Iowa State Map

Regions of Iowa

Iowa is mostly gently rolling farmland, and cropland covers most of the state. The landforms differ mainly in how recently glaciers covered them and how much wind-blown silt (loess) was left behind. Most of the 99 counties are near-square blocks laid out on the federal survey grid, which gives the Iowa county map its checkerboard look.

• Des Moines Lobe: the flattest part of the state, a tongue of young glacial deposits reaching from the Minnesota line south to Des Moines, with Ames, Fort Dodge and Clear Lake. Its northwest corner holds the Iowa Great Lakes, including Spirit Lake and West Okoboji.
• Northwest Iowa: open prairie farmland around Sioux Center, and Hawkeye Point (1,670 ft), the state’s highest point, on a farm in Osceola County near Sibley.
• Loess Hills: steep ridges of wind-blown silt along the Missouri River valley between Sioux City and Council Bluffs, across the river from Omaha, Nebraska.
• Southern Iowa Drift Plain: older, more eroded hills with pasture and woodland across the south, around Creston and Ottumwa.
• Eastern Iowa: the Cedar Rapids–Iowa City corridor, home of the University of Iowa, and Waterloo–Cedar Falls on the Cedar River. Iowa City was the first state capital; the government moved to Des Moines in 1857. Dubuque, on the Mississippi bluffs, is the oldest city.
• Driftless Area (Paleozoic Plateau): bluffs, cold-water streams and limestone outcrops in the northeast around Decorah, plus Effigy Mounds National Monument above the Mississippi.

Rivers and borders

The Mississippi River forms the entire eastern border, passing Dubuque, Clinton, the Quad Cities (Davenport and Bettendorf in Iowa; Rock Island and Moline in Illinois), Burlington and Keokuk. On the west, the Missouri River separates Iowa from Nebraska and the Big Sioux River from South Dakota. Inside the state, the Des Moines, Iowa and Cedar rivers drain southeast toward the Mississippi; Des Moines grew where the Raccoon River meets the Des Moines River.

Parks and landmarks

Iowa has no national park. The National Park Service manages Effigy Mounds National Monument and the Herbert Hoover National Historic Site in West Branch, the birthplace of the 31st president. The Amana Colonies, seven villages founded by German religious settlers, lie west of Iowa City.

Major highways

• I-80: the main east–west route, from Council Bluffs through Des Moines and Iowa City to Davenport and Illinois.
• I-35: from the Missouri line north through Des Moines and Ames to Clear Lake and Minnesota.
• I-29: along the Missouri River from Missouri through Council Bluffs and Sioux City to South Dakota.
• I-380: from I-80 near Iowa City north through Cedar Rapids to Waterloo.
• I-74 and I-280: the Quad Cities connections into Illinois; I-235 crosses downtown Des Moines.
• US 20, US 30 and US 61: US 20 links Dubuque, Waterloo, Fort Dodge and Sioux City; US 30, the historic Lincoln Highway, runs through Cedar Rapids and Ames; US 61 follows the Mississippi.