Rhode Island
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7correct to beat the crowd
Challenge yourself with our comprehensive Rhode Island trivia quiz featuring 147 free questions with answers spanning the state's rich history, geography, culture, and iconic landmarks. From Providence's vibrant arts scene to Newport's famous mansions, this quiz covers everything you need to know about the Ocean State. Whether you're a Rhode Island native or planning a visit, test your knowledge and discover fascinating facts about America's smallest state.
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Q 01Rhode Island is the smallest state; which state is second smallest by area?
Delaware
Delaware covers about 2,490 square miles, making it second smallest; Rhode Island totals just 1,545, and roughly a third of that is water.
Q 02Which animated sitcom is set in a fictional Rhode Island town full of real Providence landmarks?
Family Guy
Family Guy was dreamed up in 1995 while Seth MacFarlane was studying animation at the Rhode Island School of Design, which is why the Griffins' hometown borrows so many local landmarks.
Q 03What single word is Rhode Island's official state motto?
Hope
Hope is fixed in state law as the motto and sits on the state seal; the word is thought to echo a verse in the biblical Letter to the Hebrews.
Q 04What flower was officially adopted as Rhode Island's state flower in 1968?
Violet
The violet had been voted in by schoolchildren back in 1897, but the state did not make it official until 1968, the last state in the country to adopt a flower.
Q 05What tree is recognized as Rhode Island's official state tree?
Red Maple
Red Maple won a vote of Rhode Island's schoolchildren in the 1890s, but the state took until 1964 to make the choice official.
Q 06What official nickname has Rhode Island earned through its bays and long coastline?
The Ocean State
The Ocean State fits because the sea is never far away: the smallest state is just 48 miles long, yet it has about 400 miles of coastline.
Q 07Which minister, banished from Massachusetts Bay for his 'dangerous opinions', founded Providence in 1636?
Roger Williams
Roger Williams slipped away in a blizzard in January 1636, days before the sheriff came for him, wintered with the Wampanoag and founded Providence that spring.
Q 08Which Rhode Island city, home to the state's main airport, grew from Samuel Gorton's 1642 Shawomet purchase?
Warwick
Warwick was called Shawomet until Samuel Gorton renamed it in gratitude to the Earl of Warwick, whose letter of protection got him home safely past the Massachusetts authorities.
Q 09Which word did Rhode Island voters strike from the state's official name in 2020?
Plantations
Plantations went when 53 percent of voters shortened 'State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations'; ten years earlier, 78 percent had voted to keep the long name.
Q 10Which river forms the southern stretch of the Rhode Island–Connecticut border at Westerly?
Pawcatuck River
The Pawcatuck River runs between Westerly and the Connecticut village of Pawcatuck, which face each other across a bridge, so a stroll downtown can cross a state line.
Q 11What is the highest natural point in Rhode Island?
Jerimoth Hill
Jerimoth Hill is only 812 feet high, yet for decades it was among the hardest state high points to reach, because the trail crossed land whose owner chased hikers away.
Q 12What 1938 disaster is Providence's Fox Point barrier built to stop?
Hurricane surge
Hurricane surge funnelled up the bay in 1938 and put downtown Providence under water; after Hurricane Carol flooded it again in 1954, the barrier went up across the river in the 1960s.
Q 13Which exiled Massachusetts dissenter settled Aquidneck Island in 1638, founding what became Portsmouth?
Anne Hutchinson
Q 21The Newport Casino, a Gilded Age social club, now houses which sport's international hall of fame?
Tennis
Tennis arrived with the club itself: the first US national championships were played on the Casino's courts in 1881, and that tournament grew into the US Open.
Q 22Rhode Island's state mineral, bowenite, is a green serpentine often passed off as which more precious stone?
Jade
Jade is what bowenite is often sold as, under trade names such as 'Suzhou jade'; the mineral is really a hard serpentine, named for George Bowen, who analysed it in 1822.
Q 23Rhode Island's State House is crowned by one of the world's largest self-supporting domes of which material?
Marble
Marble from Georgia clads the whole State House, and its dome is grand enough that the building stood in for the US Capitol in the 1997 film Amistad.
Anne Hutchinson was tried and banished for her religious teaching; five years later she and most of her household were killed in New Netherland, where she had moved from Rhode Island.
Q 14Rhode Island renounced allegiance to George III two months before which document was adopted?
Declaration of Independence
The Declaration of Independence came two months after Rhode Island's assembly renounced the king on May 4, 1776, a date state law sets aside each year as Rhode Island Independence Day.
Q 15Which fish did Rhode Island designate its official state fish in 2000?
Striped bass
Striped bass, the 'stripers' prized by New England anglers, leave the sea to spawn in fresh water; Rhode Island made the fish a state symbol in 2000.
Q 16Which Newport mansion, built for a railroad heir in the 1890s, is the grandest of the city's Gilded Age 'cottages'?
The Breakers
The Breakers has 70 rooms, yet Newport's Gilded Age rich called such palaces 'cottages' because they used them only as summer homes.
Q 17Which Ivy League university was chartered in 1764 as the college of the Rhode Island colony?
Brown
Brown began in the town of Warren, moved to Providence in 1770 and took its present name in 1804 from Nicholas Brown, the businessman whose gifts made him its great benefactor.
Q 18Which seafood dish became Rhode Island's official state appetizer in 2014?
Calamari
Calamari won the title because Rhode Island has the largest squid-fishing fleet on the East Coast, and the dish starred in the state's roll-call video at the 2020 Democratic convention.
Q 19Which facial-hair style takes its name, with the syllables flipped, from a Civil War general who became Rhode Island's governor?
Sideburns
Sideburns are 'burnsides' turned around: Ambrose Burnside's bushy side-whiskers were famous in the Union Army, and he went on to serve Rhode Island as governor and US senator.
Q 20What is the official state shell of Rhode Island?
Quahaug
The quahaug is a hard-shelled clam; its name comes from the Narragansett word poquauhock, and its shells were once worked into wampum beads.
Q 24What is Rhode Island's only telephone area code?
401
401 has covered all of Rhode Island since the first area codes were drawn up in 1947, and the number has become local shorthand: the state's annual charity drive is called 401Gives.
Q 25Cumberlandite, Rhode Island's state rock, is known for which unusual property?
Magnetism
Magnetism comes from magnetite, an iron ore that with ilmenite makes up as much as 70 percent of cumberlandite and makes the rock unusually heavy.
Q 26Rhode Island was the last original state to ratify what?
US Constitution
The US Constitution won Rhode Island's approval only in May 1790, after the state was threatened with being treated as a foreign country; it had sent no delegates to the convention that wrote it.
Q 27Yachts raced for the America's Cup off Newport until 1983, when which country ended a 132-year American winning streak?
Australia
Australia's yacht Australia II beat the American defender off Newport in 1983, and the next contest moved to Fremantle, ending the city's long run as host.
Q 28Providence is home to the oldest congregation in the United States of which Protestant denomination, gathered in 1638?
Baptist
Baptist worship in America began in a Providence home, where the town's founder led services for nearly a year before the group became a Baptist church in 1638.
Q 29What 1772 event saw colonists burn a British customs schooner in Narragansett Bay?
Gaspee Affair
The Gaspee Affair began when the schooner ran aground chasing a packet boat; Providence men rowed out that night, shot and wounded its commander, and burned the ship to the waterline.
Q 30What is the gilded statue atop the Rhode Island State House dome called?
The Independent Man
The Independent Man has stood on the dome since 1899; in December 2023 a crane lifted him down for restoration after drone footage showed damage to the base beneath him.