Name that Flyover City! — Sep 6, 2022

Here’s a review of this week’s questions:

1. This midwestern city was the first to establish a municipal fire department and install a fire pole. What city was it?
2. This southeastern city has two nicknames – “City of Oaks” and “The Triangle.” What city is it?
3. This American city is the only state capital in the country that has a working oil well on its grounds. What city is it?

https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_cdAqxwI5QvWKMWx6vCFoDQ

And here are the answers:

1. Cincinnati, OH. The origin of this story involves Miles Greenwood, a native of Cincinnati and the owner of Eagle Ironworks. This is not an example of “necessity is the mother of invention,” but rather the reverse, since Greenwood had already invented the steam fire engine and was building them at Eagle when a fire broke out at the plant in 1852. Frustrated by the inability of those dispatched to fight the fire, he partnered with Abel Shawk & Alexander Bonner Latta to demonstrate the steam fire engine’s capabilities to city leaders and later convinced them to form the nation’s first professional fire department. Greenwood, logically, became the first Fire Chief, and the C.F.D. set the pace for the firefighting industry, becoming the first to use horses to pull the fire engines and the first to use lanterns as “headlights” to find their way through the smoke at night.
2. Raleigh, NC. The nickname “City of Oaks” is truly fitting for Raleigh, where over 700 varieties of oak trees are visible across the city. Founding fathers started to call Raleigh the “City of Oaks” as far back as 1792, but why stop there? There are plenty of magnolias, dogwoods and cedars to be found in Raleigh, as well. “The Triangle” nickname has more to do with three cities – Raleigh, Durham and Chapel Hill, also referred to as the “Research Triangle” since 1959. The conglomeration of prominent universities and biotechnology centers in each of the three cities has helped the region to draw a massive influx of students and workers since the mid-20^th century, and it is common for locals to work, live and engage with culture in any or all of them.
3. Oklahoma City, OK. As with all states, Oklahoma’s capital houses the state’s Senate and House of Representatives, as well as the legislature and executive offices. What makes Oklahoma City and its capital building different is that it sits directly on top of the Oklahoma City Oil Field, a fully operational petroleum well that is one of the largest facilities of its kind in the world. The oil well was built in 1928, more than 10 years after the State Capitol building opened, but the two have worked simultaneously for all these years, with the government passing legislation and the oil field producing over one billion barrels of oil since its beginning.