Are you looking to test your knowledge of Nebraska? Or perhaps you're a trivia enthusiast searching for a new challenge? Look no further than Nebraska trivia questions!
Known as the "Cornhusker State," Nebraska is located in the Great Plains region of the United States and is known for its rich agricultural heritage and diverse landscape, ranging from the Sandhills to the Great Plains. From its history and cultural heritage to its unique landscape, there's no shortage of fascinating facts to learn about this state. Nebraska played a vital role in the American West, particularly in the history of the transcontinental railroad and the Oregon trail. It was also home to famous figures such as Willa Cather and Malcolm X.
Nebraska's economy is driven by agriculture, particularly in the production of corn, soybeans, and wheat, as well as by transportation and logistics. The state is also home to several prestigious universities and research institutions. With a diverse range of activities from visiting historical sites to experiencing the state's vibrant music and art scene, Nebraska offers something for everyone. Whether you're a history buff, a trivia enthusiast, or just looking to learn something new, Nebraska trivia questions offer a fun and educational way to explore all that this state has to offer.
60 Nebraska Trivia Questions Ranked From Easiest to Hardest (Updated for 2024)
- Which “henge” in Alliance is a homage to the famous stone landmark in England and would be a perfect pitstop if you’re road trippin’, given what it’s made of?
Answer: Carhenge
- The Nebraska quarter pictures a pioneer family heading westward with what famous landmark in the background? This natural feature, located in the North Platte River valley near Bayard, became the most famous landmark on the Oregon-California trail.
Answer: Chimney Rock
- What Nebraska city is home to Union Pacific, the country's largest rail transportation company? Union Pacific is one of four Fortune 500 companies that call this city home.
Answer: Omaha
- Bruce Springsteen's landmark 1982 song "Nebraska," from the album of the same name, tells the first-person story of what serial killer who terrorized the state in 1958?
Answer: Charles Starkweather
- In 1988, what international food company pushed the city of Omaha into destroying a historic district so they could put up a new headquarters? In 2015, the company relocated its headquarters to Chicago.
Answer: ConAgra
- Populus deltoides is Nebraska’s state tree. What’s its common name, which comes from its white, fluffy seeds? (Hint: Elsewhere, you might call it a poplar).
Answer: Cottonwood
- Each January 1st from 1992 through 1995, you could count on the Nebraska Cornhuskers winning what NCAA football bowl game that formerly took place annually in a namesake stadium in Miami, Florida?
Answer: Orange Bowl
- On Nebraska’s official Great Seal, a blacksmith is seen raising a hammer over what large metallic “A” object sitting on a tree stump?
Answer: Anvil
- Lincoln, Nebraska is the birthplace of what actress who appeared in 1992’s “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” for her film debut and famously played an ambitious pugilist in “Million Dollar Baby?”
Answer: Hilary Swank
- Long before Earth Day, what holiday was first proposed by J. Sterling Morton, a newspaper editor in Nebraska City, resulting in the planting of one million trees in Nebraska on April 10, 1872?
Answer: Arbor Day
- Of the several National Historic Trails that run through the state of Nebraska, one is the route of what service that ran from 1860 to 1861? The other National Historic Trails were those used by pioneers.
Answer: Pony Express
- Sumner Street in Lincoln is where you can find the home (and maybe a monogramed welcome mat showing the initials “WJB”) of what politician who ran against William McKinley twice and Theodore Roosevelt once as the Democratic nominee in three U.S. presidential elections?
Answer: William Jennings Bryan
- In September 2022, what civil rights activist was named to the Nebraska Hall of Fame? He was assassinated on February 21, 1965.
Answer: Malcolm X
- In 1714, Etienne de Bourgmont traveled from the Missouri River to a river he called the Rivière Nebraskier, after the Native American word for "flat water." By what name is this river known today?
Answer: Platte River
- Which nearly central city is home to the Fox Theater, Nebraska’s Junk Jaunt, and the Custer County Fairgrounds? (Hint: The name may have come from early settlers who found dismantled Native American weapons there)
Answer: Broken Bow
- In June 2023, a new statue representing the state of Nebraska was dedicated and unveiled in Statuary Hall of the U.S. Capitol. What author, who spent her formative years in Red Cloud and graduated from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln in 1895, is the subject of the statue?
Answer: Willa Cather
- When Nebraska became a state in 1867, the capitol was moved to Lancaster, which was then renamed Lincoln. Where was the capitol of Nebraska when it was a territory?
Answer: Omaha
- Mr. C. Hillegass, an employee at the Nebraska Book Company in 1958, started a series of study guides in his basement with his wife. Often associated with shirking homework assignments, what is the common name associated with these guides?
Answer: CliffsNotes
- In 2016, Walmart acquired what Omaha, Nebraska based retail website that specializes in furniture and decor? It’s one word “H” name, two words stuck together, implies that its products may be difficult to find.
Answer: Hayneedle
- Which state’s official seal (which reads “Equality Before the Law”) has several illustrations, including a steamboat chugging along the Missouri River and a train chugging along toward the Rockies?
Answer: Nebraska
- What was the name, in English, of the Ponca man who "stood up" for his rights in 1879 by successfully arguing in an Omaha district court that Native Americans are legal persons entitled to rights like the writ of habeas corpus?
Answer: Standing Bear
- What is the motto inscribed in the Great Seal of Nebraska? It can also be found on the state flag, which consists of the Great Seal in silver and gold against a blue background.
Answer: Equality Before the Law
- What economically important insect (with the scientific name of Apis Mellifera) was declared Nebraska's state insect in 1975?
Answer: Honeybee
- Which city in Adams County operated the largest Naval Ammunition Depot in the U.S. during the second world war?
Answer: Hastings
- Which city in Keith County, Nebraska is home to Haythorn Ranch, the Kingsley Hydroplant, and the yearly Kites and Castles event on Lake McCoaughy?
Answer: Ogallala
- Introduced in 1927, what powdered drink mix is the official state soft drink of Nebraska, where it was invented?
Answer: Kool-Aid
- The Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854, which allowed both Kansas and Nebraska to decide for themselves whether to allow slavery, repealed an earlier "Compromise" named after what other state?
Answer: Missouri
- (Don’t worry! We’re not here to trick or deceive you!) Nebraska’s state fish is the Channel species of what seemingly whiskered fish?
Answer: Catfish
- Nebraskan Hazel Abel was the first woman from the state to be elected to which chamber of U.S. Congress?
Answer: Senate
- Which American state does not automatically give all its electoral votes to the winning candidate statewide at a presidential election, and is the only one to have a unicameral state legislature?
Answer: Nebraska
- What U.S. national monument in Nebraska was the site of major fossil finds, such as extinct beardogs and ancient beavers?
Answer: Agate Fossil Beds
- Because of smoke that was observed in the area, early settlers around the town of Ionia (which has since ceased to exist) were afraid that they would be destroyed by what natural phenomenon?
Answer: Volcano
- What Nebraska fast food chain is named for its signature product, a yeast dough pocket filled with meat and cabbage, brought to the state by Eastern European immigrants?
Answer: Runza
- Nebraska is the only state in America that has only one house in its legislature. The other states are bicameral. What similar-but-different term is the name for the lone house in Nebraska’s legislature?
Answer: Unicameral
- Omaha is the location of the headquarters and main visitor center for a national trail, administered by the National Park Service, that memorializes the 1804-1806 journey of what pair of explorers?
Answer: Lewis and Clark
- Oh yeah! What colorful powdered drink from your childhood was invented in Nebraska in 1927, and even has its own exhibit at the Hastings Museum?
Answer: Kool-Aid
- Serving from 2005 to 2015 after taking over as a result of his predecessor resigning, who is the longest serving governor in Nebraska’s history?
Answer: David Heineman
- Which former world number tennis player was born in Omaha, Nebraska on August 30, 1982?
Answer: Andy Rodrick
- In December 1918, police in Gering arrested a store owner and a man playing Santa Claus for violating a ban on public gatherings instituted because of concerns about the spread of what?
Answer: Influenza
- On August 31, 2023, a crowd of 92,003 at Lincoln's Memorial Stadium for a match between University of Nebraska and University of Nebraska Omaha became the largest crowd ever at a women's sporting event. What was the sport?
Answer: Volleyball
- Set in Falls City, Nebraska, "Boys Don't Cry" is a 1999 biopic of transgender man Brandon Teena. Which Nebraska-born actress, who would win a second Oscar for playing boxer Maggie Fitzgerald, won a Best Actress Oscar for her portrayal of Brandon?
Answer: Hilary Swank
- What geologic park that sounds like it would be a nice place for a frog picnic is made up of some peculiar rock formations within Oglala National Grassland?
Answer: Toadstool
- In 1942, Nebraska writer Mari Sandoz wrote a famous biography of what Lakota leader and hero of the Battle of the Little Big Horn, who was killed at Nebraska's Fort Robinson in 1877?
Answer: Crazy Horse
- What legendary University of Nebraska football coach won three championships in the 1990s, later riding this popularity to a career in the US House of Representatives? His last name is the same as the comedy daredevil “Super Dave.”
Answer: Tom Osborne
- Not a Druid himself, artist Jim Reinders arranged three standing trilithons within a circle of vehicles for a permanent installation near Alliance, Nebraska known by what C-name?
Answer: Carhenge
- An animal science professor at the University of Nebraska is credited with developing the process behind restructured meats after he was approached by the National Pork Producers Council to create a new product. Examples of restructured meats include Dino Nuggets and what fast food sandwich that has attracted a cult following since its introduction in 1981?
Answer: McRib
- Which insurance company that is well known investing the premiums wisely is based at the Blackstone Plaza in Omaha, Nebraska?
Answer: Berkshire Hathaway
- Who developed CliffsNotes, that shortcut beloved by time-crunched high school and college students across the country? He was from Rising City and was working for the Nebraska Book Company at the time.
Answer: Clifton Hillegass
- The legislatures of all U.S. states except Nebraska can be described by what "B" word, meaning they're made up of two houses?
Answer: Bicameral
- What famous Nebraskan got his start in show business dancing with his sister Adele? After working in vaudeville, they first performed on Broadway in 1917. He later had an extensive film career.
Answer: Fred Astaire
- Which U.S. politician who later settled in another state and grew up there, was born in Omaha, Nebraska on July 14, 1913?
Answer: Gerald Ford
- Nebraska was admitted as the 37th state in the United States on March 1st of which year?
Answer: 1867
- In 1935, Nebraska governor LeRoy Cochrane declared martial law in Omaha because of a strike by what workers? The governor acted in response to violence (including several bombings) and riots.
Answer: Streetcar
- Bailey Yard, located in North Platte, Nebraska, the world's largest railroad classification yard in the world, belongs to what railroad company?
Answer: Union Pacific
- Which Nebraska-based insurance provider was started by a young man who sold insurance to pay his way through medical school in 1909, and a century later has grown to become a Fortune 500 company?
Answer: Mutual of Omaha
- The Missouri Valley Intercollegiate Athletic Association later became what conference, home to Nebraska, Missouri, Colorado, and Oklahoma, that combined with the Southwest Conference to form the Big 12 in 1996?
Answer: Big Eight
- What 2013 black-and-white film follows the journey of a Montana man as he drives south to claim a sweepstakes prize? The film is named after a state, but that state is not Montana.
Answer: Nebraska
- The School of Public Policy at the University of Michigan is named after what man, born in Omaha, Nebraska in 1913?
Answer: Gerald Ford
- Omaha native Conor Oberst released his first album under what band name in 1998? Since then, the band has been a mainstay of the city's Saddle Creek Records.
Answer: Bright Eyes
- There are 50 state capitals. Let's rank them by population size. What number is Lincoln? In this case, 1 is the most populous U.S. state capital and 50 is the least populous. We'll accept responses within 5 of the correct answer.
Answer: 14 (9 - 19 accepted)
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About the Author
Eli Robinson is the Chief Trivia Officer at Water Cooler Trivia. He was once in a Bruce Springsteen cover band called F Street Band.
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