Spoilers
Answers & the history behind them
All 16 questions, the correct answer to each, and where the fact comes from. If you have not played yet, play first — it is better that way round.
Downtown / Inlet & Boardwalk
2 questions
What year did a hurricane cut the Ocean City Inlet — overnight, 50 feet wide, later widened to 500+ feet by a second storm a month later?
1933
The August 1933 hurricane tore the barrier island in two in a single night. The Army Corps of Engineers made the channel permanent, accidentally creating the fishing port that made OC the 'White Marlin Capital of the World.'
Ocean City's story starts with a 400-room grand hotel that opened on an empty barrier island. What year did the Atlantic Hotel open?
1875
The Atlantic Hotel opened July 4, 1875 — OC's founding moment. A December 1925 fire leveled it along with three downtown blocks; the 1926 rebuild is what stands today, run by the same family since 1923.
Lower Midtown
2 questions
Ocean Bowl Skatepark opened in 1976. What East Coast distinction does it hold?
The first skate park on the East Coast
Ocean Bowl Skatepark (1976) was the first skate park built on the East Coast — a fact most visitors never guess about a beach town.
The Boardwalk was first built in 1902. In its early years, how was it managed when the season ended?
Rolled up and stored for the winter
The original 1902 boardwalk was literally rolled up nightly (and off-season) rather than left as a fixed structure — a far cry from the permanent boards rebuilt after the 1962 storm, Hurricane Gloria (1985), and Hurricane Sandy (2012).
Midtown
2 questions
Inside Trimper's spins a carousel often called the oldest continuously operating carousel in America. What year did it start turning?
1912
Trimper's Herschell-Spillman carousel has been turning since 1912 — its 45 animals were carved by hand, and its twin at Coney Island burned down. This one survived every fire and storm in OC's history.
Ocean City swells from about 6,800 year-round residents to how many people on a summer weekend?
320,000–345,000
Summer weekends bring 320,000–345,000 people to town — making OC Maryland's second-largest 'city' after Baltimore, for a weekend at a time. About 8 million visitors come through in a year.
Uptown
2 questions
What nickname do recently graduated high schoolers get during their June flood into Ocean City for Senior Week?
June Bugs
"June Bugs" is the local nickname for the wave of graduating seniors who take over town every June for Senior Week — a heads-up for visiting families as much as an event.
What indie rock band's song "Beach Life-In-Death" name-checks Ocean City, MD?
Car Seat Headrest
Ocean City shows up in Car Seat Headrest's "Beach Life-In-Death" — a small but real bit of pop-culture trivia for the town.
North OC
2 questions
The westbound US Route 50 sign leaving Ocean City lists a distant California city and its mileage. Which city is it?
Sacramento, CA
The sign leaving town on US 50 lists Sacramento, CA — 3,073 miles away, marking Route 50 as one of the coast-to-coast "Loneliest Road" highways.
Ocean City has three official sister cities. Which country is Finale Ligure, one of them, located in?
Italy
OC's sister cities are Finale Ligure (Italy), Pärnu (Estonia), and Rehoboth Beach (Delaware) — a low-key detail even longtime visitors rarely know.
West Ocean City
2 questions
Ocean City has no cemeteries within town limits. Why not?
Coastal ground erodes, so the dead have always been buried in Berlin or beyond
OC's barrier-island ground erodes too much for permanent burial, so the town's dead have historically been buried in nearby Berlin. That makes the town's one marked grave a genuine anomaly.
Who holds the only marked grave in all of Ocean City?
Capt. William Carhart, shipwrecked January 5, 1799
Capt. William Carhart, a Philadelphia sea captain shipwrecked off the coast on January 5, 1799, has the town's only marked grave — on Captain's Hill, Golf Course Rd, in a residential West OC neighborhood. Legend says he was moved inland so a high tide wouldn't uncover him.
Fenwick Island, DE
2 questions
What makes cross-the-line shopping trips to Fenwick Island, DE a favorite move for OC visitors?
Delaware charges no sales tax
Delaware has no sales tax — a genuine, well-known reason OC visitors cross the state line into Fenwick Island to shop.
Which state line does Fenwick Island, DE sit on, right next to Ocean City?
Maryland–Delaware
Fenwick Island sits just across the Maryland–Delaware line from OC — the only one of the guide's eight districts in Delaware rather than Maryland.
Day-trips ring
2 questions
What 1930s land-making project created the streets Chicago Ave and St. Louis Ave near the Inlet?
They sit on 1930s dredge spoil — bayside blocks that are literally made land
Chicago Ave and St. Louis Ave sit on 1930s dredge spoil — bayside blocks that are, quite literally, made land pumped up from the bay bottom.
Roughly how many visitors does Ocean City draw in a typical year?
About 8 million
Ocean City draws roughly 8 million visitors a year — a huge seasonal population for a town of about 6,800 year-round residents.
That is the whole key — all 16 of them. The round is still worth playing: the Island round asks eight, one per district, and it keeps score.
Play the Island round