Quiz: How Well Do You Know the History of Plymouth?

Photos: Franzi Schneider-Krumpus

Test your knowledge of Plymouth city history.

Additional historical information is available at plymouthhistoricalsociety.org, in our 2022 historical tour of Plymouth and in Images of America Plymouth by Sarah Winans and Natasha Thoreson.

1. Which tribe of Native Americans were Plymouth’s original inhabitants and had an encampment at the north end of Medicine Lake?
2. Who was the first settler to the area?
3. Who was Parker’s Lake named after?
4. On June 1, 1858, Plymouth’s name was briefly changed to …
5. What year did Plymouth open its first school?
6. How much did Plymouth pay volunteers to enlist during the Civil War?
7. By 1880, what was the town’s population?
8. What school was resident Jonas Howe instrumental in founding?
9. What type of water recreation craze hit the Minneapolis area, including Plymouth, in the 1900s?
10. Ice blocks were harvested from lakes, including Bass and Medicine lakes. How long could a block last in storage?
11. When did Plymouth erect its first water tower?
12. What year did Plymouth receive its first traffic light?
13. When did Plymouth have its first free-standing library?
14. Got ice? When did the Plymouth Ice Center open?
15. What is the city’s largest employer?

Scroll down to see the answers!

1. The Dakota
2. Antoine LeCounte
3. The Parkers, of course!
4. Medicine Lake (For reasons unknown, the new name didn’t stick, and the town’s been known as Plymouth ever since.)
5. In 1858, a 14 by 14 log cabin school housed 26 students, ages 5 to 19 years old.
6. $25
7. 1,074
8. The Minnesota State School for the Deaf in Faribault (Cora, his daughter, was in the school’s first graduating class.)
9. Canoeing
10. Ice was stored in buildings insulated with hay and sawdust. A well-maintained site could keep ice for up to a year.
11. 1970
12. 1972
13. 1995
14. 1996
15. Wayzata Public Schools