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50 free Ann Arbor trivia questions with answers — geography quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
45 free Ann Arbor trivia questions with answers. Ann Arbor is a college town with an outsized story, and this quiz covers it from the two founders' wives named Ann to the spinning cube outside the Michigan Union. There is the founding and the lost bid to be state capital, the university's 1837 arrival, the Huron River, Tree Town's 50,000 street trees, and the nicknames from A2 to '25 square miles surrounded by reality'. The Big House gets its due: the capacity, the first game, the record crowds for football, hockey and soccer. So do the town's exports and institutions: Domino's, Borders, Zingerman's, Duo Security, the Stooges, Hill Auditorium, the Michigan Theater's organ, the Art Fairs, the Film Festival, Hash Bash and the fairy doors. Plus the moments that made news: JFK's 2 a.m. Peace Corps speech, the first Vietnam teach-in, and Jonas Salk's Michigan years. Easy questions suit newcomers and freshmen; harder ones will test townies. Every answer was checked against Wikipedia's articles on the city, the university and its landmarks, and the source sentence appears under each question after you answer.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Ann Arbor was founded in 1824 by which two land speculators?
John Allen and Elisha Rumsey
John Allen and Elisha Rumsey paid $800 for 640 acres of federal land in 1824 and platted the settlement that became Ann Arbor.
Q 02The 'Ann' in Ann Arbor honours what?
The founders' wives, both named Ann
The founders' wives, both named Ann — Ann Allen and Mary Ann Rumsey — gave the town its name, registered as 'Annarbour' in 1824.
Q 03The 'Arbor' part of the name refers to groves of which tree?
Bur oak
Bur oak groves on the founders' 640-acre purchase supplied the 'arbor' in the town's name, registered as 'Annarbour' in 1824.
Q 04Ann Arbor is the seat of which Michigan county?
Washtenaw
Washtenaw County made Ann Arbor its seat in 1827, and the town was chartered as a city in 1851.
Q 05With about 123,851 residents in 2020, Ann Arbor ranked where among Michigan's most populous cities?
Fifth
Ann Arbor was Michigan's fifth most populous city in the 2020 census, behind Detroit, Grand Rapids, Warren and Sterling Heights.
Q 06Ann Arbor lost a bid to become Michigan's state capital to which city?
Lansing
Lansing won the capital in 1847; the 40 acres Ann Arbor had reserved for a capitol went instead to the University of Michigan.
Q 07In what year did the University of Michigan move to Ann Arbor?
1837
The University of Michigan moved to Ann Arbor in 1837, twenty years after its 1817 founding in Detroit as the state's oldest university.
Q 08Ann Arbor's nickname 'Tree Town' reflects roughly how many street trees?
50,000
Ann Arbor keeps roughly 50,000 street trees and a similar number in its parks, hence 'Tree Town'; the emerald ash borer destroyed many of its roughly 10,500 ash trees.
Q 09Which river runs through Ann Arbor?
Huron
The Huron River flows through Ann Arbor past Gallup Park and the Nichols Arboretum on its way to Lake Erie.
Q 10Which pizza chain is headquartered at a Frank Lloyd Wright-inspired complex just outside Ann Arbor?
Domino's
Domino's has been based at Domino's Farms, a Frank Lloyd Wright-inspired Prairie-style complex in Ann Arbor Township, since 1985; founder Tom Monaghan also opened Ave Maria School of Law in Ann Arbor in 2000.
Q 11The Monaghan brothers took over DomiNick's pizzeria in 1960 in which town next to Ann Arbor?
Ypsilanti
Tom and James Monaghan bought DomiNick's in Ypsilanti in 1960 and renamed it in 1965 after the original owner refused to let them keep his name.
Q 12Which bookstore chain was founded in Ann Arbor in 1971 by two brothers?
Borders
Borders was founded by brothers Tom and Louis Borders in 1971; Kmart bought the chain in 1992 and it was liquidated in 2011.
Q 13Zingerman's Delicatessen, founded in 1982, was originally going to be named after what?
A regular customer
'Greenberg's' was dropped after another business objected, and Zingerman's grew into a bakehouse, creamery and roadhouse.
Q 21The 2013 Michigan v Notre Dame game set an NCAA single-game record with what attendance?
115,109
The 115,109 crowd for Michigan-Notre Dame on September 7, 2013, beat the 114,804 drawn by the same matchup's 2011 night game.
Q 22What is Ann Arbor's annual cannabis rally, held on the first Saturday of April, called?
Hash Bash
Hash Bash dates from the April after the Michigan Supreme Court freed John Sinclair, who had drawn ten years for giving two joints to an undercover officer.
Q 23The Ann Arbor Art Fairs, drawing upwards of half a million visitors, are held in which month?
July
The Ann Arbor Art Fairs fill the downtown streets each July; the original Street Art Fair began in 1960 and several juried fairs run concurrently.
Q 14What is the central open space of the University of Michigan's Ann Arbor campus called?
The Diag
The Diag takes its name from the diagonal walkways crossing the University of Michigan's central campus, where a brass block 'M' is set into the pavement.
Q 15Which US president's presidential library is in Ann Arbor?
Gerald Ford
Ford graduated from Michigan in 1935 and used 'The Victors' instead of 'Hail to the Chief' as his entrance music.
Q 16On the steps of which Ann Arbor building did JFK first float the Peace Corps in a 2 a.m. speech?
Michigan Union
Kennedy spoke from the Michigan Union steps at about 2 a.m. on October 14, 1960, and a plaque there marks the spot.
Q 17Michigan Stadium's official capacity is what?
107,601
Michigan Stadium's official capacity has been 107,601 since its 2015 renovation, making it the largest stadium in the United States.
Q 18What is Michigan Stadium's nickname?
The Big House
'The Big House' opened in 1927 holding 72,000, with footings poured for future expansion at coach Fielding Yost's insistence.
Q 19Which two NHL teams played the 2014 Winter Classic at Michigan Stadium before a record crowd of 105,491?
Toronto Maple Leafs and Detroit Red Wings
The Toronto Maple Leafs and Detroit Red Wings met at the 2014 Winter Classic, the Leafs winning 3-2 in a shootout before a record NHL crowd of 105,491.
Q 20Michigan Stadium's first game, in October 1927, was against which opponent?
Ohio Wesleyan
Michigan beat Ohio Wesleyan 33-0 on October 1, 1927; the formal dedication game against Ohio State came three weeks later.
Q 24The Ann Arbor Film Festival (1963) is North America's oldest festival of what kind of film?
Experimental
The Ann Arbor Film Festival, founded in 1963, is North America's oldest experimental and avant-garde film festival and an Academy Award-qualifying event for short films.
Q 25What tiny works of installation art are scattered around downtown Ann Arbor?
Fairy doors
Fairy doors, tiny doorways built by artist Jonathan B. Wright, began appearing on downtown Ann Arbor shopfronts in 2005 and are hunted by children.
Q 26Endover, the spinning black steel cube on the U-M campus, is by which sculptor?
Tony Rosenthal
Tony Rosenthal, a 1936 Michigan graduate, made Endover in 1968; his similar Alamo cube stands at Astor Place in New York.
Q 27Roughly how much does the Endover cube weigh, despite spinning with relative ease?
2,400 lb
Endover weighs about 2,400 lb; the 15-foot black steel cube spins on a central pivot in Regents' Plaza and was a gift of the class of 1965.
Q 28Which proto-punk band was formed in Ann Arbor in 1967 by Iggy Pop and the Asheton brothers?
The Stooges
The Stooges formed in Ann Arbor in 1967 with Iggy Pop, Ron and Scott Asheton and Dave Alexander, and entered the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2010.
Q 29Iggy Pop got his stage name from which earlier Ann Arbor-area band he drummed in?
The Iguanas
The Iguanas, the Ann Arbor garage band Iggy Pop drummed for from 1963, gave him the 'Iggy' nickname, coined by his later bandmates.
Q 30Which national left-wing campus group held its first major meetings in Ann Arbor in 1960?
Students for a Democratic Society
Students for a Democratic Society held its first meeting at the University of Michigan in 1960, electing Alan Haber its first president; Tom Hayden drafted its 1962 manifesto.