57 Fun Facts About Iowa

What is the capital and largest city of Iowa?

Des Moines, with about 214,000 residents at the 2020 census, has been Iowa's capital since 1857, when the seat of government moved from Iowa City.

Which two rivers form almost all of Iowa's eastern and western borders?

The Mississippi forms Iowa's entire eastern border and the Missouri most of the western one, with the Big Sioux completing the northwest edge; Iowa is the only state bounded by rivers on both east and west.

Which Iowa city is home to Iowa State University and its Cyclones?

Ames, about 30 miles north of the capital, is home to Iowa State University, founded in 1858, whose Cyclones teams compete in the Big 12 Conference.

Iowa's nickname, the Hawkeye State, comes from a character in which author's work?

James Fenimore Cooper's frontier scout Hawkeye, from the Leatherstocking Tales, gave Iowans their nickname after newspaperman James G. Edwards proposed it in 1838, the year Iowa Territory was created.

Iowa became the 29th state in December of which year?

Iowa entered the Union as the 29th state on 28 December 1846, eight years after Iowa Territory was organized in 1838.

Iowa's state flag is patterned after the flag of which country?

France: Dixie Cornell Gebhard's design, adopted in 1921, uses the blue, white and red vertical bands of the French tricolour, recalling Iowa's years in French Louisiana, with an eagle and the state motto on the centre stripe.

Iowa is the nation's largest producer of which two commodities?

Corn and ethanol: Iowa grows roughly a sixth of the US corn crop and, with more than 40 ethanol plants, refines about a quarter of the nation's ethanol.

By roughly what ratio do hogs outnumber people in the state?

Over 7 to 1: Iowa keeps roughly 23 million hogs, about a third of the US herd, outnumbering Iowans more than sevenfold.

Which Iowa city was Maytag's home from 1893 and hosts the Iowa Speedway?

Newton, east of the capital on Interstate 80, was Maytag's headquarters from 1893 until Whirlpool closed the plant in 2007, and has hosted the Iowa Speedway oval since 2006.

Iowa held the first Democratic presidential caucus in the nation in which year?

Iowa's Democrats caucused first in 1972 because new party rules required long gaps between the precinct, county, district and state stages, pushing precinct meetings to 24 January; Republicans followed in 1976.

How do Iowa caucuses differ from a primary?

Caucuses are party-run meetings of voters held at set times in precincts, not state-run elections with all-day secret ballots; Iowa Democrats traditionally sorted into candidate groups in the room.

Which state's primary did the DNC put first on its 2024 calendar, displacing Iowa?

South Carolina, whose Black voters had revived Joe Biden's 2020 campaign, was given the first slot, 3 February 2024, by the Democratic National Committee after Iowa's 2020 caucus count collapsed amid app failures.

The Iowa State Fair's famous Butter Cow has been a fixture since which year?

The first Butter Cow was sculpted in 1911 by J.K. Daniels; Norma 'Duffy' Lyon took over in 1960 and carved the cows for more than four decades, adding a butter Elvis and a butter Last Supper.

Where was the very first Iowa State Fair held, in 1854?

Fairfield, in southeast Iowa, hosted the first state fair in October 1854 at a cost of about $323; the fair rotated among towns until settling permanently in the capital in 1879.

In Field of Dreams, Ray Kinsella builds a baseball diamond in his cornfield in which Iowa town?

Dyersville, in northeast Iowa, is where the Field of Dreams diamond was built on the Lansing farm in 1988; the site became a tourist attraction and hosted a Major League game in 2021.

What does the cornfield voice first whisper to Ray in Field of Dreams?

'If you build it, he will come' is the first whisper; the voice later says 'Ease his pain' and 'Go the distance', and Shoeless Joe Jackson appears on the finished diamond.

In The Bridges of Madison County, Robert Kincaid photographs the bridges for which magazine?

National Geographic sends photographer Robert Kincaid (Clint Eastwood) to shoot Madison County's covered bridges in 1965, where he meets farm wife Francesca Johnson (Meryl Streep).

Which US president was born in West Branch, Iowa, in 1874?

Herbert Hoover, the only president born in Iowa, was orphaned by nine, sent to an uncle in Oregon at 11, and graduated in Stanford's first class in 1895; his library and grave are in West Branch.

Which Hollywood legend was born Marion Robert Morrison in Winterset, Iowa?

John Wayne was born in a four-room house in Winterset on 26 May 1907; the family moved to California in 1914, and the birthplace is now a museum.

Grant Wood's American Gothic was inspired by a house in which Iowa town?

Eldon, in Wapello County, has the small Carpenter Gothic 'Dibble House' that Wood sketched in 1930 after local painter John Sharp showed him around; it is now a state historic site.

Who modelled for the two figures in American Gothic?

Wood's sister and his dentist: Nan Wood Graham, in a colonial-print apron, and Cedar Rapids dentist Byron McKeeby, holding the pitchfork, posed separately for the 1930 painting.

The Amana Colonies were founded by religious refugees from which country?

Germany: the Community of True Inspiration, Pietists from Hesse and the Rhineland, sailed for New York in 1843 and moved to Iowa in 1855, running a communal economy until the 'Great Change' of 1932.

How many villages make up the Amana Colonies?

Seven villages (Amana, East, High, Middle, South and West Amana plus Homestead) sit on 26,000 acres in Iowa County; Homestead was bought in 1861 for its railroad stop.

What does RAGBRAI stand for?

Register's Annual Great Bicycle Ride Across Iowa began in 1973 when Register columnists John Karras and Donald Kaul invited readers to join their ride; it has become the world's largest multi-day bicycle touring event.

In which direction does RAGBRAI cross Iowa each year?

West to east: riders dip a rear wheel in the western border river at the start and a front wheel in the Mississippi at the finish, a week and roughly 450 miles later.

Which conference do the Hawkeyes play football in?

The Iowa Hawkeyes have played in the Big Ten since joining the old Western Conference in 1899; Iowa State's Cyclones, by contrast, belong to the Big 12.

Which sport have the Hawkeyes and Cyclones combined to win more than 30 NCAA team titles in?

Wrestling: Iowa's Hawkeyes have won more than 20 NCAA team titles, including nine straight from 1978 to 1986 under Dan Gable, and Iowa State has eight more.

Caitlin Clark, the Iowa Hawkeyes star drafted first overall in 2024, grew up in which city?

West Des Moines: Clark starred at Dowling Catholic High School there, once scoring 60 points in a game, before choosing the Hawkeyes over Notre Dame.

Which WNBA team took Caitlin Clark first overall in the 2024 draft?

The Indiana Fever picked Clark first on 15 April 2024; she went on to win Rookie of the Year and make the All-WNBA First Team in her debut season.

Which Iowa university is home to the famous Writers' Workshop?

The University of Iowa's Writers' Workshop, founded in 1936, was the first creative-writing degree program in the US and helped earn Iowa City its UNESCO City of Literature title in 2008.

Effigy Mounds National Monument in northeast Iowa preserves prehistoric mounds shaped like what?

Bears and birds: Effigy Mounds National Monument near Harpers Ferry, Iowa, preserves more than 200 mounds, some 30 of them built in bear and bird outlines by Late Woodland peoples roughly a thousand years ago.

Which That '70s Show actor was born in Cedar Rapids in 1978?

Ashton Kutcher was born in Cedar Rapids on 7 February 1978; his fraternal twin Michael had a heart transplant at 13, and Ashton's modelling career led to That '70s Show in 1998.

The Sergeant Floyd Monument in northwest Iowa honours the only member of which expedition to die en route?

Sergeant Charles Floyd, the only member of the Lewis and Clark expedition to die on the journey, succumbed on 20 August 1804, probably to a burst appendix; the obelisk stands on a bluff above the river.

Meredith Willson based The Music Man's fictional setting on his boyhood in which real Iowa town?

Mason City, Willson's birthplace in 1902, became River City in The Music Man; the 1957 show won five Tonys and its cast album the first Grammy for a cast recording.

Kurt Warner, the only undrafted player to be NFL MVP and Super Bowl MVP, played college football where?

Northern Iowa: Warner started only his senior season, 1993, for the UNI Panthers in Cedar Falls, then stocked Hy-Vee shelves and played Arena football before the Rams signed him.

The inventor of the bread-slicing machine, Otto Rohwedder, came from which Iowa city?

His 1912 prototype burned in a fire and the working machine only arrived in 1928.

Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and the Big Bopper died in a 1959 plane crash near which Iowa town?

Clear Lake's Surf Ballroom hosted the Winter Dance Party on 2 February 1959; the chartered Beechcraft Bonanza crashed in a farm field a few miles north shortly after take-off in the early hours of 3 February.

Which cereal giant was formed in 1901 partly from an oat mill in Cedar Rapids?

Quaker Oats was incorporated in 1901, combining the Quaker Mill of Ravenna, Ohio, with the Stuart family's Cedar Rapids mill and others; its round cardboard canister followed in 1915.

Which is the only Iowa city located west of the big river that forms the state's western border?

Carter Lake, beside Omaha's airport, ended up west of the border river when an 1877 flood cut a new channel; the US Supreme Court confirmed it as Iowa land in 1892.

Roughly what was Iowa's population in the 2020 census?

The 2020 count of about 3.19 million made it the 31st most populous state; it is the 26th largest by area.

Which industry, along with insurance, is the state capital a major national centre for?

Financial services and publishing: Principal Financial Group and a cluster of insurers anchor the finance sector, while Meredith Corporation published Better Homes & Gardens there for a century.

Bandleader Glenn Miller was born in 1904 in which southwest Iowa town?

Clarinda, in Page County, was Glenn Miller's birthplace on 1 March 1904; the town's Glenn Miller Birthplace Museum stages a festival in his honour every June.

Iowa's first wartime governor, credited with the state's strong support for the Union, was whom?

Samuel Kirkwood, governor from 1860 to 1864, raised dozens of volunteer regiments for the Union; Iowa sent about 76,000 men, one of the highest shares of any state, and Kirkwood later served as Garfield's Interior Secretary.

Which Iowa town is home to the Grotto of the Redemption?

West Bend's Grotto of the Redemption, begun by Father Paul Dobberstein in 1912 and built over four decades from petrified wood and semi-precious stones, is billed as the world's largest grotto.

Which Iowa city's Fenelon Place Elevator is billed as the world's shortest, steepest railway?

Dubuque's Fenelon Place Elevator, a 296-foot funicular climbing the bluff above the river, has carried passengers since 1882, when banker J.K. Graves built it to shorten his lunchtime commute.

Which town in central Iowa is home to a well-known Dutch community?

Pella, founded in 1847 by Dutch Seceder immigrants under Dominie Hendrik Scholte, celebrates its heritage with a working windmill and the Tulip Time festival each May.

Which of Iowa's 99 counties has two county seats?

Lee County, in the state's southeast corner, keeps courthouses in both Fort Madison and Keokuk, a legacy of an 1840s rivalry, giving Iowa 100 county seats for 99 counties.

Which Iowa river town was Buffalo Bill Cody's birthplace?

Le Claire, on the river just north of the Quad Cities, was the birthplace of William 'Buffalo Bill' Cody in the 1840s; the town's Buffalo Bill Museum also preserves the Lone Star, a wooden-hulled river steamboat.

The Ioway people, from whom the state takes its name, spoke a language of which family?

Siouan: the Ioway spoke Chiwere, a Siouan language shared with the Otoe and closely related to Ho-Chunk (Winnebago); the tribe's own name for itself is Báxoje.

Which Iowa-born agronomist won the 1970 Nobel Peace Prize for the Green Revolution?

Norman Borlaug, born near Cresco in 1914, bred the high-yield, disease-resistant wheat that transformed Mexican and South Asian harvests, winning the 1970 Nobel Peace Prize.

The 1832 Black Hawk War was triggered by a disputed 1804 treaty between Quashquame and which future president?

Harrison was then governor of the Indiana Territory; the Sauk and Meskwaki were forced to sell land under the Black Hawk Purchase.

Iowa's only federally recognised tribe is the Sac and Fox Tribe of the Mississippi, based near which town?

The Meskwaki Settlement west of Tama hosts a large annual pow-wow.

What temperature, Iowa's record high, did Keokuk reach on 20 July 1934?

118 °F (48 °C) at Keokuk on 20 July 1934, in the Dust Bowl summer, is Iowa's record high; the record low is -47 °F, set at Washta in 1912 and Elkader in 1996.

The Sioux City metropolitan area spans Iowa and which two neighbouring states?

Nebraska and South Dakota: Sioux City's metro area takes in South Sioux City, Nebraska, and North Sioux City, South Dakota, across the river, and it is the largest city in western Iowa.

Where does the Interstate 80 truck stop billed as the world's largest sit?

Near Walcott: the Iowa 80 Truckstop at exit 284, about 15 miles west of the Quad Cities, opened in 1964 and grew to include a trucking museum, a barber shop and parking for about 900 trucks.

Which Triple-A baseball team plays at Principal Park in the state capital?

The Iowa Cubs have been the Chicago Cubs' Triple-A affiliate since 1981, playing at Principal Park beside the downtown river confluence.

Which PGA Tour golf event has been held in the Quad Cities since 1971?

The John Deere Classic, played at TPC Deere Run in Silvis, Illinois, since 2000, began as the Quad Cities Open in 1971 and took the John Deere name in 1999.