THINGS TO DO IN IOWA - STATE FACTS

Demographics

Statehood: December 28, 1846, the 29th state

Capital: Des Moines

Total Area: 26th among states, 145,754 sq km (56,276 sq mi)

Water Area: 1,039 sq km (401 sq mi)

Highest Point: Sec. 29, T100N, R41W, Osceola County, 509 m (1670 ft)

Total Population:  30th among states
2000 census -  2,926,324
2005 estimate -  2,966,334

Population Density in 2000: 20 people per sq km (51 per sq mi)

Distribution in 1990: 61% Urban, 39% Rural

Economy:
Gross State Product - $103 billion (2003)
Personal income per Capita - $28,340 (2003)

Largest cities in 2000:
Des Moines: 198,682
Cedar Rapids: 120,758
Davenport: 98,359

Effigy Mounds National Monument in northeastern Iowa preserves prehistoric mounds constructed in the outline of mammals, birds, and reptiles.
In Spillville, near Decorah, is the house where the famous Czech composer Antonín Dvorák lived in the summer of 1893 during his visit to America.
Amana, in east central Iowa, is one of seven small villages established by a German religious sect in the 1850s and early 1860s.
Iowa is the nation's third most productive agricultural state, following only California and Texas in the value of its yearly farm output.
Kalona is the largest Amish community west of the Mississippi River.
Fenlon Place Elevator in Dubuque is the world's steepest and shortest railway.
The highest double track railroad bridge in the world, the Kate Shelley Bridge, is located at Boone.
The famous actor John Wayne was born in Winterset on May 26, 1907.
Quaker Oats, in Cedar Rapids, is the largest cereal company in the world.
Campers and motor homes are manufactured in Winnebago County. They're called Winnebago's.
Iowa is the only state whose east and west borders are 100% formed by water. Missouri and Mississippi rivers.

State Facts