50 Years of 50 States: Iowa

Nickname: The Hawkeye State
Date Ratified: December 28, 1846
Capital: Des Moines

Map of Iowa

• Iowa is the only state whose east and west borders are 100% water. Iowa is also the only state whose name starts with 2 vowels.
• Iowa has held the first presidential caucuses every election cycle since 1972.
• Herbert Hoover, the 31st president of the United States, was born in West Branch. He was the first president born west of the Mississippi.
• Iowa City is the first American city to earn UNESCO’s designation “City of Literature.”
• Fort Atkinson is the site of the only fort ever built by the federal government to protect one Indian tribe from another.
• Useless fact: Strawberry Point is home to the world’s largest strawberry.
• Despite the reputation of Middle America, Iowa is one of the more progressive states in the region, and has been since it was admitted to the Union.
• The Iowa state flag was adopted in 1921, and is designed to reflect its heritage as part of the French Louisiana territory.


Flag of Iowa

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