Eighteen facts about Iowa

1. Des Moines is Iowa's capital and largest city.
2. Total Area: 26th among states, 145,754 sq km (56,276 sq mi).
3. Iowa is a state located in the Midwestern United States, an area often referred to as the "American Heartland."
4. Amana, in east central Iowa, is one of seven small villages established by a German religious sect in the 1850s and early 1860s.
5. The state derives its name from the Ioway people, one of the many American Indian tribes that occupied the state at the time of European exploration.
6. 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.
7. Iowa was a part of the French colony of New France.
8. Kalona is the largest Amish community west of the Mississippi River. 
9. Iowa is often known as the "Food Capital of the World", but Iowa's economy, culture, and landscape are diverse.
10. Iowa is the nation's third most productive agricultural state, following only California and Texas in the value of its yearly farm output.
11. Iowa has been listed as one of the safest states in which to live.
12. The highest double track railroad bridge in the world, the Kate Shelley Bridge, is located at Boone.
13. Despite popular perception, Iowa is generally not flat; most of the state consists of rolling hills.
14. Quaker Oats, in Cedar Rapids, is the largest cereal company in the world.
15. Iowa has 99 counties, but 100 county seats because Lee County has two.
16. The famous actor John Wayne was born in Winterset on May 26, 1907. 
17. Iowa is the only landlocked state whose east and west borders are 100% formed by water. Missouri and Mississippi rivers.
18. Campers and motor homes are manufactured in Winnebago County. They're called Winnebago's.