Q 01/05

What is the capital and largest city of Iowa?

A) Des Moines

B) Davenport

C) Iowa City

D) Cedar Rapids

Answer · why

A) Des Moines

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.

Q 02/05

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

A) The Ohio and the Platte

B) The Des Moines and the Cedar

C) The Mississippi and the Missouri

D) The Wisconsin and the Kansas

Answer · why

C) The Mississippi and the Missouri

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...

Q 03/05

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

A) Ames

B) Cedar Falls

C) Dubuque

D) Council Bluffs

Answer · why

A) Ames

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.

Q 04/05

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

A) Mark Twain

B) Washington Irving

C) Herman Melville

D) James Fenimore Cooper

Answer · why

D) James Fenimore Cooper

James Fenimore Cooper's frontier scout Hawkeye, from the Leatherstocking Tales, gave Iowans their nickname after newspaperman James G. Edwards propose...

Q 05/05

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

A) 1850

B) 1861

C) 1846

D) 1856

Answer · why

C) 1846

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