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60 free Des Moines trivia questions with answers — geography quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
Des Moines started as a frontier fort where two rivers meet, became Iowa's capital in 1857 and grew into the insurance-heavy, caucus-hosting city that presidential candidates camp out in every four years. This Des Moines trivia quiz covers all of it: how the city got its French name, the 1993 flood that knocked out the water works, the gold-leafed Capitol dome, the Iowa State Fair and its butter cow, Terrace Hill, the skywalks, the Drake Relays, the Iowa Cubs at Principal Park, and the locals who made it big, from Cloris Leachman and Bill Bryson to Slipknot. The 60 questions run from easy ones any Iowan will get to genuinely obscure history for people who grew up reading the Register, so it works for a bar quiz, a classroom or a family night in the 515. Every answer has been checked against a documented source rather than copied from another trivia list, so you can trust the answer key.
30 of 60 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01The French name Des Moines is usually translated as 'River of the' what?
Monks
'Des Moines' is French for 'of the Monks', though the name probably adapted Moingona, an Illinois-language river name that French explorers recorded in the 1670s.
Q 02Which river merges with the Des Moines River at the spot where the city was founded?
Raccoon
The Raccoon River joins the Des Moines River in what is now downtown; Captain James Allen built Fort Des Moines at that confluence in 1843.
Q 03In which year was Des Moines incorporated as a city, still under the name Fort Des Moines?
1851
Fort Des Moines was incorporated as a city in 1851, the same year a spring flood wiped out much of the young settlement.
Q 04Which town was the state capital before the seat of government moved to Des Moines in 1857?
Iowa City
Iowa City had been the capital since 1841; the legislature moved the seat of government to Des Moines in 1857, the year the city dropped 'Fort' from its name.
Q 05Fort Des Moines was built in 1843 to control which Native peoples, moved there from eastern Iowa?
Sauk and Meskwaki
Fort Des Moines was built in 1843 to oversee the Sauk and Meskwaki, who were removed from Iowa to Kansas by 1846; the fort closed that same year.
Q 06What was Des Moines' population at the 2020 census?
214,133
The 2020 census counted 214,133 people in Des Moines, Iowa's largest city; its six-county metro area passed 700,000 in the same count.
Q 07Fort Des Moines was designated the seat of which county in 1846?
Polk
Fort Des Moines became the Polk County seat in 1846; a sliver of the modern city south of County Line Road spills into Warren County.
Q 08Which Des Moines facility was submerged in the 1993 flood, cutting off taps for 250,000 people?
The Water Works
Floodwater swamped the Des Moines Water Works in July 1993, leaving about 250,000 people without tap water for 12 days and without drinkable water for nearly three weeks.
Q 09Which reservoir controls the Des Moines River upstream of the city?
Saylorville
Saylorville Lake, a Corps of Engineers reservoir just north of the city, holds back the Des Moines River; its emergency spillway overflowed anyway in 1993 and 2008.
Q 10Iowa's tallest building, 801 Grand in downtown Des Moines, has how many stories?
45
801 Grand rises 45 stories and about 630 feet; completed in 1991, it overtook the 36-story Ruan Center as the tallest building in Iowa.
Q 11Which Des Moines-based company developed and owns the 801 Grand tower?
Principal Financial Group
Principal Financial Group, founded in Des Moines in 1879 as Bankers Life Association, developed the 801 Grand tower in 1991 and owns it.
Q 12What sits on top of the 801 Grand tower?
An eight-sided copper pyramid
The tower is capped by an eight-sided copper pyramid; designers expected it to weather green, but the low-sulfur local air turned the copper a deep brown instead.
Q 13Des Moines has been nicknamed the 'Hartford of the West' because of which industry?
Insurance
Q 21How many domes crown the Iowa State Capitol in Des Moines?
Five
The Iowa State Capitol has five domes, a large central dome surrounded by smaller corner domes, an arrangement boosters often call unique among US statehouses.
Q 22The Capitol's central dome is covered in what?
23-karat gold leaf
The central dome is sheathed in 23-karat gold leaf, regilded in the 1960s and again in the late 1990s; inside are a multi-storey law library and a scale model of the USS Iowa.
Q 23The Iowa State Fair has been held at its current Des Moines fairgrounds since which year?
1886
The fair moved onto its permanent Des Moines grounds in 1886 after wandering between towns such as Muscatine, Oskaloosa, Dubuque and Keokuk.
Insurance firms began clustering in Des Moines in the late 1800s, earning it the 'Hartford of the West' tag after Connecticut's insurance capital; Iowa's low premium tax helped keep them there.
Q 14Which magazine did Des Moines-based Meredith Corporation publish before merging with Dotdash?
Better Homes and Gardens
Better Homes and Gardens, launched by Edwin Meredith in Des Moines in 1922, stayed Meredith's flagship title until the 2021 merger with Dotdash created Dotdash Meredith.
Q 15Which future US president worked as a sportscaster at Des Moines radio station WHO?
Ronald Reagan
Ronald Reagan worked as a sportscaster at WHO in Des Moines from 1933 to 1937, recreating baseball games from telegraph reports before leaving for Hollywood.
Q 16Which masked heavy metal band was formed in Des Moines in 1995?
Slipknot
Slipknot formed in Des Moines in 1995 and titled their second album, released in 2001, simply Iowa.
Q 17Bill Bryson's memoir about growing up in 1950s Des Moines is The Life and Times of the what?
Thunderbolt Kid
The mayor gave Bryson the key to the city in 2006 and declared October 21 'Bill Bryson, The Thunderbolt Kid, Day.'
Q 18Both of Bill Bryson's parents worked for which local institution?
The Register newspaper
His father was a sportswriter there for 50 years and his mother was the home furnishings editor.
Q 19Which Des Moines-born actress won an Oscar for The Last Picture Show and played Frau Blücher?
Cloris Leachman
Cloris Leachman was born in Des Moines in 1926, attended Roosevelt High School and competed in the 1946 Miss America pageant as Miss Chicago.
Q 20Edna Griffin's 1948 sit-ins and landmark Iowa Supreme Court case targeted which Des Moines business?
Katz Drug Store
Katz Drug Store refused to serve Griffin ice cream at its lunch counter in July 1948; the store's owner was convicted under Iowa's 1884 civil rights law and fined $50.
Q 24The very first Iowa State Fair, in 1854, was held in which town?
Fairfield
Fairfield in Jefferson County hosted the first Iowa State Fair in October 1854; it ran three days on a budget of $323 and drew up to 10,000 people.
Q 25Which animal is the Iowa State Fair's famous life-size butter sculpture?
Cow
The Butter Cow, a life-size dairy cow sculpted from roughly 600 pounds of butter, has been an Iowa State Fair fixture since its debut in 1911.
Q 26Which act drew the biggest grandstand crowd in Iowa State Fair history, 26,200 people?
Sonny and Cher
Sonny and Cher drew 26,200 fans to the Iowa State Fair grandstand in 1973, the largest crowd for a grandstand show in the fair's history.
Q 27In which year did the Iowa State Fair draw a then-record 1,182,682 visitors?
2024
The 2024 fair drew 1,182,682 people over its 11 days, beating the 2019 mark; Saturday, August 10, 2024 alone brought 128,732 through the gates.
Q 28Which Triple-A baseball team plays at Principal Park near the confluence of the two rivers?
Iowa Cubs
The Iowa Cubs, the Chicago Cubs' Triple-A affiliate since 1981, play at Principal Park, where the State Capitol dome rises beyond the outfield wall.
Q 29Future Super Bowl MVP Kurt Warner played arena football in the 1990s for which Des Moines team?
Iowa Barnstormers
Kurt Warner quarterbacked the Iowa Barnstormers from 1995 to 1997; the original franchise played in the Arena Football League from 1995 to 2000 before moving to New York as the Dragons.
Q 30The Iowa Wolves of the NBA G League took that name in 2017 after being bought by which NBA franchise?
Minnesota Timberwolves
The Minnesota Timberwolves bought the Iowa Energy, who had played in Des Moines since 2007, and rebranded them the Iowa Wolves in 2017.