With the publication of Homewaters, I thought it would be fun to create a little quiz related to Puget Sound. I will also provide the answers next week.
1. The oldest archaeological evidence for people in Puget Sound was found in Redmond and dates from at least 12,500 years ago. What is it?
a. Hundreds of pieces of rock used to make tools.
b. Bones from a giant sloth with an embedded antler projectile point.
c. Pieces of a canoe.
d. MS-DOS branded coffee mug
2. What is the oldest known animal collected in Puget Sound?
a. A 205-year old rougheye rockfish
b. A 173-year old geoduck.
c. A 200-year old red sea urchin.
d. All of the above.
3. What is famous about the steamer Capital?
a. It was the second steamer to arrive in Puget Sound.
b. It was piloted by Bing Crosby’s great-granduncle Clanrick Crosby.
c. After being abandoned by its captain, the paddlewheeler continued spinning and sort of walked itself across the tideflats at Olympia.
d. It inspired Karl Marx to name one of his books.
4. Which of these sailors was the first European to see the Strait of Juan de Fuca?
a. Apostolos Valerianos
b. James Cook
c. George Vancouver
d. Frances Barkley
5. What does the Triangle of Fire refer to?
a. A flaming Hamentashen
b. Forts Flagler, Casey, and Warden
c. Amazon, Microsoft, and Starbucks
d. Insignia on Boeing planes during WWII
6. The Lushootseed word for Puget Sound is xw̌əlč, often written in English as Whulge. What does it mean?
a. Beautiful place
b. Salt water
c. Home
d. None of the above
7. Spanish explorers were the first known Europeans to sail down the Strait of Juan de Fuca. What place names reflect Spanish influence? Choose all that apply.
a. Quimper Peninsula
b. Eld Inlet
c. Fidalgo Island
d. Strait of Georgia
e. Haro Strait
f. Toandos Peninsula
8. Captain Charles Wilkes brought the US Exploring Expedition into Puget Sound in 1841. More than 260 of his place names are still on maps. Which of these names he created are not on modern maps? Choose all that apply.
a. Fox Island
b. Bung Bluff
c. Ned and Tom
d. Vendovi Island
e. Port Townsend
f. Bainbridge Island
9. Fort Warden formerly had disappearing guns, mortars, and barbette guns. A 12-inch disappearing gun could shoot a half-ton shell how far?
a. Length of a typical pre-pandemic Seattle traffic jam
b. From the Amazon HQ to the Microsoft Campus (~10 miles)
c. To hell and back
d. A stone’s throw
10. How many species of kelp live in Puget Sound?
a. Fewer than 5
b. 5-10
c. 10-15
d. 15-20
11. What are some of the most voracious predators of kelp and why have they proliferated?
a. Seersuckers, because they are well suited to consuming seaweed.
b. Sea urchins, because of the overhunting of sea otters, which formerly kept urchin populations in check.
c. Ratfish, because they sort of look like rabbits and breed like them, too.
d. Kelp rockfish, because they have grown larger with climate change.
12. People who study the age of fish by counting the annual rings on the ear bone, or otolith, are called?
a. Fish whisperers
b. Sclerochronologists
c. Chronotolithophiles
d. Bone accountants
13. In the 1940s, the Seattle Times proclaimed Seattle as the “Vitamin A-D Capital of the World.” Why?
a. Scientists at the UW had invented an artificial method to produce the two vitamins.
b. Much of the nation’s vitamins A and D came from the livers of soupfin sharks and Seattle was a major processor of the sharks.
c. Botanists at the UW had discovered a source for the vitamins in Douglas fir trees.
d. It was an April Fool’s day story.
14. At the Old Man House in Suquamish, archaeologists unearthed a curious find of a herring nested in a littleneck clam nested in a butter clam. They described it as what?
a. A precursor of the modern food trend of spending too much time making your food look pretty.
b. A precursor of a turducken.
c. A precuror of a fish stick.
d. None of the above.
15. Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) are a significant pollutant in Puget Sound, causing malformed hearts in herring embryos. What produces PAHs?
a. Burning oil and gas
b. Driving a car
c. Cooking meat
d. All of the above
Quotes
16. The flowers were “by no Means unpleasant to the Eye.” Who wrote this?
a. Archibald Menzies
b. David Douglas
c. Jimi Hendrix
d. Peter Puget
17. “There is no country in the world that possesses waters equal to these.” Who wrote this?
a. Seattle Chamber of Commerce brochure 1934
b. Charles Wilkes
c. Peter Puget
d. Bertha Knight Landes
18. Danica Sterud Miller, professor of American Indian Studies at the University of Washington, told me: “[The] Rafeedie [decision] was about reaffirming our language, decolonizing the space, and reasserting our ability to self-determine. It was a profound moment.” The Rafeedie decision refers to what?
a. A law case that resulted in 1994 in a 50/50 split of the shellfish harvest between tribal and nontribal harvesters.
b. A law case in 1945 that resulted in the 50/50 split of the salmon catch between tribal and nontribal harvesters.
c. A law case in 2016 that resulted in the denial of permits for a coal port at Cherry Point.
d. A law case in 1989 that resulted in the federal recognition of geoducks as a premier species.
19. Archaeologists Sarah Campbell and Virginia Butler wrote in a 2010 paper that fish managers should make a “greater investment in the activities that foster direct connections among people, fish, and other resources.” What was this in reference to?
a. Encouraging more investement in urban streams and habitat.
b. Encouraging less reliance on isolated technological fixes that focus only on salmon.
c. The archaeological record of fish bones that showed that Native people sustainably harvested salmon for more than 7,500 years.
d. All of the above.
20. “Steamers come and go “like a thief in the night,” and no man knows the day nor the hour.” Who wrote this?
a. Murray Morgan, Puget’s Sound
b. Seattle Weekly Gazette, August 20, 1864
c. Peter Puget
d. Hazel Heckman, Island in the Sound