Dare to venture into any area junior high school, and you'll find classes full of almost-awake students whose heads are being filled with boundless facts about local Tri-State history.

While we can't hand you a Golden Horseshoe, or like Jeff Foxworthy fork over a cool $1 million for being smarter than a fifth-grader, we can test your mad skills at correctly tackling local Tri-State facts.

Get those No. 2 pencils sharpened and remember, no looking off your neighbor's paper.

Here are A Few Things You Might Not Know About the Tri-State:

1. The Ironton Tanks were a semi-professional football team whose legacy lives on as The Ironton Tigers play home games at the old Tanks football stadium. Fans had an affectionate nickname for the team. What was it?

A. The Fighting Tigers

B. The Terrible Tanks

C. Big Red Machine

D. I-Town Soldiers

2. The first concert to open up the Huntington Civic Arena was going to be by "The King" Elvis Presley before he went room temperature. Who was the act that actually performed the first concert at the Civic Arena in 1977?

A. KISS

B. Heart

C. Crosby, Stills and Nash

D. Bob Dylan

3. At Highlands Museum and Discovery Center in downtown Ashland, the Frank and Margaret Adkins Aviation Exhibit pays tribute to the late Olive Hill, Ky.-based aviator and inventor, Matthew Bacon Sellers -- a contemporary of the Wright Brothers whose work is honored today in the Smithsonian Institution's National Air and Space Museum. Sellers was the first person in history to use what aviation advancement still in use today?

A. a foldable barf bag

B. automatic propeller propulsion

C. In-flight movies

D. retractable wheels

4. Point Pleasant's Mothman was first reportedly spotted in November 1966 in an area north of the Ohio River city. That Wildlife Management Area was the home to a former industrial plant. What was manufactured at that site?

A. glass

B. milk

C. explosives

D. nuclear warheads

5. Here in the Tri-State we're not only big on land, but we're also pretty portly in the water. In fact, the Port of Huntington is the nation's largest inland river port thanks to tonnage of black gold (coal) and the gas and oil coming from the Marathon Refinery. What are the Ohio River boundaries of the Port of Huntington, according to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers?

A. Westmoreland to Guyandotte

B. Gallia County to Huntington

C. Kenova to Barboursville

D. Gallia County, Ohio to Portsmouth, Ohio.

6. The Huntington Museum of Art has amazing permanent collections of everything from guns to glass on display inside the sprawling museum that's located in the hills of Huntington. The Museum also has one of the largest permanent collections of art for a museum its size. How many pieces of art are in that collection?

A. 10,670

B. 1,398

C. 15,561

D. 579

7. The Vesuvius Recreation Area, named for the old Vesuvius iron furnace, is the Wayne National Forest's premier developed site. Located just 6.5 miles north of Ironton, the 143-acre complex was created in 1939 when the Civilian Conservation Corps dammed a local creek to create the lake. What is the name of that creek?

A. Storms Creek

B. Vesuvius Creek

C. Symmes Creek

D. Wilgus Branch

8. Camden Park, located just five miles west of Huntington, has been a favorite Tri-State amusement park since it opened in 1903 along the Camden Interstate Railway. The park is one of the Top 10 oldest operating trolley parks (in the same location) in the U.S. Where does Camden Park rank in that list?

A. 8th

B. 3rd

C. 7th

D. 2nd

9. One of the closest state forests to Huntington is the Cabwaylingo State Forest, located on 8,123 heavily forested acres in southern West Virginia. Built in the 1930s, the forest gets its unique name from the four surrounding counties it serves: CABell, WAYne, LINcoln, MinGO. OK, now which county is Cabwaylingo in?

A. Cabell

B. Lincoln

C. Mingo

D. Wayne

10. One of the Tri-State's favorite places to eat is actually a home-grown chain. The late sausage king, Bob Evans, turned his Gallia County, Ohio diner into an American dining empire. How many Bob Evans Restaurants are there now in the United States?

A. 297

B. 713

C. 938

D. 399

 

Answers

1. The correct answer oddly enough is C -- Big Red Machine. The Tank, a semi-pro team that routinely played exhibition games against NFL teams such as the Chicago Bears, New York Giants and the Portsmouth Spartans, earned the nickname of "Big Red Machine" because of the team's red jerseys and khaki pants, according to the Web site, www.ohiohistorycentral.com. That moniker, of course, would also be attached to the world champion Cincinnati Reds teams of the mid 1970s.

2. The correct answer is B. The sister group of Ann and Nancy Wilson, Heart was actually the first group to play the Civic Arena. It took 20 years to get it built, but on Sept. 14, 1977, the Huntington Civic Center (now the Big Sandy Superstore Arena) was opened to the public. The first show was Heart -- thank you, very much. Rock 'n' roll king Elvis Presley was booked for three shows Sept. 20-22, 1977, but he died on Aug. 16, 1977, before that could happen.

3. The correct answer is D. The Maryland-born Sellers, who did his groundbreaking research and experimentation at his home near Grahn (southeast of Olive Hill), was the first person to use retractable wheels when he flew his Quadruplane on Dec. 28, 1908.

4. The correct answer is C. Now known as the McClintic Wildlife Management Area, the land is still referred to as the TNT Area, since it was once the West Virginia Ordinance Works during World War II. The plant went online in 1943 and made ammunition through Aug. 15, 1945.

5. The correct answer is D. Port of Huntington, according to the Corps, covers the Ohio River for 100 miles -- the endpoints are mile 256.8 (the line between Gallia County and Meigs County, Ohio) and mile 356.8 (the mouth of the Scioto River). The Port also includes 90 miles on the Kanawha River and six miles on the Big Sandy River.

6. The correct answer is C. The Huntington Museum of Art's permanent art collection contains 15,591 objects (as of Sept. 30). It has everything from glass and prints to pottery and paintings. In fact, new construction at the museum of the 1,800-square-foot Isabelle Gwynn and Robert Daine Gallery, includes more than 1,700 square feet of additional storage space in the climate-controlled vault.

7. The correct answer is A. The narrows of Storms Creek offered a site for the lake, which was dammed in 1939 by the Civilian Conservation Corp. The rugged hills and out-cropping of cliffs offer a scenic backdrop for this historical and beautiful site. An historic iron furnace is located at the base of the dam.

8. The correct answer is C. 7th, according to the National Amusement Park Historical Association. Older parks in the region include Kennywood in West Mifflin, Pa., and America's oldest trolley park still in operation Sea Breeze Park in Rochester, N.Y. It was established in 1879.

9. The correct answer is D. The refreshingly-odd-named state forest, Cabwaylingo is indeed located closest to the town of Dunlow in Wayne County. For those with the bumper sticker, you know that's known as WOW (Way Out Wayne).

10. The correct answer is B. According to Bob Evans Web site, the company now runs some 713 restaurants. Of course, nothing is cooler than eating at the Bob Evans on the original Bob Evans Farm near Rio Grande, Ohio, where you can stroll the 1,000-acre farm, hike the trails (named for the legendary Southern Ohio Appalachian Trail-thru-hiker Granny Gatewood), visit the Homestead Museum and the extension arts and crafts collections.

Oh yeah, and you can also make Bob proud -- cock your head and say to passersby, "Down on the Farm, we do it right, or we just don't do it."

Go online at www.bobevansfarm.com for more info. Find out more about area attractions by calling the Gallia County Convention and Visitors Bureau at 1-800-765-6482 or begin your journey at www.visitgallia.com.

Now, read on for more fascinating facts, figures and must-know information about the Tri-State. And for the latest in news, local entertainment and community happenings, read the daily Herald-Dispatch and log onto www.herald-dispatch.com.

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