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State Quiz - Illinois

Can you guess these facts about the U.S. state of Illinois?
Quiz by Quizmaster
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Last updated: August 30, 2020
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First submittedJuly 19, 2015
Times taken22,296
Average score65.0%
Rating4.27
4:00
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Hint
Answer
Most populous city
Chicago
State capital
Springfield
State nickname
Land of Lincoln
Illinois is located in this
region of the U.S.
Midwest
… and is part of this industrial "belt"
Rust Belt
What species is Sue?
(found at the Field Museum)
Tyrannosaurus
Rex
River on the western border
Mississippi River
Former highway that stretched
from Illinois to the California coast
Route 66
Stadium where the Cubs play
Wrigley Field
Fill in the blank with the name
of a city
Will it Play in
Peoria?
Hint
Answer
Blue-collar sitcom set in
the fictional town of Lanford
Roseanne
The only U.S. President born in Illinois
Ronald Reagan
1920s gangster who lived in Cicero
Al Capone
Great Lake that Illinois borders
Lake Michigan
City where "Wayne's World" happened
Aurora
University in Evanston
Northwestern
This city is prounounced Care-O
Cairo
City joined at the hip to Champaign
Urbana
Robert Wadlow, born in Alton in 1918,
was the _____ man of all time
Tallest
Four recent governors of Illinois have
ended up going here
Prison
+3
Level 76
Jul 21, 2015
Since I'm not from around these parts, could someone please explain the Peoria clue?
+5
Level 44
Aug 26, 2015
I live in Peoria. The saying basically says if it can play in Peoria it can play basically anywhere. (Referring to plays and movies and such)
+1
Level 80
Jan 24, 2024
Huh. I always assumed it had something to do with baseball for some reason.
+5
Level 70
Aug 10, 2015
If it plays in Peoria is a cliché type of phrase on whether a movie or a play will be any good. Stone to the bone Chicagoan, but a great point noted..."just outside Chicago is a place called Illinois".
+12
Level 75
Aug 26, 2015
It became a popular phrase during the era of Vaudeville. It's not necessarily whether or not it will be any good, but whether it will appeal to dull, mainstream Americans. Supposedly if they like it, anyone will like it.
+2
Level 79
Aug 26, 2015
"Will it play in this city?" All I could think of is the World Series and NO.
+7
Level 85
Feb 19, 2017
A few things have happened since this comment.
+2
Level 75
Aug 26, 2015
Nothing about the Sucker State?
+4
Level 70
Aug 26, 2015
I'm from illinois and i don't even know some of these lol
+2
Level 20
Mar 22, 2017
Same
+4
Level 89
Jan 21, 2021
I'm not from Illinois and I knew more than I thought I would.
+2
Level 73
Jan 27, 2017
Didn't know the sitcom....I don't watch much traditional network TV
+5
Level 67
Sep 7, 2019
Maybe you could add a question about the four governors who were sentenced to prison in a span of less than 40 years. Good times. Also, the official state nickname is actually the Prairie State. Nobody calls it that though...
+3
Level ∞
Aug 30, 2020
Added that one! I've been watching the Illinois/Chicago slow motion trainwreck with great interest. I personally believe that the state should cut taxes by a large amount. Its inevitable that both Illinois and Chicago will have to declare bankruptcy or get bailed out by the Federal Reserve. The sooner this happens, the better. Before even more people leave the state....
+2
Level 66
Jan 21, 2021
I'm not sure they CAN cut taxes very much. It's literally in the Illinois state constitution that they can't reduce pensions for state, local government, or school district workers, and the Illinois Supreme Court upholds that pretty strongly. So between the fact it would require a constitutional amendment to even make it possible to address their pension crisis, and the fact that voters shot down a progressive tax rate that would have at least helped some, the Illinois government's hands are pretty well tied on this.
+3
Level 45
Jan 17, 2021
Everyone calls it that here in Illinois
+2
Level 67
Jan 25, 2021
I was about to disagree, as I also live in Illinois, but it occurs to me I've spent the last eight years in Chicago, where nobody discusses Illinois as a state, and all my experience before that was in the northeast. So I should say...everybody in the northeast calls it "the Land of Lincoln" and nobody in Chicago seems to call it anything because we're transfixed with our tiny little world here.
+2
Level 75
Jan 26, 2021
Land of Lincoln was on the license plates for many years. Living in Missouri I saw a lot of Illinois plates.
+5
Level 85
Aug 30, 2020
Charles Dickens pronounced Cairo a "dismal swamp". 150 years later, it looked the same to me.
+2
Level 87
Aug 31, 2020
I found it to be a cheerful swamp.
+3
Level 75
Jan 26, 2021
The Army Corps of Engineers considered Cairo, population 3000, important enough to blow the Bird's Point Mississippi River levee in 2011 which flooded out 130,000+ acres of the richest farmland in Missouri and over 100 homes plus grain bins and outbuildings. I suppose it all depended on the perspective of which side of the levee you were on, but they wiped out a lot of valuable property because of a likelihood - but not certainty - the levees would be breached around Cairo. I had compassion for the fears of the people of Cairo, too, but they had the Corps to protect them. We live 60 miles from Cairo beyond a ridge and the blast rattled windows here. The conspiracy theories were that the Corps knows they will eventually lose the battle with the weather for the southern Miss. River ports, and they want to someday build a new major port at Cairo, situated at the junction of the Ohio and Mississippi. Who knows? I only know I wept that night for what those farm families went through.
+4
Level 75
Sep 2, 2020
I think KAY-roe is a more accurate pronunciation. Practically a ghost town.
+3
Level 84
Sep 5, 2020
Grew up near the town. Heard it pronounced both ways. But it's never "ki-ro" like the city in Egypt. Southern Illinois is nicknamed Little Egypt, so hence the name. Always found it strange, being at the confluence of two major rivers (Mississippi & Ohio), that it never really grew. Though in the mid-19th century it was bustling.
+2
Level 71
Jan 21, 2021
I knew that one because of American Gods!
+4
Level 70
Sep 7, 2020
Should mention John Hughes.
+3
Level 69
Nov 1, 2020
Guessed penitentiary...ugh!
+9
Level 70
Jan 18, 2021
why is northwest just accepted for northwestern
+5
Level 62
Jan 21, 2021
I agree that the full name should be required
+4
Level 85
Jan 21, 2021
"The Conners" should be accepted for the sitcom question.
+3
Level 84
Jan 27, 2021
Agreed. It is set in Lanford and lord knows they haven't moved up in stature in the new series.
+2
Level 66
Jan 21, 2021
Only one I missed was Sue. Didn't know what that was. One of my guesses was dinosaur so I was close.
+3
Level 75
Jan 26, 2021
I remember reading somewhere it was a dinosaur, but when I tried that it didn't work so I moved on. Looking back, I see that species was the important word in the clue I missed.
+2
Level 82
Jan 21, 2021
Suggest accepting "Rte 66". Things like St and Mt are usually accepted, so I just moved on when Rte didn't work.
+3
Level 84
Jan 27, 2021
66 worked for me. No Rte or anything like that.
+2
Level 27
Jan 21, 2021
i dont know why but i tried to be the fastest to comment once making an account i got 1 hour, 17 minutes
+3
Level 33
Jan 22, 2021
Cairo is pronounced "Cay-row"

"Land of Lincoln" is NOT the official state nickname. That would be the "Prairie State"

+2
Level 75
Jan 26, 2021
Cairo is pronounced both Cay-roe and Kair-oe all over this area - but never Kye-roe.
+1
Level 62
Dec 5, 2023
We say Kair-Oh in the county next door.
+2
Level 45
Feb 5, 2021
Come check out this quiz I made! This is my first quiz, and I would really appreciate it if you checked out my quiz! https://www.jetpunk.com/user-quizzes/1372750/30-most-populated-cities-in-illinois
+2
Level 64
Mar 3, 2021
I miraculously guessed "Peoria" right on the first try. I've never heard that figure of speech.