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90 free Maine trivia questions with answers — geography quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
85 free Maine trivia questions with answers. Maine is the northeasternmost state, the only one that borders just one other state, and the most forested in the country. This quiz covers the whole of it: statehood under the Missouri Compromise, the Popham Colony and the Norse penny, Joshua Chamberlain at Little Round Top, the Pork and Beans War, and the first state ban on alcohol. You will also get the geography and culture people actually argue about: Katahdin and the end of the Appalachian Trail, Acadia and Cadillac Mountain, Portland Head Light and West Quoddy Head, Moosehead Lake, lobster and wild blueberries, whoopie pies and Moxie, L.L.Bean's boot, Stephen King's Bangor, and what 'from away' means. Some questions are easy for anyone who has spent a summer on the coast; a few will only be answered by people who know how many seats are in the state House. Every answer has been checked against a documented source and linked, so you can settle the argument at the table.
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Q 01What is the capital of Maine?
Augusta
Portland was the original capital until 1832, and the state's Supreme Judicial Court still keeps its principal office there.
Q 02Maine is the only U.S. state that borders exactly how many other states?
One
New Hampshire is its only neighbour by land; the rest of its border is Canada and the Gulf of Maine.
Q 03Which two Canadian provinces border Maine?
New Brunswick and Quebec
It also shares a maritime border with Nova Scotia across the Gulf of Maine.
Q 04Maine became a state in 1820 as part of which famous political bargain?
The Missouri Compromise
Maine entered as a free state to balance Missouri's admission as a slave state the following year.
Q 05Before statehood, Maine was part of which state?
Massachusetts
Mainers voted to secede from the Commonwealth and were admitted as a new state in 1820.
Q 06Maine was admitted to the Union as which number state?
23rd
The date was March 15, 1820; the state flag and seal adopted that year are its oldest official symbols.
Q 07What is Maine's nickname, a nod to its endless forests?
The Pine Tree State
More than 80% of Maine is forested, the highest share of any U.S. state.
Q 08Roughly what share of Maine's total area is forested or unclaimed?
Over 80%
The Northwest Aroostook unorganized territory covers 2,668 square miles and had a population of ten.
Q 09The Old Town Canoe Company entered the market building wooden canoes covered in what material?
Canvas
The historic maker is still based in the town of Old Town on the Penobscot River.
Q 10Which Maine town is the easternmost organized settlement in the United States?
Lubec
Its West Quoddy Head lighthouse is the closest spot in the U.S. to Africa and Europe.
Q 11What is the highest mountain in Maine?
Katahdin
It rises to 5,269 feet in Baxter State Park and is the northern terminus of the Appalachian Trail.
Q 12The Appalachian Trail, which ends in Maine, passes through how many states in total?
14
It runs almost 2,200 miles from Springer Mountain in Georgia; the newer International Appalachian Trail continues north from Maine.
Q 13What is Maine's largest lake, and the largest lying wholly inside the six-state region?
Moosehead
Lake Champlain is bigger but is shared among Vermont, New York and Quebec.
Acadia National Park is the only national park in which region?
Q 21Which fictional Maine town is terrorised by the shape-shifting entity in the novel 'It'?
Derry
Joyce Carol Oates called small-town life in fictitious Derry his 'characteristic subject'.
Q 22Which poet, author of 'Paul Revere's Ride', was born in Portland in 1807?
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
Portland was then still a district of Massachusetts; Longfellow graduated from Bowdoin College in 1825.
Q 23In which Maine town is L.L.Bean headquartered?
Freeport
The flagship store there is open 24 hours a day, 365 days a year and draws more than three million visitors annually.
New England
It draws more than four million visitors a year, mostly to Mount Desert Island near Bar Harbor.
Q 15Acadia was the first national park created from what?
Private lands gifted to the public
Wealthy summer residents including John D. Rockefeller Jr. donated the land and financed its carriage roads.
Q 16Before it took the name Acadia in 1929, what was the site called from 1919?
Lafayette National Park
It began as Sieur de Monts National Monument in 1916 and was the first national park east of the Mississippi.
Q 17Which Acadia summit is famed as the first place in the continental U.S. to see sunrise for part of the year?
Cadillac
It was called Green Mountain until 1918, when it was renamed for the French explorer Antoine de La Mothe Cadillac.
Q 18Portland Head Light, completed in 1791, holds what distinction?
First lighthouse built by the U.S. government
George Washington directed the construction with a fund of $1,500; it stands in Cape Elizabeth.
Q 19What colour pattern makes the West Quoddy Head lighthouse instantly recognisable?
Red-and-white stripes
The current tower dates from 1858 and marks the easternmost point of the contiguous United States.
Q 20Which horror author, born in Portland in 1947, has long made Bangor his home?
Stephen King
His fictional Maine towns of Derry and Castle Rock recur across dozens of novels; for years he also owned Bangor radio stations.
Q 24L.L.Bean began in 1912 as a one-room operation selling a single product. What was it?
The Maine Hunting Shoe
Also known as the duck boot and later the Bean Boot, it was sold by mail to nonresident hunting-licence holders.
Q 25Colonel Joshua Chamberlain of the 20th Maine won fame for holding which position at Gettysburg?
Little Round Top
His bayonet charge earned him the Medal of Honor; he later served four terms as governor and as president of Bowdoin College.
Q 26Which Mainer served as Abraham Lincoln's first vice president?
Hannibal Hamlin
He served from 1861 to 1865 before being replaced on the ticket by Andrew Johnson of Tennessee.
Q 27Which Maine senator delivered the 1950 'Declaration of Conscience' speech criticising Joseph McCarthy?
Margaret Chase Smith
Born in Skowhegan, she was the first woman to serve in both houses of Congress and the first placed in nomination for president by a major party.
Q 28Maine's Edmund Muskie, later Secretary of State, championed which landmark environmental laws?
The Clean Air Act and Clean Water Act
Born in Rumford, he ran for vice president with Hubert Humphrey in 1968.
Q 29Which USS Maine's sinking in 1898 precipitated the Spanish-American War?
The armoured cruiser ACR-1
Four U.S. Navy ships have carried the state's name; the 1898 explosion in Havana harbour is by far the most famous.
Q 30Maine is the largest U.S. producer of which seafood?
Lobster
In 2025 the state's commercial harvesters earned $619 million, with lobster still the main focus.