Answers

October 2, 2024

Q: What historical object arrived in Vancouver on June 15, 1915?
A: The Liberty Bell. Note that the Liberty Bell actually arrived on July 15th, but there were strong references to both dates to be found.  Credit the Clark County Historical Museum with breaking the tie and confirming that July 15th was indeed the correct date.

September 19, 2024

Q: The Vancouver Wheelclub, formed in 1893, focused on what?
A: Bikes!!!

September 3, 2024

Q: What county wide event opened on August 25th, 1949?
A: The Clark County Fair

August 23, 2024

Q: Mayor Vern Anderson sent out a call for a missing photo of what in 1949?
A: The missing photo was of a 1,280 pound sturgeon supposedly caught in 1912 in the Camas slough. The picture in question that was purportedly hung at the Camas dock was never located.

August 6, 2024

Q: What animal did the Prunarians try to find in 1924?
A: "Long eared gorillas", sasquatch.

July 25, 2024

Q: Who was Vancouver Washington's first Olympic Gold Medalist? Go Team USA! -- Also... Can you guess how many apartments there will be at our new building at East 5th and Grand Blvd?
A: Gretchen Fraser won Clark County's first Gold Medal in downhill skiing (Slalom) in the 1948 Winter Olympics. - And bonus question... Our building at Grand and 5th will be home to 79 luxury apartment homes.

July 12, 2024

Q: The first wheat in the Pacific Northwest was planted near our construction site in what year?
A: Either 1825 or 1826 are acceptable answers.

June 25, 2024

Q: In 1905, What did Lincoln Beachy pilot over Vancouver?
A: On the morning of September 19, 1905, the Gelatine (airship), piloted by Lincoln J. Beachey, ascended from the grounds of the Lewis and Clark Centennial Exposition on the shores of Guild's Lake in Portland, Oregon, landing 40 minutes later at the Vancouver Barracks in Vancouver, Washington.

June 14, 2024

Q: What was President U.S. Grant's real first name?
A: Ulysses S. Grant's actual first name was Hiram.

June 6, 2024

Q: In 1910 Clark County voters approved what? 1,069 Votes For, 639 Votes Against.
A: In 1910, Clark County voters approved a woman's right to vote (Women's suffrage) by almost a 2/3's majority. The state legislature put that law into place later that year, 10 years before the 19th amendment was enacted nationally.

May 24, 2024

Q: Of the 50 Aircraft Carriers built in the Vancouver Shipyard, how many fought in the Pacific in WWII?
A: Of the 50 aircraft carriers produced in the Kaiser Shipyards (Casablanca Class Escort Carrier, specifically)  all 50 fought in the Pacific theater as part of the Pacific Fleet in World War II.  While a few of the 50 were initially deployed to the Atlantic Fleet, they all were later reassigned to the Pacific Fleet.  And Technically, they all had their shake down cruise in the Pacific before deploying to the Atlantic.  For further research, you can search based on the hull numbers 55-104 to learn the history of each, from #55 The USS Casablanca, to #104 The USS Munda.

May 17, 2024

Q: Which Vancouver was founded first, Canada or USA??
A: USA! USA! USA!

May 10, 2024

Q: In what year was Vancouver's first Farmer's Market?
A: Pike Place in Seattle was the first farmer's market in the state, starting in 1907, Spokane came into existence in 1908, and Vancouver, Washington, was in 1910.

May 3, 2024

Q: Burgerville USA opened its first restaurant in what year?
A: The first Bugerville USA restaurant was opened in 1961 at 7401 E. Mill Plain Blvd. It was a walk up only.

April 26, 2024

Q: In 1847, What was the first sport, other than horse racing, to be played in our county?
A: Curling! The winter of 1846-47 was one of the coldest on record in the Pacific Northwest, and even the mighty Columbia River succumbed to below-freezing temperatures. The river froze over completely, and the Royal Navy's HMS Modeste, which had been anchored in the river near the Hudson's Bay Company's Fort Vancouver, was stuck until the ice thawed. Contemporary Northwesterners often make the best of extreme or inclement winter weather, and the residents of Fort Vancouver and the sailors and officers of the Modeste were no different. Together, they walked and skated on the ice, and engaged in some friendly games of curling.

April 19, 2024

Q: What form of entertainment was first seen in Clark County on September 3rd, 1897?
A: Moving Pictures! The movie was one of a Jim Corbett - Ed Fitzsimmons heavyweight championship fight. It was shown on September 9th at the Standard Theater. It was one of the biggest events in Vancouver that year with reserve seats selling for a whopping 75 cents and general admission going for half a dollar. - Courtesy of The Columbian 1955 edition.

April 12, 2024

Q: What was Vancouver's first auto ambulance also used as in 1913?
A: In 1913 Victor Limber brought the first automobile ambulance to Vancouver. He also used it as a hearse. - Courtesy of the National Parks Service

April 5, 2024

Q: It's Giraffe Naming Week!
A: Thank you to everyone who submitted a Giraffe name! We received so many name suggestions, our Giraffe committee is reviewing to make a selection. Giraffe name to be announced soon! Stay tuned!!

March 29, 2024

Q: Which sitting U.S. President was the first to visit Clark County?
A: America was over a hundred years old before the first of our presidents visited Vancouver or Clark County. When it did happen, it was Rutherford B. Hayes who, on Saturday, October 2, 1880, stayed overnight at what we now call the O.O. Howard house on Officers Row. President Hayes got up early, and attended church at the Methodist Church that was then at 8th and Washington. On Monday he sailed upriver, past the settlements at Parker’s Landing and Washougal. When he returned to Vancouver on October 7, schoolchildren were at the wharf waiting for him. He came ashore to meet with the children and assorted dignitaries of the town

March 22, 2024

Q: Vancouver’s name was changed to what, during the early 1850’s?
A: Before 1845, American Henry Williamson laid out a large claim west of the Hudson's Bay Company (including part of the present-day Port of Vancouver), called Vancouver City and properly registered his claim at the U.S. courthouse in Oregon City, before leaving for California. However in 1850, Amos Short traced over the claim of Williamson and named the town Columbia City. It changed to Vancouver in 1855. The City of Vancouver was incorporated on January 23, 1857.

March 15, 2024

Q: In 1852 Ulysses S Grant was thwarted, trying to grow what crop here? T'was swept away.
A: The history of Grant's efforts to grow crops near Ft. Vancouver is a bit clouded. Grant's journal suggests he had a robust crop that was unfortunately destroyed by a flooding Columbia River. While other accounts suggest his crop was struggling to produce results even before the river swept his plants out to sea. But, for the purposes of our trivia contest, he was ultimately unsuccessful in his attempt to grow potatoes. Note that potatoes were a very valuable cash crop at the time due to widespread inflation on the west coast. So, it was likely that his attempt to grow potatoes was more targeted at raising capital than feeding the folks stationed at Ft. Vancouver.

March 8, 2024

Q: In what year did the first electric lights tame Vancouver's wild nites?
A: The California Electric Light Company completed an electric plant at Washington and Eighth streets in February 1889. It was the first municipal electric system in the Washington Territory. Main Street shined for the first time. Then the city offices, fire department and the jail boasted lights. The first businesses illuminated were Wall Drug, First National Bank and the Esmond Restaurant. Protecting its enlightenment, the city established harsh penalties for tinkering with lights, even forbidding tying horses and cows to lamp posts.

March 1, 2024

Q: In 1924, Vancouver’s Finest busted up a ring of thieves that were stealing what?
A: From The Columbian, courtesy of the Clark County Historical Society:  The Clark County sheriff, Vancouver police chief and Portland law enforcement announced a collaborative effort to break up an automobile theft ring on Feb. 25, 1924. Six individuals were arrested. Central to the case was local garage operator Arthur Henges, who acted as the “fence” for the automobiles, which were pilfered in Portland and brought back to Vancouver.

February 23, 2024

Q: 100 years ago, Clark County was considered the World Capital of what Fruit?
A: Prunes! – From The Columbian, "Just a century ago, prune orchards covered much of the landscape. At a downtown celebration each year, residents would crown one lucky girl the “Prune Queen” and the Prunarians, led by their much revered “Big Prune,” would host a wide variety of prune-related events. ...In the 1920s, parades and men decked out in military uniforms would march through the streets of Vancouver hailing the prune. The county shipped about 10 million pounds of dried prunes annually to places all over the United States and the world, including Germany, Russia, and France."

February 16, 2024

Q: In what year did Clarke County lose its 'E'?
A: We had 15 correct answers! Woot woot! Go team Giraffe! – On December 23, 1925, an official act of the Washington State Legislature changes the name of the state's oldest county from Clarke to Clark. The change corrects a spelling mistake made by the first Washington Territorial Legislature in 1854, and makes the spelling of the county's name consistent with the name of the man it honors - Captain William Clark, of the Lewis and Clark expedition.

February 9, 2024

Q: In what year was the first baseball club formed in Vancouver, USA?
A: Many folks guessed 1904, as that was the date of the first "Minor" league team formed in Vancouver. However, the history of baseball goes way, way back to 1867.

Courtesy of The Columbian: More than two decades after the first baseball game at New Jersey’s Elysian Fields, a faceoff between townies and soldiers was the first recorded ball game in Clark County. In mid-May 1867, two clubs met on the green: Vancouver’s Occidental Base Ball Club and Fort Vancouver soldiers of the Sherman Base Ball Club. They likely sported uniforms, but historians can only speculate what they may have looked like. The Shermans crushed the Occidentals 45 to 5. The Enterprise newspaper reported it as a “championship,” which seems odd since the season was barely beginning, so perhaps it was a sportswriter’s hyperbole. Two weeks later, the Occidentals played the Pioneer Club of Portland in the center of Vancouver. Portlanders crossed the river on the steamship Cascadia. According to the Herald newspaper, the earlier drubbing didn’t dash the Occidentals’ spirit. The paper’s Vancouver correspondent declared the day beautiful and participants “wanting to secure a happy time and an exciting contest.” The game was more than three hours long, and the Occidentals lost 79 to 62. The correspondent believed his team would have won. In the second inning, he viewed calls by Ed Backenstos, the umpire, as less than impartial.

February 2, 2024

Q: How many razor clams did Amboy’s World Champion clam-eater eat during the 1948 championship?
A: On Feb. 3, 1949, Amboy’s “world champion clam eater” Chuck Bray defended his seafood-scarfing prowess in anticipation of a Feb. 22 meet. At a May 9th Long Beach meet, Bray “gulped down 26 and 1/2 (razor clams), the sea’s hardiest citizens” in 10 minutes. Prior to that contest, he had never entered an eating competition before. His only qualification was his love of food, especially seafood. The bivalve enthusiast was hoping to defend his title against Seattle’s Dick Watson, who won the “first annual international Pacific free style amateur clam eating contest” held the previous January.