1. If “newest” national park is taken to mean the park most recently opened to the public, then ______ is America’s newest national park.
a. Okalahoma City National Memorial
b. Sand Creek Massacre National Historic Site
c. Flight 93 National Memorial
d. First Ladies National Historic Site

2. New York’s ______ was transported to a new location earlier this year.
a. Federal Hall National Memorial
b. Hamilton Grange National Memorial
c. General Grant National Memorial
d. Theodore Roosevelt Inaugural National Historic Site

3. On New Years Day in 1963, Whitman National Monument in the state of ______ was redesignated Whitman Mission National Historic Site.
a. Kansas
b. Colorado
c. Oregon
d. Washington

4. True or false? New River Gorge National River visitors may legally arrive by parachute.

5. True or false? Visitors must pay an admission fee to enter the new visitor center at Gettysburg National Military Park.

6. True or false? When Newton B. Drury was appointed director of the National Park Service, he was the only director who had started his National Park Service career as a seasonal ranger and worked his way up through the ranks.

7. True or false? Newfound Gap Road in Great Smoky Mountains National Park and Going-to-the-Sun Road in Glacier National Park were both completed in the early 1930s.

8. On New Years Eve in 1987, El Malpais National Monument was established in New Mexico What does "El Malpais” mean in Spanish?

9. A new attraction opened at the Rock Creek Park Nature Center in 1961, and today it remains the only facility of its kind in the National Park System. Do you know what this dome-shaped structure is?

10. New Orleans Jazz National Historical Park currently has a temporary visitor center in the French Quarter. The park will eventually have a new visitor center in a park named for a famous New Orleans-based musician. Can you name the musician?

Extra Credit Question:

11. On Inauguration Day 1969, a new president was sworn in on the Capitol steps in Washington, DC, and a new national park was established in Arizona. Neither the man nor the park fared well in the long run. In 1974, second-term president Richard Nixon resigned the presidency. The very next year, Marble Canyon National Monument ceased to exist. What happened to the park?

Super Bonus Question:

12. The New Bedford Whaling National Historical Park in New Bedford, Massachusetts, has established a working relationship with the Inupiat Heritage Center, an Affiliated Area in Barrow, Alaska. Why is that a logical association?

Answers:

(1) b -- Sand Creek Massacre National Historic Site, which is located about 80 miles southeast of Denver, Colorado, was opened to the public on June 1, 2007.

(2) b –- New York City’s Hamilton Grange National Memorial consists of an 1801 mansion built by Alexander Hamilton. In early June of this year the building was moved to St. Nicholas Park from its former site on Convent Avenue.

(3) d -- Whitman Mission National Historic Site is located just west of Walla Walla, Washington, at the Waiilatpu site of the former Whitman Mission.

(4) True. During designated hours on Bridge Day each October, hundreds of BASE-jumpers are permitted to parachute from the New River Gorge Bridge, which is State of West Virginia property, and land on New River Gorge National River property.

(5) False. Visitors may enter the park’s new visitor center without paying a fee. (Other free areas include the battlefield, the Soldiers' National Cemetery park area, the refreshment saloon, the museum store, theater exhibits, the resource room, and the museum lobby.) Visitors who want to tour the new museum, watch the interpretive film, and view the Cyclorama viewing, must pay an all-in-one fee that is currently $7.50 for adults.

(6) False. Newton Drury, who was appointed National Park Service director in 1940, was the first director who had no prior experience with the agency.

(7) True. Newfound Gap Road was completed in 1932 and Going-to-the-Sun Road was completed in 1933 (though not officially opened until 1934).

(8) El Malpais is the Spanish term for "badlands" or "bad country." It is an apt term for the park’s jagged volcanic terrain.

(9) The Rock Creek Park Nature Center’s planetarium is the only planetarium in the National Park System.

(10) The New Orleans Jazz National Historical Park visitor center will eventually be situated in Louis Armstrong Park, a 32-acre park located adjacent to the French Quarter. Louis “Satchmo” Armstrong (1901-1971), perhaps the most famous jazz trumpeter of all time, was a New Orleans native.

(11) The Grand Canyon National Park Enlargement Act of 1975 absorbed Marble Canyon National Monument into Grand Canyon National Park. Marble Canyon is the stretch of the Colorado River extending northeast from the Grand Canyon to Lees Ferry.

(12) During the 1800s, whaling ships based in New Bedford made more than 2,000 whaling trips to the western Arctic Ocean region where the Inupiat (Eskimo) live. The Inupiat Heritage Center tells the story of the Inupiat people, and that involves collecting preserving, and exhibiting historical material associated with commercial whaling activities that took place in their homeland and impacted their culture. (The Inupiat, incidentally, continue to hunt bowhead whales for subsistence.)

Grading: 9 or 10 correct, rest on your laurels; 7 or 8 correct, pretty darn good; 6 correct, passable fair; 5 or fewer correct, nothing to brag about.