100 Things Every Reno-Sparks Resident Should Know

Of course you're new.

Everybody is new in northern Nevada, but that doesn't make your ignorance forgivable or clever. In fact, to those of us who've been here long enough to wear out a couple of pairs of pointy-toed boots, there is nothing more irritating than a Johnny-come-lately who mispronounces Kietzke Lane or tongue-trips over Oddie Boulevard or can't say the name of the towns of Verdi or Genoa or even (for God's sake) chimes in with "Nevahda."

For a fuller understanding of the area to which you've moved, you need to know a little history‹if for no other reason than to prevent your personal embarrassment when you call the Comstock a gold mine.

So sit a spell, sharpen up the old No. 2 and see exactly how much you know about this place in which you've chosen to build your life, strip malls and traffic jams. Don't forget: I-80 runs both east and west.

Click on the blinking ball to see the answer.

1. Who had the first settlement in what is now Reno?
a) Myron Lake
b) Charles William Fuller
c) Thomas Jeff Milligan
d) Bill Harrah

2. What three Native American tribes does the head at Idlewild represent?
a) Pawnee, Omaha, Sioux
b) Blackfoot, Comanche, Arapahoe
c) Shoshone, Washo, Paiute
d) Iroquois, Crow, Cree

3. Who or what is the name "Sparks" from?
a) Miner William "Sparks" Spakinski
b) So close to Hell, you can see ...
c) Nevada Governor John Sparks
d) Sparks from trains

4. Who or what did Reno get its name from?
a) Rhymes with Keno
b) Spanish word for reindeer
c) General Jesse Lee Reno
d) Named after Reno arch

5. Where did the Fight of the Century on July 4, 1910, between Jack Johnson and Jim Jeffries, take place?
a) Reno City Council
b) Reno-Sparks Convention Center
c) Silver Legacy
d) Fourth Street

6. How did the Truckee River get its name?
a) It was named after Truckee, Calif.
b) It was named after a Paiute chief.
c) It was named after Daniel Boone's mother.
d) It was the Native American name for the river.

7. Where was the first dude ranch?
a) TM Ranch near Sutcliff
b) Moonlight Bunny Ranch near Lovelock
c) Rancho Cordova near Minden
d) Caughlin Ranch in Reno.

8. Where is the oldest Methodist church west of the Mississippi?
a) In Reno, on First and West streets
b) Vine and 14th Street in Kansas City, Mo.
c) In Sparks, on Pyramid Highway and Victorian Avenue
d) Virginia City

9. Mary Pickford got her quickie Minden divorce in 1920 to marry whom?
a) Errol Flynn
b) Rock Hudson
c) Jimmy Stewart
d) Douglas Fairbanks

10. Which entertainers worked at the Mapes?
a) Liberace, Danny Thomas, Mae West
b) Gypsy Rose Lee, Nelson Eddy, Milton Berle
c) The Marx Brothers, Lena Horne, Ann-Margret
d) Sammy Davis, Jr., Vic Damone, Lynda Carter

11. What is the Circus-Circus clown's name?
a) Krusty
b) Bozo
c) Topsy
d) Jeff Griffin

12. Where is the statue of the Basque Sheepherder?
a) Nevada Museum of Art
b) In the Sante Fe restaurant
c) Rancho San Rafael
d) In front of the new Federal Building

13. What happened to the fountain at Virginia Lake?
a) It got clogged with goose poop.
b) Tappa Kegga Day stole it.
c) What fountain?
d) Ducks ate it.

14. Which former Washoe County district attorney parlayed skills with a lighter into a career in politics?
a) Dorothy Nash Holmes
b) William Raggio
c) Cal Dunlap
d) Mills Lane

15. Which former Washoe County district attorney parleyed their political hubris into a television career?
a) Mills Lane
b) Joseph Wapner
c) Dorothy Nash Holmes
d) Cal Dunlap

16. Arthur Miller wrote what classic screenplay about Nevada?
a) South of Reno
b) Hard Eight
c) The Misfits
d) Vive Las Vegas

17. The Misfits features what Washoe County landmark?
a) The old Washoe County Courthouse
b) The Wingfield Park Amphitheater
c) Don Dondero
d) Shopper's Square Mall

18. Which actors never made another movie after The Misfits?
a) Marilyn Monroe and Clark Gable
b) Montgomery Clift and Jayne Mansfield
c) Clark Gable and Montgomery Cliff
d) a and c

19. Where did Billy Martin punch out a Reno sportswriter?
a) Centennial Coliseum
b) Yankee Stadium
c) Buffalo Bar
d) Reno Gazette-Journal newsroom

20. Who "shot a man in Reno, just to watch him die"?
a) Johnny Cash
b) Pick Hobson
c) Joseph Crowley
d) Bernard Goetz

21. Who or what was a Priscilla Ford?
a) A model of car
b) A mass murderer
c) Elvis' first wife
d) Joan Lunden's replacement on Good Morning America

22. What is the oldest standing building in Washoe County
a) Masonic Building on Commercial Row and Sierra Street
b) Washoe County Court House
c) The Riverside
d) The Frankovich house

23. Landrum's was a
a) famous diner on Virginia Street.
b) poorly known diner on Rock Street.
c) busy barber shop in Harrah's.
d) a and b

24. Where is Manzanita Lake?
a) Idlewild Park
b) It is the old name of Virginia Lake.
c) University of Nevada, Reno
d) Double Diamond Ranch

25. Who was Jacob Davis?
a) Levi Strauss' brother in law
b) The Reno tailor who added the first copper rivets to Levi's jeans
c) The Sparks city official who became Gertrude Stein's lifelong lover
d) The namesake of Davis Creek Park

26. What famous bird was arrested or impounded by the U.S. Treasury Department?
a) Chubby Chukar
b) Big Bird at the Mustang Ranch
c) Lady Bird Johnson
d) Solid-Gold Rooster at John Ascuaga's Nugget

27. Where did the IRS legally screw taxpayers in 1990?
a) The IRS building on Moana Lane
b) The Mustang Ranch
c) The federal building on Booth Street
d) All of the above

28. Who is Cleanface?
a) Dow's Scrubbing Bubbles
b) Henry Kissinger
c) The Ivory Girl
d) We ain't saying

29. When did gambling last become legal?
a) 1921
b) What? Gambling's legal?
c) 1863
d) 1931

30. What's Reno's elevation?
a) 4,412 feet above sea level
b) 5,826 feet above sea level
c) 1,040 feet above sea level
d) 3,006 feet above sea level

31. When was Sparks incorporated?
a) March 11, 1905
b) April 1, 1868
c) March 28, 1892
d) Nov. 20, 1959

32. What world-famous rock band was accused of putting subliminal messages on their album, which caused two area youths to shoot themselves?
a) Judas Priest
b) Pearl Jam
c) Milli Vanilli
d) Phat Couch

33. Louis Erreguible
a) owns a Basque restaurant on Fourth Street.
b) founded the Comstock mine.
c) built the Truckee River flume.
d) won the National Spelling Bee in 1997.

34. How many Reno arches have there been?
a) four
b) three
c) two
d) one

35. Who came up with the slogan Biggest Little City In The World?
a) Harry Spencer
b) Reno-Sparks Convention & Visitors Authority
c) Harold "Pappy" Smith
d) G. A. Burns of Sacramento

36. Who was the boxer murdered at Mustang Ranch?
a) Oscar Bonavena
b) Oscar de la Renta
c) Oscar de la Hoya
d) Oscar de Grouch

37. Where did Milli Vanilli record their first album, although under a different name?
a) Granny's House
b) FSU Studios
c) Pete Menchetti's basement
d) Sierra Sonics

38. What's the oldest building at UNR?
a) Morrill Hall
b) The cat house next to the library
c) John Brown's cabin
d) Lincoln Hall

39. Who were the three journalists who won a Pulitzer Prize for editorial writing?
a) Sue Clark-Johnson, Ward Bushee, Bruce Bledsoe
b) Warren Lerude, Foster Church, Norman F. Cardoza
c) Mark Twain, Dan DeQuille, Lucius Beebe
d) Erik Espe, D. Brian Burghart, Amy Paris

40. Where was the largest moon?
a) UNR
b) Orbiting Jupiter
c) Following Chris Farley
d) Don't ask

41. Where is the most expensive bowling alley in the world?
a) Starlite Bowl
b) Greenbrae Lanes
c) Reno Hilton
d) National Bowling Stadium

42. Who owned the car collection that was decimated to make the National Automobile Collection?
a) William Harrah
b) Mannie, Moe and Jack
c) Billy Joe Thornton
d) Raymond I. Smith

43. Where is Interstate 580?
a) Beginning at the spaghetti bowl on U.S. 395 and I-80
b) The highway between Reno and Virginia City
c) Under Washoe Lake
d) None of the above

44. Where was the oldest school in Nevada? It was open from 1864-1958.
a) Glendale School
b) Proctor Hug High School
c) Mackay School of Mines
d) Bauhaus School of Architecture

45. When was Washoe County's first drunk driving conviction?
a) March 28, 1962
b) Jan. 31, 1945
c) Feb. 25, 1927
d) April 5, 1975

46. Which is the largest slot machine manufacturer in the world?
a) Bally's
b) International Game Technology
c) Lucky Draw Enterprizes
d) Yakuza Junkie Bilkers

47. Where is the shrunken head?
a) Reno Psychic Institute
b) Wilbur B. May Museum
c) Nevada Mental Health Institute
d) It's a rock formation at Pyramid Lake

48. Who are Bertha and Angel?
a) Fourth Street hookers
b) John Ascuaga's elephants
c) Our favorite cocktail waitresses at the Flamingo Hilton
d) Yanni's backup singers

49. Who or what was Roy Frisch?
a) The owner of the Bank Club
b) The famous hanging judge supplanted by Mills Lane
c) A peculiarly effective rose fertilizer
d) A former cashier who disappeared before testifying against the mob

50. Who was Paul Laxalt?
a) President Reagan's First Friend
b) Nevada governor
c) Nevada senator
d) All of the above

51. What famous architect designed the Riverside, the downtown post office, and the County Court House?
a) Frank Lloyd Wright
b) Frederick Delongchamps
c) I.M. Pei
d) Albert Kahn

52. Where did the bricks for the Mapes come from?
a) Reno Press Brick Co.
b) New York City
c) San Francisco
d) The building it was built atop

53. What local TV news anchor has a lifetime contract?
a) Tim Robinson
b) Terry Hendry
c) Sam Shad
d) Tad Dunbar

54. Where did the Nevada Opera A-frame come from?
a) The Stead Air Force Base
b) The 1960 Olympic Village
c) It was a storage shed at the Reindeer Lodge
d) Leo the Lion's cage from the MGM Grand

55. What local skier's training techniques won him/her the Tour de France?
a) Jean-Claude Killy
b) Patty Sheehan
c) Kristi Yamaguchi
d) Greg Lemond

56. What was the crime that started Renoites locking their doors?
a) Helter Skelter
b) Roy Frisch's disappearance
c) Sonja McCaskie's murder
d) Installation of the piece in front of the Federal Building

57. Where was Joe Conforte's first brothel?
a) San Francisco
b) Virginia City
c) Commercial Row in Reno
d) Northwest corner of Virginia and Court streets

58. Where is the Civil War Cemetery?
a) Just off Angel Street
b) 1661 N. Virginia St.
c) 1155 Beech St.
d) Corner of Sixth Street and Keystone Avenue

59. According to legend, what did women throw off the Virginia Street bridge?
a) Their husbands
b) Their bras
c) Their wedding rings
d) Wedding rice

60. The art in front of the Federal Building represents what?
a) A tuna melt
b) Swiss cheese
c) A Native American bone artifact
d) Metal with holes

61. What groundbreaking women's rights event happened in May 1952?
a) The Equal Rights Amendment passed in Nevada.
b) Women got the right to vote in Washoe County.
c) The Bank Club got women dealers.
d) Women were OK'd for driver's licenses in Washoe County.

62. What famous gangsters hung around Reno in the 1930s?
a) Baby Faced Nelson
b) John Dillinger
c) Pretty Boy Floyd
d) All of the above

63. What event forever changed Wells Avenue on March 17, 1960?
a) The stoplight on Vassar street was installed.
b) Reno's first St. Patrick's Day Parade was celebrated.
c) Priscilla Ford took out Eatos Burritos.
d) The Pink Pussycat opened.

64. Who was the famous signing chimp at UNR?
a) Lancelot Link
b) Washoe
c) Fudgie
d) Bonzo

65. The Flood of 1997 resulted in?
a) The largest eight-day release of water from Lake Tahoe in history
b) Hundreds of millions of dollars in damage
c) Massive hydrophobia
d) All of the above

66. When and where did Burning Man ignite?
a) MGM Grand in 1980
b) The Black Rock Desert in 1984
c) Mojave Desert in 1908
d) On a California beach in 1986

67. What hospital began as a convent and school in 1897?
a) Animal Care Hospital
b) Washoe Medical Center
c) Northern Nevada Medical Center
d) Saint Mary's Regional Medical Center

68. Who was Reno's first mayor?
a) Frank Byington
b) Richard Kirman
c) George P. Turritin
d) Don Dondero

69. Who was John Douglas?
a) The first president of the University of Nevada, Reno
b) The first proprietor of the Mustang Ranch
c) Reno's first police chief
d) Reno High's first principal

70. Where was Lake's crossing?
a) On the site of the Lake Street Bridge
b) On the site of the Riverside Hotel
c) On the site of the Arlington Avenue Bridge
d) On the site of the Donner Summit

71. What day was Reno town site laid out?
a) April Fool's Day, 1868
b) Last week at the Planning Commission meeting
c) July 4, 1886
d) It grew haphazardly.

72. What Reno politician did Joe Conforte hope to blackmail with an underage girl?
a) Sam Frank
b) Pete Sferrazza
c) Tom Herndon
d) William Raggio

73. Where was the safe reportedly used by Washoe County district attorneys to store useful backgrounds about prominent local individuals?
a) In a secretary's office on the second floor
b) Next to the walk-through metal detector
c) In the County Clerk's office
d) On the third floor, in the judge's chambers

74. What was the airline that crashed during takeoff near Meadowood Mall on Super Bowl Sunday in 1985?
a) Southwest Airlines
b) Reno Air
c) Galaxy Airlines
d) United Airlines

75. What was Washoe County's first commercial radio station?
a) KOLO
b) KRZG
c) KOH
d) KODS

76. When was Reno incorporated?
a) Dec. 25, 1853
b) April 8, 1879
c) Feb. 29, 1900
d) June 22, 1903

77. What was the name of Reno's first movie theater?
a) Rivoli Theater
b) Granada Theater
c) Crest Theater
d) Vitagraph Theater

78. What famous author's father served as president of UNR from 1917-1938?
a) F. Scott Fitzgerald
b) Ernest Hemingway
c) Walter Van Tilburg Clark
d) Mike Land

79. What Reno mayor's former wife appeared in Playboy?
a) Pete Sferrazza
b) Jeff Griffin
c) Samuel Dibitonto
d) Fred Shair

80. What former Reno resident was the basis of Ernest Hemingway's Robert Jordan in For Whom the Bell Tolls?
a) Jake Barnes
b) Robert Hale Merriman
c) Hail, hail, the gang's all here
d) Nathan Hale

81. What local punk music band reached national stature in the early '80s?
a) Boston Wranglers
b) The Dogs
c) 7Seconds
d) Sutro

82. What Reno park was named after the person who is challenging Charles Kuralt's will?
a) Susan Idlewild
b) George Wingfield
c) Pat Baker
d) Mary Lou Fisherman

83. Where is Walter Van Tilberg Clark buried?
a) Our Mother Of Sorrows Cemetery
b) Sierra Memorial Gardens
c) Mountain View Cemetery
d) Virginia City Cemetery

84. Who's John Mackay?
a) The beverage manager at Atlantis Casino
b) A rich Comstock miner who has buildings named after him at UNR
c) The sole proprieter of the Razzle Dazzle club on Fourth Street.
d) A UNR Wolf Pack quarterback

85. Who was Bill Fong?
a) Winner of the record-setting MegaBucks jackpot
b) A online pseudonym of Kathie Lee Gifford
c) Reno inventor of the Fong bathing suit
d) Owner of the New China Club

86. Who is Last Chance Joe?
a) A blind homeless man who Reno police left at the California border during a snowstorm
b) John Ascuaga's Nugget's miner
c) The Camel cigarette spokescamel
d) A blend of coffee favored by the Coffee Grinder

87. What was Nevada's first skyscaper?
a) Rollan Melton's house
b) The Pioneer Center for the Performing Arts
c) The 12-story Mapes built in 1947
d) The Big Shot

88. What was Reno's first public park?
a) Powning Park
b) Wingfield Park
c) Rancho San Rafael Park
d) Idlewild Park

89. Who was Sadie Hurst?
a) A Reno woman who was Nevada's first female state legislator
b) A Sparks woman who had dances in which the women invited the men
c) The inventor of the Hurst shifter
d) Patty Hurst's mother, who was kidnapped by the Simbianese Liberation Army

90. Who was the first woman mayor of Reno?
a) Catherine Atkins
b) Leslie Sferrazza
c) Barbara Bennet
d) Michelle Lacerda

91. What railroad does Reno owe its life to?
a) Burlington Northern Railroad
b) Union Pacific Railroad
c) Southern Pacific Railroad
d) Central Pacific Railroad Company

92. What happened to Reno's Chinatown in 1908?
a) Everyone moved to Sparks.
b) It became the most popular area of Reno, and rich people moved in.
c) Chinese-American citizens got tired of racism and moved to Mississippi.
d) Reno city officials burned it down just as winter began.

93. What was the Stockade?
a) The holding pen at the Livestock Events Center
b) A steak house in Harrah's
c) The Reno city jail before an official one was built
d) A legal brothel from the 1920s

94. Who was called by Fortune magazine "The Duke of Nevada?"
a) Neil Cobb
b) Duke Ellington
c) John Wayne
d) Norman Biltz

95. What was the "Red Line?"
a) The Reno City Council drew a red line around five blocks of downtown where casino development could take place without special permission.
b) The Fun Train that came from San Francisco to Reno.
c) The profit-loss statement of Reno Redevelopment Agency
d) The imaginary line that divided legal and illegal prostitution.

96. What is an "eye in the sky?"
a) A casino surveilance camera
b) Channel 8's traffic helicopter
c) Something that makes drug addicts extremely nervous
d) A police chopper.

97. Who was Glen A. Smoot?
a) Reno's first traffic engineer, he started in 1956.
b) The town drunk in 1984
c) The first city manager in 1936
d) You're kidding, right?

98. What event officially moved Washoe County into the age of automobiles?
a) Reno's first auto mechanic opened shop in 1907.
b) Reno's last livery stable was torn down in 1929.
c) Sparks outlawed horses on public streets in 1913.
d) Sparks' last blacksmith closed shop in 1927.

99. Whose signature is on the bowling ball in the statue in the National Bowling Stadium?
a) Michael Houghton
b) Dennis Condon
c) Jay Milligan
d) Carol Infranca

100. Who was Sparks' first mayor?
a) W.E. Dalton
b) A. Pollock
c) W. J. Stinson
d) A. Blundell

This little quiz was compiled by D. Brian Burghart with assistance from Nevada Towns & Tales, edited by Stanley Paher; Nevada Ghost Towns & Mining Camps by Stanley Paher; Nevada: A History by Robert Laxalt; The Nevada Trivia Book by Richard Moreno; A Short History of Reno by Barbara and Myrick Land; and assistance by Phillip Earl, curator of history at the Nevada Historical Society.