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70 free Maryland trivia questions with answers — geography quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
63 free Maryland trivia questions with answers. Maryland packs mountains, bay, beach and two centuries of national history into the ninth-smallest state, and this quiz covers all of it. The questions range across the state's founding by the Calverts and the Toleration Act, the Mason-Dixon survey, Fort McHenry and the Star-Spangled Banner, Antietam, the B&O Railroad, Annapolis as temporary US capital and the Naval Academy, the flag's Calvert and Crossland quarters, jousting as the state sport, blue crabs and Old Bay, Smith Island cake, Assateague's horses, the Preakness, the Bay Bridge, Camp David, and famous Marylanders from Harriet Tubman and Frederick Douglass to Thurgood Marshall, Poe, Cal Ripken and Michael Phelps. Easy questions ask the capital and the state flower; hard ones want who coined the 'Free State' nickname, the colt behind the Preakness name and how narrow the state gets near Hancock. Built for pub quizzes, classrooms, and Marylanders defending their crab-cake supremacy. Every answer was checked against Wikipedia's articles on Maryland and its places, people and symbols, and each question carries the sentence that backs it up.
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Q 01Maryland was named in honour of Henrietta Maria, the wife of which English king?
Charles I
Lord Baltimore had proposed 'Crescentia'; the king suggested Terra Mariae instead.
Q 02What is the capital of Maryland?
Annapolis
Baltimore is the largest city, but the capital moved to Annapolis from St. Mary's City in 1695.
Q 03Maryland was which number state to ratify the US Constitution and join the Union?
Seventh
It ratified in April 1788, after Massachusetts and before South Carolina.
Q 04The Province of Maryland was chartered in 1632 primarily as a haven for which persecuted group?
Catholics
The Calverts, Barons Baltimore, were Catholic converts, though Catholics were always a minority in the colony.
Q 05Maryland's varied landscapes, from Appalachian mountains to Atlantic beaches, earned it what nickname?
America in Miniature
It is the ninth-smallest state by area but has mountains, piedmont, coastal plain and the Chesapeake Bay.
Q 06Which editor coined Maryland's 'Free State' nickname in 1923 over its refusal to pass Prohibition laws?
Hamilton Owens
H. L. Mencken then popularised it; the phrase had earlier meant Maryland's 1864 abolition of slavery.
Q 07Maryland's highest point, Hoye Crest at 3,360 feet, sits on which ridge?
Backbone Mountain
It is in Garrett County in the far west, near the West Virginia border and the Potomac's headwaters.
Q 08Near Hancock, how narrow does Maryland get between the Mason-Dixon line and the Potomac?
Less than 2 miles
That pinch, two-thirds of the way across the state, is the narrowest width of any US state.
Q 09Washington, D.C.'s land came from Maryland's Montgomery County and which other county?
Prince George's
Virginia's share was handed back in 1846, so today the whole District sits on former Maryland land.
Q 10What has been Maryland's official state sport since 1962?
Jousting
Lacrosse became the official team sport in 2004; the jousting is ring-tilting, not knights knocking each other off horses.
Q 11What is Maryland's state flower?
Black-eyed Susan
A blanket of them is draped on the winner of the Preakness Stakes each May.
Q 12Which reptile is both a Maryland native and the mascot of the University of Maryland?
Diamondback terrapin
The costumed version is called Testudo, and rubbing his bronze nose is a campus tradition.
Q 13Which species do Maryland's fisheries land in the largest quantities, along with oysters and striped bass?
Blue crab
The Chesapeake blue crab is the base of the crab-cake and crab-feast culture the state is known for.
Q 21Which line, the first chartered US railroad, opened its first stretch in 1830?
The B&O
It later became one of the four railroads on the original Monopoly board.
Q 22In 2015, Maryland led all US states in which economic measure?
Median household income
Proximity to Washington and a heavy federal and biotech presence drive it.
Q 23Which enormous white oak, the state tree's most famous specimen, stood in Wye Mills until 2002?
The Wye Oak
It was believed to be over 460 years old when a thunderstorm brought it down on June 6, 2002.
Q 14Which two abolitionists were both born into slavery on Maryland's Eastern Shore?
Harriet Tubman and Frederick Douglass
Tubman returned to the Eastern Shore repeatedly, guiding around 70 people to freedom in about 13 trips.
Q 15BWI airport is named for which Baltimore native, the first Black Supreme Court justice?
Thurgood Marshall
Marshall won 29 of 32 cases he argued before the Court, including Brown v. Board of Education.
Q 16Which Maryland governor turned vice president resigned in 1973 after pleading no contest to tax evasion?
Spiro Agnew
Agnew had been Baltimore County executive before winning the governorship in 1966.
Q 17Which Triple Crown second leg was first run at Baltimore's Pimlico in 1873?
Preakness Stakes
It was first run in 1873, two years before the first Kentucky Derby; it moved to Laurel Park for 2026 while Pimlico is rebuilt.
Q 18The eastern and western halves of Maryland were first linked by road in 1952 by which structure?
The Chesapeake Bay Bridge
At 4 miles it opened as the world's longest continuous over-water steel structure, and truckers still call it one of the scariest crossings anywhere.
Q 19What kind of animals roam wild on Assateague Island off Maryland's coast?
Horses
On the Virginia side of the fence they are called Chincoteague ponies; the barrier island is 37 miles long.
Q 20Maryland's largest Civil War battle, on September 17, 1862, was fought near which town?
Sharpsburg
Antietam remains the bloodiest single day in American history, with 22,717 dead, wounded or missing.
Q 24Maryland's flag combines the arms of the Calvert family with those of which other family?
Crossland
George Calvert's mother was a Crossland heiress; the design was officially adopted in 1904.
Q 25By law, the only ornament allowed on top of a flagstaff flying the Maryland flag is what?
A gold cross bottony
The cross bottony is the same one that appears in the flag's red-and-white Crossland quarters.
Q 26Which spooky parlour game was named in 1890 in Maryland by medium Helen Peters Nosworthy?
Ouija
Elijah Bond's patent followed in 1891; the name is now a Hasbro trademark.
Q 27Which breed was declared Maryland's official state dog in 1964?
Chesapeake Bay Retriever
The breed traces to two Newfoundland-type puppies rescued from a shipwrecked brig in 1807.
Q 28Old Bay seasoning is named after what?
A Chesapeake passenger ship line
German-Jewish immigrant Gustav Brunn created it in Baltimore in 1939 after fleeing the Nazis; McCormick bought the brand in 1990.
Q 29How many herbs and spices go into Old Bay seasoning?
18
Celery salt, red and black pepper and paprika lead the list.
Q 30The presidential retreat Camp David lies in the wooded hills of which Maryland mountain?
Catoctin
Roosevelt called it Shangri-La; Eisenhower renamed it for his father and grandson, both named David.