Iowa State Capitol grounds

The Iowa State Capitol was built in the decades after Iowa became a state, replacing earlier, humbler quarters as the young state grew in wealth and ambition. Its designers reached for grandeur, giving it a towering central dome sheathed in thin sheets of real gold leaf, surrounded by four smaller domes, so that from across the city the building seems to shine. The gold has been renewed over the years to keep it gleaming.

Inside, the capitol is just as impressive, with a grand staircase, a soaring rotunda, colored marble, murals, and fine craftsmanship throughout, the work of artisans who filled the building with symbols of Iowa's history, agriculture, and aspirations. It is widely regarded as one of the most splendid statehouses in the nation, and it remains fully in use as the home of the legislature and state offices.

The capitol stands on a hill on the east side of Des Moines, and its landscaped grounds sweep down toward the Des Moines River, offering fine views back over the downtown skyline. The lawns and gardens are dotted with monuments and memorials honoring Iowans who served in the nation's wars and other chapters of the state's history, making the grounds a place of remembrance as well as beauty.

Strolling the grounds is a pleasure and a free one, whether you come to admire the building, visit the monuments, or simply enjoy the view. In warm months the gardens bloom, and the open lawns invite a slower pace, while the dome overhead ties the whole scene together.

Des Moines grew up at the meeting of the Des Moines and Raccoon rivers and became Iowa's capital and largest city, a hub of government, insurance, and agriculture. Downtown, just across the river from the capitol, offers museums, a sculpture park, riverfront trails, a bustling farmers market, and a lively food scene, making the capital an easy and rewarding base for exploring central Iowa.

The city sits in the heart of the state's rich farm belt, and its story is woven through with agriculture, from the great state fair held each summer to the surrounding sea of corn and soybean fields. The capitol, on its hill above the river, presides over all of it, the symbolic center of a farming state.

The rivers and prairies around Des Moines lie within the historic homelands of the Ioway, for whom the state is named, along with the Meskwaki, the Sauk, and the Dakota, whose peoples lived across central Iowa's river valleys and grasslands long before the city and capitol rose. The Meskwaki own the Meskwaki Settlement near Tama, northeast of Des Moines, where their community lives today.

The name Des Moines comes down from the French and, before that, echoes the presence of Native peoples along the river. The deep prairie soils that made this such rich farmland, and helped make Des Moines a prosperous capital, were built over thousands of years under tallgrass prairie, the long foundation beneath the gleaming dome.

The closest Boutel™ stays, so you can turn this stop into an overnight. Each is an independently owned, editorially selected place to stay.