Are you an Iowa trivia whiz? Find out with my 10-question quiz.
Just for fun, here's an Iowa quiz embracing our history, geography, culture--even the cosmic.
Dear subscribers, how about we enjoy a little summer fun?
I recently completed my 14th consecutive RAGBRAI. The annual Hinterland music festival in St. Charles notched record-breaking attendance (and milder temperatures). The Iowa State Fair is underway with its epic gauntlet of mullets, mammals, and stick food.
So, here’s yet another summer diversion: Try this 10-question quiz to prove your Midwest mettle.
The content of this quiz was prompted earlier this year by friend and subscriber Benji Nichols from Decorah. He was seeking volunteer submissions to enliven a rural Iowa economic development summit with a small dose of competitive fun.
So, I’ve adapted the quiz for all of you here on Substack. You can try it solo or gather friends and family for your own humble household game.
Yes, I realize you could just feed the questions into ChatGPT-5 and respond with your own optimized version of the quiz.
But where’s the sport in that? Where’s your spirit of human discovery of the sort that once propelled Meriwether Lewis and William Clark to trudge through the pre-statehood Iowa wilderness?
You won’t find Lewis & Clark in this quiz, but no doubt you’ll recognize plenty of other familiar Iowa characters.
The 10 questions are followed by an answer key and a guide for evaluating your performance based on the 12 possible points. (Yes, 12 points; my rigorous public school education in Iowa in the ’70s and ’80s included plenty of advanced math.)
Have fun.
1. Name one Iowa town associated with (A) our state’s most famous REAL cosmic event and (B) another Iowa town known for our most famous FICTIONAL cosmic event. Half a point for one town, full point for both towns.
+
2. The “Honey War” between Iowa and Missouri began in which year?
A: 1829
B: 1839
C: 1929
D: 1959
+
3. Which of these town slogans isn’t the genuine slogan?
Anita: A whale of a town
Aredale: It’s not your Dale. It’s not my Dale. It’s Aredale.
Dyersville: City of dreams
Gravity: We’re down to earth. If Gravity goes, we all go.
Stuart: Home of 1,700 good eggs and a few stinkers
+
4. Two concerts held in Iowa—in different decades—both have a valid claim to qualify as the most famous Iowa concert. Name either one. Receive a bonus point if you name the correct year, venue, and city for either concert—two bonus points if you do so for both.
+
5. On July 13, 1857, the Meskwaki (or the “Sac & Fox in Iowa”) purchased how many acres in Tama County as their first federally recognized footprint in Iowa?
8
80
800
8,000
+
6. Des Moines County is located in which quadrant of the state: northwest, northeast, southeast, or southwest?
+
7. What was the relationship of artist Grant Wood to the woman and man who inspired the two figures in his landmark painting American Gothic?
A: Sister and brother-in-law
B: Niece and local mayor
C: Both were his cousins
D: Sister and dentist
E: Fellow faculty at the University of Iowa
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8. Which city in Iowa was home to the state’s first Black-owned newspaper?
+
9. Legendary Hawkeye football player Nile Kinnick won the Heisman Trophy in 1939. Which is his hometown?
Ackley
Adel
Aplington
Atlantic
Avoca
+
10. How many driving miles stretch between the Johnny Carson birthplace and John Wayne birthplace in Iowa? Earn a point if your guess is within 5 miles.
Answer key
1
A: Manson was the real impact site for a 12-trillion ton meteorite more than 70 million years ago.
B: Fictional Captain James T. Kirk of “Star Trek” fame is due to be born in Riverside on March 22, 2228.
[Up to 1 point]
2
The 1839 dispute was over the shared state border and control of the modern lower tier of Iowa farmland. It involved skirmishes over taxation and the alleged theft of honeycombs from Iowa trees. It also was inflamed by the cultural and moral divide between Iowa as a free state and Missouri as a slave state. The U.S. Supreme Court finally settled the border dispute with a 1951 ruling.
[1 point]
3
While Dyersville is home to the nearby Field of Dreams Movie Site, “city of dreams” isn’t its official slogan. “Farm toy capital of the world” has been a slogan thanks to its manufacturing legacy and National Farm Toy Museum.
[1 point]
4
Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, and J.P. “the Big Bopper” Richardson played Feb. 2, 1959, at the Surf Ballroom in Clear Lake. Their tragic deaths in a wintry Feb. 3 plane crash shortly after the show became known as “The Day the Music Died”—rock ’n’ roll legend. On Jan. 20, 1982, late metal icon Ozzy Osbourne bit the head off a (dead) bat while on stage at Veterans Memorial Auditorium in downtown Des Moines; he received a rabies shot at Broadlawns Medical Center. It remains one of the most infamous incidents in rock lore.
[Up to 3 points]
5
The Meskwaki initially purchased 80 acres.
[1 point]
6
Burlington is the seat of Des Moines County in the southeast corner of the state, along the Mississippi River.
[1 point]
7
Grant Wood’s sister and dentist were the models for his most famous painting.
[1 point]
8
The Western Baptist Herald newspaper in Keokuk, 1881-1885, edited by Mrs. Amos Johnson, is credited as Iowa’s first Black-owned newspaper.
[1 point]
9
Kinnick was born July 9, 1918, in Adel.
[1 point]
10
The distance between the two birthplaces (in Corning and Winterset) is 60 miles according to Mapquest.
[1 point]
How to rate your quiz results
Most points possible: 12.
0-2: Maybe you’re really a Nebraskan?
3-5: Next time we’ll give you an easier quiz with questions like, “What’s our capital city?,” or, “Which town along I-80 has the yellow smiley-faced water tower?” (Adair).
6-8: Good job. Just don’t go bragging about your aptitude with Iowa trivia. You know how much Iowans hate a showboat.
9-12: You may be more certifiably Iowan than Nile Kinnick, Grant Wood’s sister, and everybody else mentioned in this quiz.
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Embarrassed at my 50% score! Musta been all those years aways....Time to crack the books. Keep on educating us, Kyle!