apples was not the race's only detour: another runner, Len Taunyane, was chased off the course by wild dogs.

Which Yankee's failed steal handed the Cardinals the 1926 World Series?

Babe Ruth had walked with two out in the ninth and the Yankees a run down, then broke for second and was thrown out, giving the Cardinals their first World Series title.

Which Cardinals pitcher posted a modern-record 1.12 ERA in 1968?

Bob Gibson's season was so dominant, with pitchers on top everywhere, that baseball lowered the mound the following year.

Who borrowed the Cardinals' 'birds on the bat' logo from church table decorations?

Branch Rickey was the speaker at a Presbyterian church in Ferguson, Missouri, where Allie May Schmidt had made cardboard redbirds for the tables. Her father drew up the design, and it reached the jerseys in 1922.

Which nickname was given to the rowdy Cardinals team that won the 1934 World Series?

The Gashouse Gang won Game 7 in Detroit 11-0, and the home crowd pelted Joe Medwick with fruit and bottles until the commissioner ordered him out of the game.

Which rival did the Blues beat outdoors at Busch Stadium in the 2017 Winter Classic?

The Blackhawks lost 4-1 on a rink laid over the Cardinals' field, with Vladimir Tarasenko scoring twice in the third period to break a 1-1 tie.

The St. Louis Blues hockey team is named after a song by which composer?

W. C. Handy's 'St. Louis Blues' dates from 1914. The hockey team reached the Stanley Cup Final in each of its first three seasons and was swept every time.

Which team did the Blues beat to win their first Stanley Cup in 2019?

Boston Bruins, the club that had swept the Blues in the 1970 Final. St. Louis had been last in the whole league in early January, then won the deciding game 4-1 in Boston.

Which 1980s pop song became the Blues' unofficial victory anthem during their 2019 Cup run?

'Gloria' by Laura Branigan caught on after a few Blues watched an NFL playoff game in a bar on a road trip, where the locals kept demanding it. The team won its next game and played it after every win.

Which NFL team won Super Bowl XXXIV while based in St. Louis?

The Rams held on when linebacker Mike Jones stopped Tennessee's Kevin Dyson one yard short of the goal line on the final play, a moment known simply as 'The Tackle'.

Which owner moved St. Louis's NFL team to Los Angeles in 2016?

Stan Kroenke, a Missouri developer, had held a share of the team since it arrived in 1995. In 2021 he and the NFL agreed to pay $790 million to settle the lawsuit St. Louis brought over the move.

Toasted ravioli, a St. Louis appetizer 'toasted' in name only, is actually cooked how?

Breaded and deep-fried: legend says a 1940s cook dropped a ravioli into hot oil by accident, and more than one of the city's Italian restaurants still claims the mistake as its own.

Which St. Louis treat is said to have begun when a 1930s baker got the proportions of his ingredients wrong?

Gooey butter cake, legend says, was a German-American baker's botched coffee cake that came out dense and sticky. More than one St. Louis bakery family now claims the mistake.

St. Louis-style pizza is topped with which processed cheese?

Provel is a processed blend of cheddar, Swiss and provolone whose low melting point lets it melt without turning stringy. It is practically unknown outside the St. Louis area.

How is a St. Louis-style pizza traditionally cut?

Into small squares: Imo's founder Ed Imo was a tile setter who cut squares by day and pizza by night, though St. Louis chefs were already cutting pizza this way before his chain opened in 1964.

Ted Drewes, the famous frozen-custard stand on old Route 66, calls its signature dessert what?

A concrete is frozen custard blended so thick that it is handed to the customer upside down. When custard season winds down, the stand sells Christmas trees.

Which St. Louis-born entertainer became the toast of 1920s Paris and later spied for the French Resistance?

Josephine Baker was born into poverty in St. Louis in 1906. In wartime she carried notes on German troop movements across borders, written in invisible ink on her sheet music.

Budweiser, first brewed in St. Louis in 1876, is named after a town in which present-day country?

Czech Republic: the town is Ceske Budejovice, Budweis in German, and its own Budweiser Budvar brewery has fought the American brand over the name in courts around the world for more than a century.

The Budweiser Clydesdales made their public debut on April 7, 1933, to celebrate what?

The repeal of Prohibition began with beer, legal again from that very day. August Busch Jr. surprised his father with the hitch, which hauled the first case of post-Prohibition beer out of the St. Louis brewery.

Which dog breed rides beside the driver of the Budweiser Clydesdales' wagon?

A Dalmatian travels with each eight-horse hitch. In the early days of brewing the dogs guarded the wagon and its team while the driver went inside to make deliveries.

Which St. Louis park, home to the zoo and the Muny theatre, is about 500 acres larger than New York's Central Park?

Forest Park was dedicated in 1876 before a crowd of about 50,000, on forested land that then lay almost two miles outside the city limits.

General admission to the Saint Louis Zoo is free; who has covered much of its cost since 1972?

Local property taxpayers in St. Louis city and county fund it through the Zoo-Museum District, a tax district that the voters of both created for themselves.

Which Saint Louis Zoo director was the first host of Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom?

Marlin Perkins first worked at the zoo on its grounds crew after quitting college. He came back to run it in 1962, the year before Wild Kingdom went on the air.

Which St. Louis neighborhood is known for Italian heritage and Italian-flag fire hydrants?

The Hill raised two baseball greats on one block: Yogi Berra and Joe Garagiola grew up across the street from each other on Elizabeth Avenue, a stretch later renamed Hall of Fame Place.

The Eads Bridge, opened in 1874, pioneered the large-scale structural use of which material?

Steel was so new in bridges that the public needed convincing: before the opening a circus elephant was walked across, on the popular belief that elephants would not step onto an unsafe structure.

Workers sinking the Eads Bridge's piers deep under the Mississippi died of which condition?

The bends, then called caisson disease, struck men who came up too fast from pressurised chambers almost 100 feet below the river. The bridge's doctor found that a slower return to the surface helped.

Which enslaved St. Louis man's freedom suit, filed in 1846, ended in an infamous 1857 Supreme Court ruling?

Dred Scott lost 7-2, yet was free within weeks: he passed to a son of his first owners, who released him, and he worked as a hotel porter in St. Louis until his death in 1858.

Lewis and Clark set out near St. Louis in May 1804 by heading up which river?

The Missouri River led them toward the Rockies against the current. Two years later they rode that current home and reached St. Louis on September 23, 1806, to a hero's welcome.

Charles Lindbergh's plane carried the name Spirit of St. Louis in honour of whom?

His financial backers there were St. Louis businessmen who took a chance on an unknown airmail pilot. Lindbergh added $2,000 of his own savings, and the budget was still far smaller than his rivals'.

Which St. Louis-born rock pioneer played monthly at Blueberry Hill from 1996 to 2014?

Chuck Berry's 'Johnny B. Goode' was sent into space as the only rock and roll song on the Voyager Golden Record, and an eight-foot statue of him now stands across the street from the club.

St. Louis rapper Nelly's diamond-certified 2000 debut album was called what?

Country Grammar took the hook of its title track from the children's clapping game 'Down Down Baby', and went on to ship 10 million copies in the United States.

The Delmar Loop takes its name from what?

An old streetcar turnaround once let trolleys loop back toward the city here. In 1988 local club owner Joe Edwards began the St. Louis Walk of Fame, setting brass stars into its sidewalks.

Harry Truman held up the 'Dewey Defeats Truman' front page in 1948 at which St. Louis landmark?

Union Station was the world's largest and busiest rail terminal when it opened in 1894, and Truman was passing through by train. Its last passenger train left in 1978.

St. Louis's City Museum occupies a building that once belonged to which company?

International Shoe once made and stored footwear here. Sculptor Bob Cassilly bought the mostly empty building in 1993 and filled it with slides, tunnels and salvaged pieces of the city, including a school bus hanging off the roof.

Which St. Louis institution founded in 1859 by Henry Shaw is home to the Climatron?

Missouri Botanical Garden is still nicknamed Shaw's Garden: the English-born merchant made his fortune early, retired at about 40, and opened the garden on his country estate to the public.

Besides St. Louis, which of these is one of the three US independent cities outside Virginia?

Baltimore, Maryland left its county in 1851. St. Louis voters followed in 1876, a split locals call the Great Divorce, and Carson City is the third.

Cahokia, across the Mississippi from St. Louis, is often said to have been larger at its peak than which European capital?

London is the comparison the historic site itself makes, for about 1250. The city emptied long before Europeans came, and its builders' name for it is unknown: Cahokia was a tribe living there centuries later.

Which architect, later designer of New York's World Trade Center, designed St. Louis's Pruitt-Igoe housing complex?

Minoru Yamasaki saw his 33 towers dynamited within two decades, starting with a televised implosion in 1972 that critic Charles Jencks called the day modern architecture died.

Which architect, mentor to Frank Lloyd Wright, designed St. Louis's 1891 Wainwright Building, an early skyscraper?

Louis Sullivan, working with his partner Dankmar Adler, wanted a tall building to be 'every inch a proud and soaring thing', so he set the Wainwright's windows back behind its piers to stress the vertical.

Which school, whose teams are the Billikens, is generally counted the oldest university west of the Mississippi?

Saint Louis University dates from 1818. Its Billiken is a good-luck charm figure patented in 1908; one story says sportswriters thought the football coach looked like it, and the name stuck.

Which independent joined Bush and Clinton in Washington University's 1992 presidential debate?

Ross Perot made it a three-way debate. The university hosted three more, in 2000, 2004 and 2016, and lost another in 1996 when the candidates cut that year's series to two.

The St. Louis Browns, the city's American League team, left in 1954 to become which club?

Baltimore Orioles became the club's new name. The Browns' only pennant came in 1944, when they lost to the Cardinals in a World Series played entirely in the ballpark the two teams shared.

Which showman owner sent 3-foot-7 Eddie Gaedel up to bat for the St. Louis Browns in 1951?

Bill Veeck had Gaedel pop out of a cake between games of a doubleheader, then sent him up wearing the number 1/8. He walked on four pitches, and the league voided his contract within days.

Which playwright, raised in St. Louis, set The Glass Menagerie in an apartment there?

Tennessee Williams moved to St. Louis as a boy. The play that made his name in 1944 draws on those years, with characters modelled on his own mother and his sister Rose.

Which director of the 1944 musical Meet Me in St. Louis married its star, Judy Garland, a year later?

Vincente Minnelli met Garland on the set of the film, which follows a family in the months before the 1904 World's Fair. Their daughter, Liza Minnelli, was born in 1946.

A National Historic Landmark in St. Louis preserves the home of which ragtime composer?

Scott Joplin died in 1917. His rags came back into fashion in the 1970s, through a million-selling album and the film The Sting, and a posthumous Pulitzer Prize followed in 1976.

The Missouri History Museum's 1913 home, paid for with World's Fair profits, is a memorial to which president?

Thomas Jefferson struck the land deal the fair commemorated, so its profits built him a memorial in St. Louis thirty years before the one in Washington was dedicated in 1943.

Which American sports car was built in St. Louis for 27 years, from 1954 to 1981?

Chevrolet Corvette production began in Flint, Michigan, in 1953, moved to St. Louis the next year and left for Bowling Green, Kentucky, in 1981. The St. Louis plant closed five years later.

Which Major League Soccer club began play in St. Louis in 2023?

St. Louis City SC won its first five matches, which no MLS expansion team had done, and topped the Western Conference, then lost in the first playoff round to eighth-seeded Sporting Kansas City.

At the 1900 census St. Louis was the nation's fourth-largest city; which city ranked second?

Chicago had passed St. Louis by 1880. St. Louis counted 575,238 people in 1900 and peaked at 856,796 in 1950; by 2020 the city proper was down to 301,578.

Which nickname did early St. Louis carry before most of its ancient landmarks were levelled?

Mound City was dotted with earthen mounds built by Native peoples centuries earlier. Nearly all were flattened as the city grew, and in 2009 the Osage Nation bought the summit of the lone survivor, Sugarloaf Mound.

When St. Louis was founded in 1764, France had already secretly signed the land away to which country?

Spain gained the territory in a secret 1762 treaty that was revealed only in 1764, after the settlement had begun. No Spanish official took charge in St. Louis until 1770.

Weeks after its deadly 1896 tornado, St. Louis hosted the convention that nominated which future president?

William McKinley was nominated on the first ballot in June 1896, three weeks after the tornado killed at least 255 people. The delegates met in a temporary hall, put up beside City Hall because the planned venue was not ready.

Which animal was led across St. Louis's new Eads Bridge in 1874 to show the public it was safe?

An elephant from a travelling circus strolled across on June 14, 1874, because people believed the animals would refuse to set foot on an unsafe structure.

Which 1973 horror film grew out of rites Jesuit priests performed on a boy in St. Louis in 1949?

The Exorcist was adapted from William Peter Blatty's 1971 novel, which drew on the case; the final rites took place at the Alexian Brothers Hospital in South St. Louis.

Which St. Louis car-rental company did Jack Taylor name after his World War II aircraft carrier?

Enterprise took its name in 1969 from the USS Enterprise, on which Taylor served; the company had begun in 1957 as Executive Leasing.

Which country ran French-founded St. Louis from 1770 until the American takeover of 1804?

Spain took official control of St. Louis in May 1770, and its administrators stayed in charge even after the territory was secretly handed back to France in 1800.

Which American city was first awarded the 1904 Olympics, before the Games were moved to St. Louis?

Chicago won the vote unanimously, but St. Louis planned rival athletic events for its postponed World's Fair, and in February 1903 the Games were moved.

Which St. Louis-born writer read her poem On the Pulse of Morning at Bill Clinton's inauguration?

Maya Angelou was born Marguerite Johnson in St. Louis in 1928 and was the first poet to read at an inauguration since Robert Frost in 1961.

Which giant 1893 ride was rebuilt for St. Louis's 1904 World's Fair and then dynamited for scrap?

The first Ferris wheel had 36 cars that could each hold up to 60 people; it was blown up in May 1906 because the city required Forest Park to be restored.

East St. Louis, facing the Gateway Arch from the far bank of the Mississippi, lies in which state?

Illinois lies on the far bank, so East St. Louis is a separate city in another state; the village was first named Illinoistown before residents voted to rename it.

The Gateway Arch's two sightseeing riverboats are named for characters created by which author?

Mark Twain's Tom Sawyer and Becky Thatcher give the two boats their names; as a cub pilot, Twain learned the river between New Orleans and St. Louis.

Which 1981 John Carpenter thriller starring Kurt Russell was filmed mainly in St. Louis?

Escape from New York used St. Louis as a ruined Manhattan because fires across the river in East St. Louis had left whole blocks of burnt-out rubble, the wrecked streets the script needed.

Which St. Louis-born poet wrote the playful verses behind Andrew Lloyd Webber's musical Cats?

T. S. Eliot spent his first 16 years in St. Louis, where his grandfather co-founded Washington University; he won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1948.

Which St. Louis-born dancer became a star in 1920s Paris and later spied for the French Resistance?

Josephine Baker gave up her US citizenship in 1937, and in 2021 she became the first Black woman inducted into the Panthéon in Paris.

Which playwright set The Glass Menagerie in a St. Louis apartment after growing up in the city?

Tennessee Williams moved to St. Louis at eight and lies in the city's Calvary Cemetery, although he had stated a wish to be buried at sea.

Which jazz trumpeter, a dentist's son raised in East St. Louis, left to study at Juilliard in 1944?

Miles Davis dropped out after three semesters because he wanted to perform full-time, and was soon playing in Charlie Parker's bebop quintet.

Which future star, then Anna Mae Bullock, first grabbed the microphone at a club in East St. Louis?

Tina Turner seized the microphone during an intermission of Ike Turner's Kings of Rhythm, having moved to St. Louis in 1956 to live with her mother.

Which Yankees catcher grew up in St. Louis across the street from his friend Joe Garagiola?

Yogi Berra got his nickname from a friend who thought he sat like a yogi from India; the Cardinals passed on him and signed Garagiola instead.

Which St. Louis-born actor taught drama to Ellie Kemper before playing Don Draper in Mad Men?

Jon Hamm went back to his alma mater to teach eighth-grade acting, and years later appeared in Kemper's series Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt.

Which Hungarian-born publisher bought the St. Louis Dispatch in 1878 and merged it with the Post?

Joseph Pulitzer built the Post-Dispatch before buying the New York World, and an endowment in his will created the prizes that carry his name.

Which St. Louis-born programmer co-founded both Twitter and the payments company Square?

Jack Dorsey started Square in a small St. Louis office with Jim McKelvey, who had lost a $2,000 sale of his glasswork because he couldn't take credit cards.

Which Apache leader posed for photographs under Army guard at St. Louis's 1904 World's Fair?

Geronimo sold his crafts at the fair and later recalled that he had not wanted to attend until he was promised protection.

Which Cardinals great played all 22 of his seasons in St. Louis, winning seven batting titles?

Stan Musial got the nickname Stan the Man from Brooklyn Dodgers fans, who chanted it whenever he came to bat at Ebbets Field.

Which Cardinals shortstop, winner of 13 straight Gold Gloves, marked Opening Day with a backflip?

Ozzie Smith was nicknamed the Wizard, and when he was injured in 1986 he let his young son Nikko perform the Opening Day backflip instead.

Which Cardinals slugger hit 70 home runs in 1998 to break Roger Maris's single-season record?

Mark McGwire hit his record-breaking 62nd at home in St. Louis with members of the Maris family in the crowd; Barry Bonds passed his total three years later.

St. Louis's NFL Cardinals, nicknamed the Big Red, left the city in 1988 for which state?

Arizona became the team's home when it moved to Tempe, a suburb of Phoenix; in St. Louis it had been called the Football Cardinals to avoid confusion with the baseball club.

St. Louis's NBA team, champions in 1958 behind Bob Pettit, was sold and moved to which city in 1968?

Atlanta got the Hawks after owner Ben Kerner, unable to resolve the team's arena situation, sold to a real estate developer and a former Georgia governor.

Which Original Six team did the St. Louis Blues beat in seven games to win their first Stanley Cup?

The Boston Bruins had swept the Blues in the 1970 final, so the 4–1 win in Game 7 of the rematch settled an old score.

Which NHL scoring legend joined the St. Louis Blues from Los Angeles in a February 1996 trade?

Wayne Gretzky stayed only until that summer; the Blues had beaten out the New York Rangers for the trade by agreeing to his salary demands.

Which quarterback went from stocking grocery shelves to winning a Super Bowl with St. Louis?

Kurt Warner earned $5.50 an hour at an Iowa Hy-Vee in 1994; five years later he was league MVP and Super Bowl MVP in his first season as a starter.

Which St. Louis-born announcer spent 25 years calling Cardinals games and later became the Cubs' voice?

Harry Caray was born Harry Carabina in St. Louis and is credited with popularizing the crowd sing-along during the seventh-inning stretch.

Which East St. Louis-born athlete won heptathlon and long jump gold at the 1988 Seoul Olympics?

Jackie Joyner-Kersee was named after First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy, and her brother Al Joyner is an Olympic champion too, in the triple jump.

Which Forest Park amphitheatre gives away about 1,500 free seats at every summer musical it stages?

The Muny, short for Municipal Opera, was built in just 49 days in 1917 and seats 11,000, with the last nine rows free on a first-come basis.

Which art form covers the Cathedral Basilica of Saint Louis with 41.5 million pieces of glass?

Mosaics went up inside the cathedral from 1912 until 1988, covering 83,000 square feet in more than 7,000 colours.

Which vehicle juts out over the edge of the roof at City Museum in downtown St. Louis?

A school bus hangs past the edge of the building, and visitors can walk inside and open the door from the driver's seat.

Gateway Arch National Park in St. Louis holds which distinction among America's national parks?

The smallest national park in the country took that title from Hot Springs in Arkansas when the Jefferson National Expansion Memorial was renamed in 2018.

Which St. Louis company built the Mercury capsules that carried America's first astronauts?

McDonnell marked the capsule's success by adding it to the company logo, circling a globe, and in 1967 merged with Douglas to form McDonnell Douglas.

Which St. Louis company, founded in 1901 to make saccharin, took its name from the founder's wife?

Monsanto was the maiden name of Olga Méndez Monsanto, wife of founder John Francis Queeny; other early products were caffeine and vanillin.

Which St. Louis pet-food maker adopted a checkerboard as its trademark back in 1902?

Purina's checkerboard was inspired by founder William Danforth's childhood memory of a family dressed in clothes all cut from the same checked cloth.

Which toy retailer did Maxine Clark launch with a first store at the Saint Louis Galleria in 1997?

Build-A-Bear grew out of Clark's ideas for interactive stores after she left Payless ShoeSource, and it moved its headquarters to downtown St. Louis in 2020.

St. Louis educator Susan Blow opened America's first public version of which institution in 1873?

A kindergarten opened under Blow in the Carondelet district, and she paid its expenses herself that first year; within three years her system had fifty teachers.

Which festival does St. Louis's Soulard district mark with a pet parade and wiener dog races?

Mardi Gras in Soulard was revived in the early 1980s by patrons of Hilary's bar, who decided to march to a neighbouring bar.

Which former Route 66 crossing of the Mississippi at St. Louis has a 22-degree bend in the middle?

The Chain of Rocks Bridge bends because of a water intake and bedrock too weak to carry it straight across; it was later given over to walkers and cyclists.

Which seismic zone, named for a Missouri town, toppled chimneys in St. Louis in February 1812?

The New Madrid zone produced four of the largest earthquakes in recorded North American history within three months, and the last one destroyed the town itself.

Which St. Louis street game, a miniature baseball with no base-running, dates from about 1890?

Corkball spread across the country after St. Louis servicemen taught it to their comrades during World War II and the Korean War.

Which weekly paper, launched in St. Louis in 1886, earned the nickname the Bible of Baseball?

The Sporting News was founded by Alfred H. Spink, a director of the St. Louis Browns, and sold for five cents, covering horse racing and wrestling as well as baseball.

Which St. Louis-born horror star, a candy executive's son, narrated Michael Jackson's Thriller?

Vincent Price was the youngest of four children of the president of the National Candy Company, and he also lent his voice to animated films and radio dramas.

Five St. Louis players started when the US upset which nation 1–0 at the first post-war World Cup?

England were heavy favourites; the only American journalist present, from the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, had taken time off work to cover the tournament.

Which St. Louis-raised Cardinal hit the walk-off home run that won Game 6 of the 2011 World Series?

David Freese grew up a Cardinals fan in suburban Wildwood and was named World Series MVP after the win over the Texas Rangers.

In which Rick Riordan novel does Percy Jackson leap from the Gateway Arch into the Mississippi?

The Lightning Thief sends Percy up the Arch on his way to California; at the top he faces Echidna and the Chimera before making the jump.

Which winger, acquired from Calgary in 1988, scored 86 goals for the St. Louis Blues in 1990–91?

Brett Hull was nicknamed the Golden Brett, a play on the Golden Jet, the nickname of his father and fellow Hall of Famer Bobby Hull.

Which actor from the St. Louis suburb of Affton played family patriarch Dan Conner on Roseanne?

John Goodman played offensive guard and defensive tackle at Affton High, and the Roseanne role brought him seven Emmy nominations.