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60 free Hard US State Capitals trivia questions with answers — geography quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
This is hard US state capitals trivia. Knowing that Sacramento is the capital of California will not help you here; the questions ask what California's legislature did before it settled in Sacramento, which town Illinois used before Springfield, what Albany was called under the Dutch, and why Missouri nearly named its capital Missouriopolis. Every one of the fifty capitals could show up. The questions cover former capitals (Tuscaloosa, Vandalia, Corydon, Guthrie, Fillmore, Prescott, New Castle, Iowa City), original names (Waterloo, Marthasville, Edwinton, Rumford, Beverwijck), the people cities were named for, the votes and referendums that decided them, and the odd distinctions, from the capital with no Starbucks to the one that voters once agreed to abandon. If you want the standard version, try our main US state capitals trivia quiz, or the kids' version for the fifty basics. Every answer has been checked against each city's Wikipedia article, and each explanation adds one further detail worth remembering.
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Q 01Which city was Alabama's capital before Montgomery took over in 1846?
Tuscaloosa
The move reflected the shift of power toward the cotton-growing Black Belt.
Q 02Lansing became Michigan's capital in 1847 partly over fears that which city was vulnerable to British attack?
Detroit
The worry dated back to the War of 1812; Lansing's central location won out.
Q 03Where did Florida Territory's first legislative session meet in 1822, before Tallahassee?
Pensacola
Pensacola had been the capital of West Florida; Tallahassee got the job in 1824.
Q 04Frankfort, Kentucky takes its name from a river crossing named after which pioneer, killed there in 1780?
Stephen Frank
'Frank's Ford' was gradually smoothed into Frankfort.
Q 05Which town was Illinois' second state capital, from 1819 to 1839?
Vandalia
Springfield won the capital largely through the efforts of Abraham Lincoln and other local lawmakers.
Q 06Concord, New Hampshire was incorporated in 1734 under what name?
Rumford
Sir Benjamin Thompson later took his title, Count Rumford, from it.
Q 07In which year was Harrisburg named Pennsylvania's capital?
1812
It has held the title ever since, chosen partly for its strategic location on the Susquehanna.
Q 08What name did Missouri's legislature propose for its new capital before settling on Jefferson City?
Missouriopolis
Thomas Jefferson was still alive at Monticello when the city was named for him.
Q 09Olympia was declared capital of the Washington Territory in what year?
1853
It was incorporated as a town in January 1859.
Q 10Boston is named after a market town in which English county?
Lincolnshire
Isaac Johnson named the settlement after his hometown in 1630.
Q 11Which town did Great Salt Lake City replace as Utah's territorial capital in 1856?
Fillmore
The word 'Great' was dropped from the city's name in 1868.
Q 12Arizona's territorial capital moved to Phoenix in 1889 from which town?
Prescott
Confederate veteran Jack Swilling's irrigation canals had made the Phoenix site farmable two decades earlier.
Q 13Under what name was the site of Austin briefly incorporated in 1839?
Waterloo
The Texas Congress had sent a commission to find a capital to replace Houston.
Q 14Before becoming Atlanta, the settlement was renamed in 1842 to honour a governor's daughter. What was that name?
Q 21Richmond replaced which city as Virginia's capital in 1780?
Williamsburg
The move put the capital farther from a possible British attack from the coast.
Q 22Why did William Byrd II give Virginia's future capital its English name in 1737?
A river bend reminded him of his home on the Thames
He commissioned Major William Mayo to lay out the town grid in 1737.
Q 23What was Albany called under the Dutch before the English renamed it in 1664?
Beverwijck
The English name honoured Prince James, Duke of Albany, later King James II.
Marthasville
It had begun as Terminus, the end of a state railroad; the capital moved there from Milledgeville in 1868.
Q 15Denver was named after James W. Denver, who held what office at the time?
Governor of the Kansas Territory
The city was founded in 1858 at the confluence of Cherry Creek and the South Platte during the gold rush.
Q 16Which town was Oklahoma's territorial capital before the seat moved to Oklahoma City after statehood?
Guthrie
Oklahoma City had grown to more than 10,000 people within hours of the 1889 Land Run.
Q 17Indiana's seat of government moved to Indianapolis in 1825 from which town?
Corydon
Alexander Ralston, who had helped lay out Washington, D.C., platted the new city on a one-square-mile grid.
Q 18Columbia, South Carolina's nickname 'Soda City' comes from what?
Its short form, 'Cola'
The city was established in 1786 as the state's first planned capital, replacing Charleston.
Q 19Until 1875, Hartford shared the role of Connecticut's capital with which city?
New Haven
The two had alternated as dual capitals since 1664.
Q 20The Hartford Courant, founded in 1764, holds what distinction?
Oldest continuously published US newspaper
Hartford also has the oldest continuously operating public art museum, the Wadsworth Atheneum.
Q 24Which port town was North Carolina's capital during the American Revolution, before Raleigh was founded?
New Bern
Raleigh was chosen as the site in 1788 and incorporated in 1792.
Q 25California's legislature moved from Vallejo to which town in 1853, before Sacramento?
Benicia
Sacramento became the permanent capital in 1854 and was the western end of the Pony Express.
Q 26What is unusual about the municipal status of Nevada's capital?
It is an independent city, not part of any county
It has been Nevada's capital since 1861, when Nevada was still a territory.
Q 27What nickname did Cheyenne earn for its rapid growth after 1867?
Magic City of the Plains
Territorial Governor John Allen Campbell named it the temporary capital in 1869.
Q 28In 1970 the City of Juneau merged with which neighbouring city to form its consolidated borough?
Douglas
The result is the second-largest municipality in the US by area, bigger than Rhode Island or Delaware.
Q 29Which town did Alaskan voters choose in the 1970s as a new capital that was never built?
Willow
Willow lies about 70 miles north of Anchorage.
Q 30From which town on Maui did Kamehameha III move the Hawaiian Kingdom's capital to Honolulu in 1845?
Lahaina
Honolulu has been the capital ever since, through the kingdom, the territory and the state.