Hey… why not a trivia quiz about our Finger Lakes? Not that this stuff is necessarily trivial, but “trivia” emphasizes that it’s just for fun. The asnwers are at the end.

*(1) Which Finger Lake is the only one that does not have a Native American name?

*(2) What community is the birthplace of women’s aviation, AND the birthplace of naval aviation?

*(3) From 1948 to 1976 the Hale Telescope was the largest telescpe in the world. From 1959 to 1973 the Shane Telescope was the SECOND largest in the world. What Finger Lakes company made the giant reflectors for each of these?

*(4) Which winery is U.S. Bonded Winery Number 1 for its state and Federal District?

*(5) Which Finger Lakes metropolis is home to the Great New York State Fair?

*(6) Is Rochester the Flower City, or the Flour City?

*(7) What Finger Lakes city plays host to linked men’s and women’s colleges?

*(8) What and where is New York’s Land-Grant college?

*(9) What thousand-mile foot trail system wends it way through, and beyond, the Finger Lakes?

*(10) What hurricane was responsible for the catastrophic 1972 flood?

*(11) Charles Williamson and Jemima Wilkinson were two of the founders of white settlement in this area, and they didn’t get along. Which one was strait-laced, and which was wild?

*(12) Which Indian Nation created and lived in the city of Ganondagan, near today’s Victor?

*(13) What huge building project went on in the Finger Lakes (and beyond) from 1817 to 1825?

*(14) What city is the Soaring Capital of America… where some of the earliest army glider pilots trained in World War II?

*(15) Which of these people were born in the 14-county Finger Lakes region? Glenn Curtiss, Mitch Miller, John D. Rockefeller, John Lithgow, Cab Calloway, Tommy Hilfiger, Margaret Sanger, Eileen Collins.

*ANSWERS

*(1) Hemlock Lake… although that’s actually a translation of the original Native name.

*(2) Hammondsport. Blanche Stuart Scott became the first American woman pilot there in 1910. In 1911 the navy took possession of its first two aircraft there, and spent the summer testing them out on Keuka Lake.

*(3) Corning Glass Works, back in the 1930s.

*(4) Pleasant Valley Wine Company (established 1860), near Hammondsport.

*(5) Syracuse. The Fair’s been there since 1890, plus occasionally hosting it prior to that.

*(6) You may have credit for either, or both. Rochester used to be the Flour City when milling grain was a big business, and became the Flower City as it became more residential.

*(7) Geneva, home of Hobart and William Smith Colleges.

*(8) Cornell University, in Ithaca.

*(9) The Finger Lakes Trail.

*(10) Hurricane Agnes, which killed 18 people in the Corning-Painted Post area, plus others throughout the region.

*(11) Pioneer prophetess Jemima Wilkinson was the strait-laced one. She condemned Williamson’s settlement at Bath as “a cesspool of iniquity.”

*(12) The Seneca.

*(13) The Erie Canal, which moved the economic focus from the Southern Tier to the canal corridor.

*(14) Elmira.

*(15) All of them, Katie!