York Town Square

Here’s a hint to answer part of York County Smarts quiz, Part III: This York County native starred with Brad Pitt in “A River Runs Through It,” a 1992 film about two brothers who grow up in Montana. Background posts: Cameron Mitchell, Craig Sheffer, Dixie Chick born here, Prominent actor Craig Sheffer hails from overlooked Windsor Park, That’s Windsor Park, not Windsor …, and York City’s Eberts Lane actually winsome country road.

OK, another part of a York County Smarts quiz (see Part II) taken from a 1990s orientation exercise used by the York Daily Record to bring new employees up to speed.
See how you do:

1. How many miles of roads (excluding private roads) does the county contain?
2. What three bodies of water make up part of York County’s boundaries?
3. Which road is longer: Route 74 or Interstate 83?
4. What’s the highest point in York County?
5. What’s the lowest point in York County?
6. What street marked Penn Park’s original eastern boundary?
7.What’s the largest park in the county?
8. Yorkers in the movie business:
a. Which York Suburban High School graduate starred in a film directed by Robert Redford?
b. Which two York men wrote the original screenplay for “Nightmare on Elm Street 5?”
c. Former Spring Grove resident Laurice Elehwany wrote which two screenplays?
9. What band from York recently (remember, this quiz comes from the mid-1990s) had an album hit No. 1 on the Billboard chart?
10. What York-headquarted television station began broadcasting a 30-minute news show in 1994?
11. When did the last trolley roll into York?
12. Which school year did York’s schools fully integrate?
13. How many counties in the United States are named York?
14. What’s the county’s largest parade?
15. How many municipalities does York County contain?
16. How many county residents were counted in the first U.S. census?
17. When did Central Market open for business?
18. From the county’s crime files…true or false?
a. In 1989, a man robbed a Hanover bank, but was captured when he stopped for gas about a block from the crime scene.
b. In 1990, a man tried to rob a Hanover bank through the drive-through window.
c. In 1991, a man celebrating his 30th birthday stole a garbage truck and went for a joyride with a friend.
d. In 1993, two men took a cab to burglarize a business in Manchester Township.
19. When was York County’s first shopping center built?
20. Where was York County’s first airport?
Plus, three more:
21. When did York County get its first McDonald’s restaurant?
22. Who was the first black person to be elected to a county office?
23. Who was the first Latino elected to a public office in York?
Answers to quiz:
1. York County contains a whopping 3,475 miles of roadways. (That’s about 20 miles more than the distance from Key West, Fla., to Portland, Ore.) Bonus fact: The county contains 1,160 miles of state-maintained roads, the third largest number in Pennsylvania. Only Westmoreland and Allegheny counties have more miles of state roads.
2. The Susquehanna River, Yellow Breeches Creek, and Beaver Creek form part of York County’s boundaries.
3. Route 74’s York County section measures 54 miles, according to PennDOT. Interstate 83 covers 40 miles in York County, according to state police.
4. The highest point in York County is Stone Head, in Franklin Township near the Cumberland County line. Its height is 1,440 feet.
5. The lowest point does not have a name, but it lies where the Susquehanna River meets the state line.
6. South George Street marked Penn Park’s original eastern boundary.
7. Codorus State Park near Hanover is the largest park in the county. It contains 3,326 acres.
8. a. Craig Sheffer, York Suburban High School graduate, portrayed Norman Maclean in “A River Runs Through It.” b. John Skipp and Craig Specter, who wrote the horror novel “The Bridge,” also wrote the original screenplay for “Nightmare on Elm Street 5.” c. Laurice Elehwany wrote the screenplay for the 1991 film “My Girl,” and last spring’s “The Brady Bunch Movie.”
9. Live’s latest album, “Throwing Copper,” hit the top spot.
10. WPMT-TV (Ch. 43) debuted its 10 p.m. newscast Sept. 12, 1994.
11. The last trolley rolled into Continental Square on Feb. 4, 1939.
12. York’s schools fully integrated at the start of the 1955-56 school year.
13. Five states have a York County: Pennsylvania, Maine, Nebraska, South Carolina, and Virginia.
14. The Halloween Parade in York.
15. Depends on how you look at it: 71 townships and boroughs, and one city, lie within the county. But if you include the county itself, it has 73 municipalities.
16. The county had 37,747 residents in 1790, the first U.S. census.
17. Central Market opened in 1888.
18. a-d. True. All really happened. Really.
19. The York County Shopping Center opened for business in 1956.
20. The county’s first airport was in Springettsbury Township, just west of Haines Road and north of Mount Rose Avenue. (Today, the Kmart and Misericordia Convalescent Home call that site home.)
21. The first McDonald’s opened for business on Feb. 24, 1970, in North York. (It’s now occupied by Bob’s Intowne Spas.)
22. Mattie Mitchell Chapman won the election for the office of prothonotary in 1975.
23. Puerto Rico native Abe Amoros is credited as the first Latino elected to a public office in York. Voters elected him to the city council in 1991.
Additional history quizzes: 20 questions and answers to prove your York County smarts, Part I, A short test of your York black history knowledge, Part I, Black history quiz, Part II.