Iowa

The first free state west of the Mississippi

Iowa lies between two great rivers, the Mississippi on the east and the Missouri on the west. It was part of the Louisiana Purchase, then of the Michigan and Wisconsin territories, and in 1838 Congress created the Iowa Territory. On December 28, 1846, Iowa became the 29th state, the first free state admitted west of the Mississippi River.

Its commitment to freedom was tested early. In the first case ever decided by the Iowa Territory Supreme Court, on July 4, 1839, the justices freed a Missouri man named Ralph, ruling that no one in the territory could be reduced to slavery.

The name

Iowa is named for the Ioway, a Native American nation that lived in the region. The meaning of the name is uncertain; the state’s official website says it is thought to mean “one who puts to sleep” or “sleepy ones.” The first Europeans to describe the area were the French explorers Jacques Marquette and Louis Jolliet, who passed down the Mississippi in 1673.

Three capitals

Iowa’s government started on the Mississippi at Burlington, the first capital of the Iowa Territory. In 1841 it moved inland to Iowa City, whose stone capitol served as the first state capitol and later passed to the State University of Iowa; today it is the university’s Old Capitol. In 1857 the capital moved farther west, to Des Moines, at the fork of the Des Moines and Raccoon rivers, closer to the middle of the state. The capital page tells the story.

The Hawkeye State

Iowa has long been called the Hawkeye State. According to the state’s Official Register, early newspaper editors and pioneers applied the name and the public took it up, but no law or resolution has ever made it official. The University of Iowa’s teams are the Hawkeyes. The state motto, inscribed on the Great Seal since 1847, is “Our liberties we prize and our rights we will maintain.”

A short list of symbols

Iowa has only nine official symbols, one of the shortest lists of any state, and most were adopted by resolution rather than by law. The wild rose became the state flower in 1897, because it decorated the silver service Iowa gave to the new battleship USS Iowa that year. The eastern goldfinch, the bright yellow “wild canary,” became the state bird in 1933, partly because many stay in Iowa all winter. The oak is the state tree and the geode the state rock: Iowa is known worldwide for the number of these hollow, crystal-lined rocks found there. See all of them on the Iowa symbols page.

The flag, a blue, white and red tricolor with an eagle, was designed in 1917 and adopted in 1921. The state song, “The Song of Iowa,” was written by S. H. M. Byers, who got the idea as a prisoner in a Confederate prison when he heard bands playing the tune.

Land and people

Iowa covers 56,273 square miles, 26th among the states, much of it some of the richest farmland in the world. It had about 3.24 million residents in 2025, 32nd in the country. It borders Minnesota, Wisconsin, Illinois, Missouri, Nebraska and South Dakota, with the Mississippi River forming its entire eastern border and the Missouri and Big Sioux rivers most of the western one. Des Moines, with about 212,000 people, is the largest city, followed by Cedar Rapids, Davenport and Sioux City.