1. What is the only state that has no National Park System unit?
2. Who is the only living person commemorated with a National Park System unit?
3. What is the only National Park System unit that has the word Shrine as part of its title?
4. What is the only National Park System unit established to commemorate whaling and its contribution to American history?
5. What is the only National Park System unit created to commemorate a town established by African-Americans?
6. What is the only pair of neighboring National Park System units that is collectively referred to as “National Monument and Preserve”?
7. What is the only city in the United States that the National Park Service has recently challenged in court for misusing the name of one of the 58 National Parks?
8. What National Park System unit preserves the birth home of the only person ever to serve as both President of the United States and Chief Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court?
9. What is the only U.S. state or territory that has a National Park System unit with the word Abraham in its title?
10. What is the only National Park Service-administered national monument that has “National Monument of America” as part of its title?
Extra Credit Question:
11. Fifty-seven of the 58 National Parks are at least partially owned by the Department of Interior. Can you name the only National Park-designated National Park System unit that is not?
Super Bonus Question:
12. What is the only state that has no part of the National Trails System within its borders?
Answers:
(1) Delaware is the only remaining state that has no National Park System unit within its borders.
(2) Until land is acquired for the newly-authorized William Jefferson Clinton Boyhood Home National Historic Site, Jimmy Carter holds that distinction, thanks to the Jimmy Carter National Historic Site in Plains, Georgia.
(3) Baltimore’s Fort McHenry National Monument and Historic Shrine is still the only NPS unit with the word Shrine in its title. Give yourself a little credit if you remembered the Stonewall Jackson Shrine, which is part of Virginia’s Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania County Battlefields Memorial National Military Park.
(4) New Bedford Whaling National Historical Park in Massachusetts is the only National Park System unit established specifically for this purpose.
(5) Nicodemus National Historic Site in Kansas commemorates an all-black town established in 1877 by blacks fleeing the post-Reconstruction South.
(6) This distinction belongs to Craters of the Moon National Monument and its adjoining -- and much larger -- neighbor, Craters of the Moon National Preserve. (The latter, though counted as an NPS unit, is jointly managed with the Bureau of Land Management.) Give yourself a pat on the back if you knew that Alaska's Aniakchak National Monument and Preserve is counted as a single Natonal Park System unit.
(7) Hot Springs, Arkansas, has nearly 40,000 residents and is the tenth-most populous city in the state of Arkansas. The city has been calling itself Hot Springs National Park in advertising since at least 1918. Citing trademark issues, the Interior Department has challenged the city’s right to use that name in ways that blur the distinction between the city and the national park. BTW, give yourself an extra half-point if you remembered that there's an incorporated place called National Park, New Jersey.
(8) William Howard Taft National Historic Site in Cincinnati, Ohio (see accompanying photo), honors the only man ever to hold the highest position in both the Executive and Judicial branches of the Federal government.
(9) Kentucky, home of the Abraham Lincoln Birthplace National Historic Site, is the only U.S. state or territory that has a National Park System unit with the word Abraham in its title. Although Indiana, Illinois, and the District of Columbia all have National Park System units commemorating Lincoln, all of the unit titles only use Lincoln’s last name.
(10) Nebraska’s Homestead National Monument of America is the only “National Monument of America.”
(11) National Park of American Samoa is the only National Park-designated unit of the National Park System that is not at least partially owned by the Department of the Interior. The land in the territory of American Samoa belongs to the people in perpetuity, handed down from family to family. The Interior Department signed a 50-year lease in 1993.
(12) Now that Rhode Island has part of the newly-established Washington-Rochambeau Route Revolutionary National Historic Trail, Indiana is the only remaining state with no component of the National Trails System (parts of which are National Park Service-administered). How odd that Indiana, the "Crossroads of America" state, has not been crossed by any of the 28 trails in the National Trails System.
** The Quizmeister offers a hearty “thank you!” to Sabattis, whose help with this and other quizzes has proven invaluable.
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.
Comments
On No 6: The preserve land is owned and administrated by the BLM.
Craters of the Moon National Preserve is indeed a National Park System unit, MRC, even though it is jointly administered with the Bureau of Land Management. To state this in another way, Craters of the Moon National Preserve is included in the 391-count of National Park System units, even though managerial responsibility for the unit is shared with another federal agency. BTW, the Park Service uses the same four-letter code (CROM) for the monument and the preserve, and both units have the same Superintendent (Douglas Neighbor).
Re #8: as I recall, Lyndon Johnson was Speaker of the House before becoming President. I think that constitutes the "highest position" in the Legislative branch, no?
You are quite right, Moi. Nice catch. The clarification didn't change the question's answer (which is still William Howard Taft), but I edited the answer explanation to remove the erroneous statement that you caught.