These westward expansion trivia questions come in four rounds: how the map of the United States grew, the Lewis and Clark Expedition, Sacagawea, and the Oregon Trail.
Read the full guide
Lewis and Clark trivia questions, then the trail
How the map grew runs from the Treaty of Paris to the purchase of Alaska. The Lewis and Clark round follows the Corps of Discovery out and back. The last round holds the Oregon Trail trivia questions and answers: the route, the passes and the wagons.
Trivia questions about Sacagawea
Sacagawea has a round of her own, on her family, her part in the expedition and the places named for her. After the first ten questions, More options holds Topic, which sets one round alone. Tap a choice to check it; the reason appears with the answer.
Questions and answers
What are some easy westward expansion trivia questions?
By how much did the United States grow with the Louisiana Purchase? Which president commissioned Lewis and Clark? What nickname did William Clark give Sacagawea's baby son? The answers are it doubled in size, Thomas Jefferson and Pomp.
Who was Sacagawea?
A woman born into the Agaidika, or Lemhi Shoshone, who traveled with the Lewis and Clark Expedition with her husband, Toussaint Charbonneau, and their son, born in February 1805.
Are these questions about the computer game?
No. The Oregon Trail round is about the wagon route itself: who laid it, where it ran and what ended its great days. The game is not asked.
How were the answers checked?
Each was read on October 3, 2026 in the English Wikipedia article linked under it: Territorial evolution of the United States, Lewis and Clark Expedition, Sacagawea or Oregon Trail. Numbers of emigrants and of deaths are not asked.
After the Mexican–American War the United States obtained the northern half of Mexico's territory, including what became which state?Answer: California. Source: Wikipedia: Territorial evolution of the United States
The annexation of which republic in 1845 led directly to the Mexican–American War?Answer: The Republic of Texas. Source: Wikipedia: Territorial evolution of the United States
By how much did the United States grow with the Louisiana Purchase?Answer: It doubled in size. Source: Wikipedia: Territorial evolution of the United States
How many states have been created directly from land belonging to another state?Answer: Three. Source: Wikipedia: Territorial evolution of the United States
In which year were Spanish Florida and the Spanish claims to the Oregon Country ceded to the United States?Answer: 1821. Source: Wikipedia: Territorial evolution of the United States
The Treaty of Paris of 1783 carried the borders of the new nation west to which river?Answer: The Mississippi. Source: Wikipedia: Territorial evolution of the United States
What was the last major acquisition of the United States in North America, bought from Russia in 1867?Answer: Alaska. Source: Wikipedia: Territorial evolution of the United States
Which agreement of 1905 lets the border with Mexico follow sudden changes in the course of the Rio Grande?Answer: The Banco Convention. Source: Wikipedia: Territorial evolution of the United States
With which country did the United States share the Oregon Country for a time?Answer: The United Kingdom. Source: Wikipedia: Territorial evolution of the United States
Lewis and Clark 10
At which pass did the expedition cross the Continental Divide?Answer: Lemhi Pass. Source: Wikipedia: Lewis and Clark Expedition
By what other name is the Lewis and Clark Expedition known?Answer: The Corps of Discovery Expedition. Source: Wikipedia: Lewis and Clark Expedition
In which Missouri town did Clark's party meet Lewis and ten other members before going up the Missouri?Answer: St. Charles. Source: Wikipedia: Lewis and Clark Expedition
On which date did the expedition reach St. Louis on its return?Answer: September 23, 1806. Source: Wikipedia: Lewis and Clark Expedition
To which river did the expedition come before it reached the Pacific Ocean in 1805?Answer: The Columbia. Source: Wikipedia: Lewis and Clark Expedition
What was the name of the man enslaved by William Clark who traveled with the expedition?Answer: York. Source: Wikipedia: Lewis and Clark Expedition
What were the first names of Lewis and Clark?Answer: Meriwether and William. Source: Wikipedia: Lewis and Clark Expedition
Which fort did the party build for the winter of 1804 to 1805, near present-day Washburn, North Dakota?Answer: Fort Mandan. Source: Wikipedia: Lewis and Clark Expedition
Which president commissioned the Lewis and Clark Expedition?Answer: Thomas Jefferson. Source: Wikipedia: Lewis and Clark Expedition
Which sergeant of the expedition died on August 20, 1804?Answer: Charles Floyd. Source: Wikipedia: Lewis and Clark Expedition
Sacagawea 14
By her husband's account, Sacagawea was born into the Agaidika. By what other name is that tribe known?Answer: The Lemhi Shoshone. Source: Wikipedia: Sacagawea
In the Hidatsa language, what is Sacagawea's name usually taken to mean?Answer: Bird Woman. Source: Wikipedia: Sacagawea
In which year did the United States Mint first issue a dollar coin with Sacagawea on it?Answer: 2000. Source: Wikipedia: Sacagawea
Sacagawea was born near the Continental Divide, at the present-day border of Montana and which state?Answer: Idaho. Source: Wikipedia: Sacagawea
What did Sacagawea give up at the Pacific so that the captains could trade for a fur robe for President Jefferson?Answer: Her beaded belt. Source: Wikipedia: Sacagawea
What did Sacagawea rescue when a boat nearly capsized in May 1805?Answer: The journals and records of the expedition. Source: Wikipedia: Sacagawea
What did the captains name in Sacagawea's honor on May 20, 1805?Answer: A river. Source: Wikipedia: Sacagawea
What nickname did William Clark give Sacagawea's baby son?Answer: Pomp. Source: Wikipedia: Sacagawea
What nickname did William Clark use for Sacagawea herself?Answer: Janey. Source: Wikipedia: Sacagawea
What sea creature, washed up on the beach, did Sacagawea insist on being allowed to go and see?Answer: A whale. Source: Wikipedia: Sacagawea
What was the name of Sacagawea's son, born in February 1805?Answer: Jean Baptiste Charbonneau. Source: Wikipedia: Sacagawea
Which North Dakota reservoir is named after Sacagawea, in the state's spelling of her name?Answer: Lake Sakakawea. Source: Wikipedia: Sacagawea
Which Shoshone leader, met by the expedition in 1805, turned out to be Sacagawea's brother?Answer: Cameahwait. Source: Wikipedia: Sacagawea
Who was Sacagawea's husband?Answer: Toussaint Charbonneau. Source: Wikipedia: Sacagawea
The Oregon Trail 16
About how long was the Oregon Trail?Answer: 2,170 miles. Source: Wikipedia: Oregon Trail
By 1836 a wagon trail had been cleared as far as which fort in Idaho?Answer: Fort Hall. Source: Wikipedia: Oregon Trail
The completion of what, in 1869, made the journey west far faster and ended the great days of the trail?Answer: The first transcontinental railroad. Source: Wikipedia: Oregon Trail
Fur traders who cached their furs under a dome of rock on July 4, 1824 gave the rock which name?Answer: Independence Rock. Source: Wikipedia: Oregon Trail
In which Missouri town was the first wagon train on the Oregon Trail organized?Answer: Independence. Source: Wikipedia: Oregon Trail
In which year did the "Great Migration" of about a thousand settlers set out for Oregon?Answer: 1843. Source: Wikipedia: Oregon Trail
Narcissa Whitman and Eliza Hart Spalding became the first European-American women to cross which mountains?Answer: The Rocky Mountains. Source: Wikipedia: Oregon Trail
Near Fort Kearny the routes from the Missouri converged along the valley of which river?Answer: The Platte. Source: Wikipedia: Oregon Trail
The western half of the Oregon Trail crossed Oregon and which other present-day state?Answer: Idaho. Source: Wikipedia: Oregon Trail
Which act of 1850 offered free land in the Oregon Territory to settlers?Answer: The Donation Land Act. Source: Wikipedia: Oregon Trail
Which fur company partner led a small group back east in 1812 and found South Pass on the way?Answer: Robert Stuart. Source: Wikipedia: Oregon Trail
Which guide went with John C. Frémont of the Army's topographical engineers on his expeditions?Answer: Kit Carson. Source: Wikipedia: Oregon Trail
Which road was completed around Mount Hood in 1846, giving wagons a rough but passable trail?Answer: The Barlow Road. Source: Wikipedia: Oregon Trail
Which treaty of 1846 settled the boundary of the Oregon Country between the United States and Britain?Answer: The Oregon Treaty. Source: Wikipedia: Oregon Trail
Which valley in Oregon was the destination of most emigrants on the trail?Answer: The Willamette Valley. Source: Wikipedia: Oregon Trail
Who first laid the Oregon Trail, between about 1811 and 1840?Answer: Fur traders and trappers. Source: Wikipedia: Oregon Trail
How this list was compiled
Written for this site; nothing was copied from another list. Questions and wrong choices are our own. Each explanation restates, in our own sentences, a fact from the English Wikipedia article named and linked beside the question (https://en.wikipedia.org, text under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license): Territorial evolution of the United States, Lewis and Clark Expedition, Sacagawea and Oregon Trail. The text of each article was fetched on October 2, 2026, and on October 3, 2026 the passage that states each fact was read in it before the question was kept. Left out on purpose: counts of emigrants and of deaths on the trail, illness, fights, the computer game that shares the trail's name, and trading companies as answers. Sacagawea's death, for which historians give two accounts, is not asked. Levels are our estimate: easy is fair for any table, medium suits people who know the subject, hard will stump most tables. Each question also carries the date its article was read (checkedOn). Licence: own work