Townie Trivia: How Much Do You Know About Gosnold?
It's the smallest town in Massachusetts, and we're betting that's about all you know about Gosnold. Care to prove us wrong?
1. Which of these statements is false?
A. The town has fewer register voters than square miles of land.
B. From one end of town to the other, Gosnold has the longest distance between points out of all the municipalities in Massachusetts.
C. The entire area of the town is 140 square miles.
D. Gosnold is made up of he Elizabeth Islands; Nonamesset, Uncatena, Weepecket, Gull, Naushon, Pasque, Nashawena, Penikese and Cuttyhunk.
2. Much of the land in Gosnold is owned by the Forbes family. Which American politician is a member of that family?
A. Senator Jay Rockefeller of West Virginia
B. Former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg
C. Secretary of State John Kerry
D. Former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney
3. What is the year-round population of Cuttyhunk, the largest village in Gosnold?
A. 18
B. 30
C. 42
D. 65
4. Several years BEFORE the pilgrims arrived in Plymouth, the British claimed jurisdiction of the area that was later named Gosnold after explorer Bartholomew Gosnold attempted to establish a trading post there.
A. True
B. False
5. How many students currently attend the town's lone school house on Cuttyhunk?
A. 4
B. 9
C. 13
D. 21
6. The town's namesake, British explorer Bartholomew Gosnold traveled up and down the East Coast. Of the places he visited, which is he believed to be responsible for naming?
A. Cape Elizabeth, Maine
B. Cape Cod, Mass.
C. Cape Henry, Virginia
D. Jamestown, Virginia
7. In 1903, New Englander Edward Everett Hale suggested during a lecture that Gosnold was the setting a William Shakespeare play about travel to a mystical island. Which play was that?
A. The Winter's Tale
B. King Lear
C. A Midsummer Night's Dream
D. The Tempest
8. Among a handful of notable shipwrecks offshore from Gosnold, the Queen Elizabeth 2 ran aground in 1992, causing $5 million in damage to the boat.
A. True
B. False
9. A note found in Thomas Jefferson's papers refers to a "specimen" from the island of "Nanshaw," which is believed to be Naushon Island, one of the Elizabeth Islands. What was that specimen?
A. White wine
B. Sheep's wool
C. A pearl from a local oyster
D. A lobster
10. Part of Gosnold was once part of New York.
A. True
B. False
Answers on Page 2
1. Which of these statements is false?
A. The town has fewer register voters than square miles of land.-- Gosnold has about 120 registered voters. While the entire area of the town is 140 square miles, only 13.3 square miles of that is actually land. The rest is water.
B. From one end of town to the other, Gosnold has the longest distance between points out of all the municipalities in Massachusetts.
C. The entire area of the town is 140 square miles.
D. Gosnold is made up of he Elizabeth Islands; Nonamesset, Uncatena, Weepecket, Gull, Naushon, Pasque, Nashawena, Penikese and Cuttyhunk.
2. Much of the land in Gosnold is owned by the Forbes family. Which American politician is a member of that family?
A. Senator Jay Rockefeller of West Virginia
B. Former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg
C. Secretary of State John Kerry
D. Former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney
3. What is the year-round population of Cuttyhunk, the largest village in Gosnold?
A. 18
B. 30
C. 42
D. 65
4. Several years BEFORE the pilgrims arrived in Plymouth, the British claimed jurisdiction of the area that was later named Gosnold after explorer Bartholomew Gosnold attempted to establish a trading post there.
A. True - Gosnold arrived in 1602, but abandoned the post after about a month because of unrest and a looming winter with limited provisions.
B. False
5. How many students currently attend the town's lone school house on Cuttyhunk?
A. 2 - A handful of other students travel to the Martha's Vineyard mainland to attend school.
B. 8
C. 13
D. 21
6. The town's namesake, British explorer Bartholomew Gosnold traveled up and down the East Coast. Of the places he visited, which is he believed to be responsible for naming?
A. Cape Elizabeth, Maine
B. Cape Cod, Mass. - Gosnold is also credited with naming Martha's Vineyard after his daughter who passed away as an infant.
C. Cape Henry, Virginia
D. Jamestown, Virginia
7. In 1903, New Englander Edward Everett Hale suggested during a lecture that Gosnold was the setting a William Shakespeare play about travel to a mystical island. Which play was that?
A. The Winter's Tale
B. King Lear
C. A Midsummer Night's Dream
D. The Tempest - There are plenty of other scholarly speculators who say that's not at all the case. But, it will probably never be proven either way.
8. Among a handful of notable shipwrecks offshore from Gosnold, the Queen Elizabeth 2 ran aground in 1992, causing $5 million in damage to the boat.
A. True - The QE2 ran aground on some previously uncharted rocks off the coast.
B. False
9. A note found in Thomas Jefferson's papers refers to a "specimen" from the island of "Nanshaw," which is believed to be Naushon Island, one of the Elizabeth Islands. What was that specimen?
A. White wine
B. Sheep's wool - The island's owner at the time, James Bowdoin III was an importers of pure Merino sheep. The letter, along with a sample of the wool is in the Library of Congress.
C. A pearl from a local oyster
D. A lobster
10. Gosnold was once part of New York.
A. True - Prior to 1691, the islands were part of a county in New York.
B. False
