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 name Des Moines comes from French and most likely means 'River of the' what?
Monks
One popular theory ties it to French Trappist monks who lived in huts on Monks Mound at Cahokia, far downstream in Illinois.
Q 02Which river merges with the Des Moines River at the spot where the city was founded?
Raccoon
Captain James Allen supervised the building of a fort at the confluence in May 1843.
Q 03In which year was Des Moines incorporated as a city, still under the name Fort Des Moines?
1851
Much of the town had been wiped out by a flood that May, so the new city started rebuilding from scratch.
Q 04Which town was the state capital before the seat of government moved to Des Moines in 1857?
Iowa City
The same year the town dropped the '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
The fort was abandoned in 1846 once they were pushed on to Indian Territory, though the Meskwaki kept returning until around 1857.
Q 06What was Des Moines' population at the 2020 census?
214,133
The six-county metro is around 750,000, the largest metropolitan area lying entirely inside Iowa.
Q 07Fort Des Moines was designated the seat of which county in 1846?
Polk
A small part of the city south of County Line Road actually 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
Residents went 20 days without drinkable tap water; the river flooded badly again in 2008.
Q 09Which reservoir controls the Des Moines River upstream of the city?
Saylorville
In both 1993 and 2008 the swollen river overtopped the reservoir's spillway anyway.
Q 10Iowa's tallest building, 801 Grand in downtown Des Moines, has how many stories?
45
Finished in 1991, it was briefly the tallest building between Chicago and Denver until Omaha's First National Bank Tower topped it in 2002.
Q 11Which Des Moines-based company owns 801 Grand and is one of only two Fortune 500 firms in Iowa?
Principal Financial Group
The other Iowa Fortune 500 company is a convenience-store chain famous for its pizza.
Q 12What sits on top of the 801 Grand tower?
An eight-sided copper pyramid
Designers expected the copper to turn green, but Des Moines' air has so little sulfur that it oxidized deep brown instead.
Q 13Des Moines has been nicknamed the 'Hartford of the West' because of which industry?
Insurance
Iowa's 1% premium tax, one of the lowest in the country, helped lure the insurers.
Q 21The Iowa State Capitol in Des Moines is the only US statehouse with how many domes?
Five
Rhode Island's State House is sometimes cited as the other five-domed capitol.
Q 22The Capitol's central dome is covered in what?
23-karat gold leaf
Inside are a multi-storey law library, a scale model of the USS Iowa and a collection of first lady dolls.
Q 23The Iowa State Fair has been held at its current Des Moines fairgrounds since which year?
1886
Before settling in Des Moines the fair wandered between towns including Muscatine, Oskaloosa, Dubuque and Keokuk.
Q 14Which magazine did Des Moines-based Meredith Corporation publish before merging with Dotdash?
Better Homes and Gardens
It was one of the most widely circulated publications in the United States.
Q 15Which future US president worked as a sportscaster at Des Moines radio station WHO?
Ronald Reagan
WHO 1040 AM is a 50,000-watt station that is still the highest-rated in the market.
Q 16Which masked heavy metal band was formed in Des Moines in 1995?
Slipknot
Their second album, released in 2001, was simply titled 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
She 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
She was refused ice cream there with her one-year-old daughter; the manager was convicted under an 1884 Iowa civil rights law and fined $50.
Q 24The very first Iowa State Fair, in 1854, was held in which town?
Fairfield
It ran three days on a budget of $323 and drew a crowd of up to 10,000.
Q 25The Iowa State Fair's most famous sculpture is a life-size animal carved from butter. Which animal?
Cow
The fair also skipped 1898 for the Omaha World's Fair and 1942-45 when the grounds became a military supply depot.
Q 26Which act drew the biggest grandstand crowd in Iowa State Fair history, 26,200 people?
Sonny and Cher
Johnny Cash pulled 23,500 across two shows in 1970 and the Beach Boys 25,402 in 1975.
Q 27Which year set the Iowa State Fair's all-time attendance record of 1,182,682 visitors?
2024
That August 10, 128,732 people came through the gates, the most ever in a single day.
Q 28Which Triple-A baseball team plays at Principal Park near the confluence of the two rivers?
Iowa Cubs
The Capitol dome is visible beyond the center-field wall.
Q 29Future Super Bowl MVP Kurt Warner played arena football in the 1990s for which Des Moines team?
Iowa Barnstormers
The original Barnstormers played in the Arena Football League from 1994 to 2000 before relocating to New York.
Q 30The Iowa Wolves of the NBA G League took that name in 2017 after being bought by which NBA franchise?
Minnesota Timberwolves
They had played as the Iowa Energy since 2007.