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This Savannah trivia quiz has 50 free questions with answers and covers Georgia's oldest city from Oglethorpe's landing at Yamacraw Bluff in 1733 to the yellow-tuxedoed Bananas at Grayson Stadium. In between: the 22 squares and the plan that laid them out, the Christmas gift Sherman telegraphed to Lincoln, the fountain in Forsyth Park, the Bird Girl and 'the Book', the bench where Forrest Gump waited for a bus, the Girl Scouts' birthplace, the oldest bar in Georgia, the hydrogen bomb lying off Tybee Island and the girl who waved at every ship for 44 years. Early questions suit anyone who has walked River Street once. Later ones are for locals and SCAD alumni: which governor the bridge is named for, what the Owens-Thomas House hides, and how many soldiers from Saint-Domingue fought in the 1779 siege. Use it for a bar trivia round, a Hostess City welcome party or a road-trip warm-up. Every answer has been checked against a documented source that appears beneath the explanation.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Savannah holds what distinction among the cities of its state?
Oldest city
Founded in 1733, it was the colonial capital and then the first state capital before Augusta took over.
Q 02Which British general landed at Yamacraw Bluff with the first settlers on 12 February 1733?
James Oglethorpe
He was greeted by the Yamacraw chief Tomochichi and the traders John and Mary Musgrove.
Q 03What was the name of the ship that carried Oglethorpe and the first colonists to Savannah?
The Anne
The colony's founder had chaired a Parliamentary committee on debtors' prisons and hoped to resettle Britain's 'worthy poor'.
Q 04As a colonial administrator, Oglethorpe instituted a ban on slavery and on what else in early Georgia?
Alcohol
Both bans were lifted within a couple of decades as the colony's economy shifted toward plantations.
Q 05How many of Savannah's original public squares survive in its Historic District?
22
The layout, known as the Oglethorpe Plan, arranged each ward around a central square with four residential and four civic blocks.
Q 06In the Oglethorpe Plan, what were the residential units of ten houses around each square called?
Tythings
Each held ten houses, and each family was also given a 45-acre farm plot outside town.
Q 07Which of the 22 squares was the first to be laid out, in 1733, and remains the largest?
Johnson
The first flag of secession raised in the South went up there in November 1860.
Q 08Forrest Gump's park bench was placed at the northern edge of which of the 22 squares?
Chippewa
The square is named for a War of 1812 battle, and its centrepiece is a 1910 statue of Oglethorpe by Daniel Chester French.
Q 09Daniel Chester French's 1910 statue of Oglethorpe faces south with sword drawn. Toward what?
Spanish Florida
Spain's colony was Georgia's chief enemy in the 1730s and 40s.
Q 10After capturing Savannah on 22 December 1864, Sherman offered the city to Lincoln as what?
A Christmas present
His army of 62,000 had marched from Atlanta living off the land in what Sherman called 'hard war'.
Q 11Forsyth Park's famous fountain, installed in 1858, resembles the fountains in which Paris square?
Place de la Concorde
The park covers 30 acres and is named for John Forsyth, a governor of Georgia.
Q 12Forsyth Park is named after John Forsyth, who held what office?
Governor of Georgia
The park started as 10 acres donated by William Brown Hodgson and was expanded and renamed in 1851.
Q 13Bonaventure Cemetery sits on a bluff above which waterway?
The Wilmington
At nearly 160 acres it is the largest of Savannah's municipal cemeteries and was once a plantation.
Q 21Juliette Gordon Low founded which organisation in Savannah on 12 March 1912?
The Girl Scouts
She had met Robert Baden-Powell on an ocean liner and started her first Girl Guide troop in England the year before.
Q 22What was Juliette Gordon Low's lifelong nickname?
Daisy
Her family also called her 'Crazy Daisy'; a mishap with a grain of rice at her wedding left her deaf in one ear.
Q 23The Savannah College of Art and Design was founded in which year?
1978
It opened its first classes in 1979 with 71 students; today it enrols more than 17,000 and also has campuses in Atlanta and Lacoste, France.
Q 14The 1994 book that made Bonaventure Cemetery famous was subtitled 'A Savannah Story'. What is its title?
Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil
John Berendt's debut stayed on the New York Times bestseller list for 216 weeks; locals just call it 'the Book'.
Q 15The book's central story concerns antiques dealer Jim Williams, on trial for the shooting of whom?
Danny Hansford
The shooting happened in 1981 at Mercer House on Monterey Square, which Williams had restored.
Q 16Who directed the 1997 film adaptation of 'the Book', with Kevin Spacey as Jim Williams?
Clint Eastwood
Several characters' names were changed for the film to protect their privacy.
Q 17The Bird Girl statue from the book's cover was moved from the cemetery in 1997 to which institution?
The Telfair
The figure was designed as a birdseed holder; the photograph by Jack Leigh made it a tourist magnet.
Q 18The 'Book' mansion on Monterey Square was built for which songwriter's great-grandfather?
Johnny Mercer
General Hugh Mercer commissioned it in 1860, but the Civil War stalled construction and it was finished around 1868 by a cotton merchant.
Q 19The Savannah-born lyricist of 'Moon River' co-founded which record label?
Capitol Records
He wrote the words to more than 1,200 songs, including 'Moon River', and won four Oscars.
Q 20As a ten-year-old, the future 'Moon River' lyricist swept floors at which Savannah institution, founded in 1919?
Leopold's Ice Cream
The parlour was founded by two Greek immigrant brothers; it is now run by Hollywood producer Stratton Leopold.
Q 24The Savannah Bananas play a fast-paced, fan-first version of baseball known as what?
Banana Ball
The team is often compared with the Harlem Globetrotters, but its games are unscripted and competitive.
Q 25The Bananas' regular opponents, in the manner of the Washington Generals, are called what?
The Party Animals
The team was founded in 2016 at Grayson Stadium after the minor-league Sand Gnats left town.
Q 26Which barrier beach town, 18 miles east of the city, was officially 'Savannah Beach' from 1929 to 1978?
Tybee
The phrase 'from Rabun Gap to Tybee Light' is used to describe the whole span of Georgia.
Q 27In February 1958 the U.S. Air Force accidentally dropped what into Wassaw Sound near Savannah?
An atomic bomb
The Mark 15 weapon was jettisoned after a mid-air collision and still lies somewhere in Wassaw Sound.
Q 28Fort Pulaski, between Savannah and Tybee, is famous for an 1862 bombardment that proved what?
Rifled cannon made brick forts obsolete
The new guns breached the wall within 30 hours; a young Robert E. Lee had helped build the fort.
Q 29Which Polish nobleman was mortally wounded leading cavalry in the 1779 Siege of Savannah?
Casimir Pulaski
About 545 soldiers from Saint-Domingue, today's Haiti, fought on the Franco-American side in the same siege.
Q 30The SS Savannah, which sailed from the city in May 1819, was the first steamship to do what?
Cross the Atlantic
She ran out of fuel off Cork and reached Liverpool mostly under sail; no other American steamship crossed for nearly 30 years.