South Dakota Trivia Quiz Questions And Answers
South Dakota is named after what?
A: The Lakota and Dakota Sioux Native American tribes.
What is the South Dakota State song?
A: "Hail, South Dakota!"
When did South Dakota became a state?
A: On November 2, 1889, on the same day as North Dakota.
What is the name of the city that is the capital of South
Dakota?
A: Pierre.
What South Dakota city is the largest city in the state?
A: Sioux Falls.
What is the South Dakota State gemstone?
A: Fairburn agate.
What other states border South Dakota?
A: North Dakota, Minnesota,
Iowa,
Nebraska,
Wyoming, and
Montana.
The Missouri
River divides the state into two
geographically and socially distinct halves, which are commonly known to
residents as what?
A: "East River" and "West River".
How much land area does South Dakota have in square miles?
A: 77,121.
What is South Dakota's highest point with an elevation of
7,242 ft .?
A: Harney Peak .
Where is the point with the lowest elevation in South
Dakota?
A: The shoreline of Big Stone Lake, with an elevation of 966 ft .
What state borders South Dakota to the north?
A: North Dakota.
What is the South Dakota State fish?
A: Walleye.
What state boarders South Dakota to the south?
A: Nebraska.
What is the South Dakota State animal?
A: Coyote.
What states border South Dakota to the east?
A: Iowa and Minnesota.
What is the South Dakota State insect?
A: Honey bee.
South Dakota is bordered to the west by what two states?
A: Wyoming and Montana.
What is the name of the largest and longest river in the
state of South Dakota?
A: The Missouri River.
Dams in South Dakota on the Missouri River create four
large reservoirs. What are their names?
A: Lake Oahe, Lake Sharpe, Lake Francis Case, and
Lewis and Clark Lake.
What is the South Dakota State mineral?
A: Rose quartz.
South Dakota's highest recorded temperature is what?
A: 120 °F at Usta on July 15, 2006.
What is the South Dakota State flower?
A: American Pasque flower.
The lowest recorded temperature in South Dakota is what?
A: −58 °F at McIntosh on February 17,
1936.
On average, how many tornadoes does South Dakota have per
annum?
A: About 30 tornadoes a year.
In what year was National Memorial in the Black Hills
created?
A: In 1925.
The sculpture of four U.S. Presidents at
Mount Rushmore was
carved into the mountainside by what sculptor?
A: Gutzon Borglum.
The first human inhabitants in what is today South Dakota
were Paleoindian hunter-gatherers who disappeared from the area when?
A: About 5000 BC.
Between 500 AD and 800 AD, a semi-nomadic
people known as
the "what" lived in central and eastern South Dakota?
A: Mound Builders.
Which two of South
Dakota's largest present-day cities were founded by land speculators?
A: Sioux Falls in 1856, and Yankton in 1859.
In 1874, gold was discovered in the Black Hills
and miners and explorers began illegally entering land promised to what group of
Indians?
A: Lakota.
The Wounded Knee Massacre on the Pine Ridge Indian
Reservation was the last major armed conflict between the United States and the
what?
A: Lakota Sioux Nation.
At the Wounded Knee Massacre, how many Indians including
women and children were killed?
A: At least 146 Sioux.
During the 1930s, a lack of rainfall, unusually high
temperatures and poor cultivation techniques caused the what?
A: Dust Bowl.
What is the South Dakota State slogan?
A: "Great Faces. Great Places."
In the dust bowl, what was blown away by the
wind?
A: The topsoil.
The Flood Control Act of 1944 passed by the U.S. Congress,
resulted in the construction of six large what on the Missouri River?
A: Dams.
What is the South Dakota State motto?
A: "Under God, the people rule".
In 1981, Citibank moved its credit card operations from
New
York to what South Dakota city?
A: Sioux Falls.
What was South Dakota the first state to eliminate on
interest rates?
A: Caps.
The Census Bureau estimated the population of South Dakota
in 2013 to be how many people?
A: 844,877.
What are the five biggest ancestry groups in the state?
A: German , Norwegian, Irish, Native American, and English.
South Dakota has the largest population of what group of
immigrants in America?
A: Hutterites.
What is the South Dakota State tree?
A: Black Hills Spruce.
How many large Indian reservations are located in South
Dakota today?
A: Seven.
How many of South Dakota's counties are completely within
Indian reservations?
A: Five.
What South Dakota county ranked as the poorest county in
the United States in the year 2009?
A: Ziebach.
In 1995, a study by the Census Bureau discovered that 58%
of homes on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation did not have a what?
A: Telephone.
The second-largest single employer in South Dakota is what?
A: Ellsworth Air Force Base.
South Dakota is the sixth leading producer in the country
of what energy related product?
A: Ethanol.
The annual Sturgis
Motorcycle Rally, a five-day event, is
one of the largest what in South Dakota?
A: Tourist events.
How many miles of highways, roads, and streets does South
Dakota have?
A: 83,609.
What is the South Dakota State nicknames?
A: Mount Rushmore State.
What are the two major interstates that pass through the
state?
A: Interstate 90, and Interstate 29.
What is the largest railroad now in South Dakota?
A: The BNSF Railway.
South Dakota is one of the few states in the country that
does not have any what?
A: Amtrak service.
What are the names of South Dakota's largest commercial
airports in terms of passenger traffic?
A: The Sioux Falls Regional Airport and Rapid City Regional Airport.
What is the second-largest city in South Dakota?
A: Rapid City.
How many TV stations are there in the state that are
currently broadcasting?
A: Nine.
The first television station in the state, KELO-TV, began
airing Captain 11, an afternoon children's program in
1955 and it ran until
1996, making it the what?
A: The longest continuously running children's television program in the
country.
What is the largest university in South Dakota?
A: South Dakota State University (SDSU), in Brookings.
The state's oldest university, the University of South
Dakota in Vermillion has South Dakota's only what?
A: Law school and medical school.
What is the South Dakota State bird?
A: Ring-necked Pheasant.