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Welcome to our page of Iowa trivia questions! Iowa is a state known for its rich history, diverse culture, and natural beauty, making it a fascinating destination for trivia enthusiasts. Our selection of questions covers a wide range of topics including the state's history, culture, geography, and landmarks. Whether you're a native of Iowa or just a curious learner, our trivia questions will help you discover new and exciting information about this great state.
For those interested in the history of Iowa, our trivia questions will take you through the state's past, from its early days as a territory to the present. We also cover the state's famous landmarks such as the Effigy Mounds National Monument, the Herbert Hoover Presidential Library and Museum, and the Amana Colonies. Culture enthusiasts can learn about the state's diverse cultural heritage, traditional customs, and local art forms.
Iowa's geography and wildlife are also an important part of the state's identity, and our questions cover information about the state's natural wonders like the Loess Hills, the Mississippi River and the unique wildlife such as the American White Pelican and the state bird, the Eastern Goldfinch.
Our trivia questions are designed to be challenging yet entertaining, making them perfect for individuals, families, or groups of friends. Whether you're looking for a fun way to pass the time or you want to test your knowledge of Iowa, our trivia questions are sure to provide hours of entertainment.
1. "If you build it, he will come" is the repeated thought in Iowa farmer Ray Kinsella's head in which 1989 baseball film? It leads Ray to turn one of his cornfields into a baseball diamond.
Answer: Field of Dreams
2. Conceived as a competitor to the SAT, what Iowa-spawned standardized college prep test surpassed the SAT by number of test takers back in 2012?
Answer: ACT
3. The USS Sioux City (LCS-11) is the first ship in the Navy fleet to be named after a city in which state?
Answer: Iowa
4. As a farmer in the U.S. Senate, Iowan Chuck Grassley received the 2022 President’s Award from the National what Growers Association?
Answer: Corn
5. The Kent Corporation had its humble beginnings when the founder, Gage Allison Kent, began producing Kent 34 Baby Beef, the first "Feed Without A Filler," in what Iowa city?
Answer: Indianola
6. In 1959, musicians Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, and The Big Bopper were tragically killed in a plane crash near Clear Lake, Iowa. What five-word phrase, coined as the end of every verse of “American Pie,” is now used as a name for that terrible event?
Answer: The Day The Music Died
7. In 2023, Kent broke ground in Muscatine, Iowa on a factory to manufacture what pet product?
Answer: Cat Litter
8. Among Gannett's massive empire is what most-circulated paper in Iowa that sponsors a namesake annual bike ride across the state?
Answer: Des Moines Register
9. If you wanted to travel through three adjacent U.S. states that all started with the same letter, you would have to travel through which three states?
Answer: Indiana, Illinois, Iowa
10. The Cedar Rapids Gazette is the second-highest circulated local daily in what Midwestern state?
Answer: Iowa
11. Before his stints as Secretary of Agriculture, Tom Vilsack served two terms as governor of what corn-fed state?
Answer: Iowa
12. The Fenelon Place Elevator is a 3-foot funicular railway located in Dubuque. Also known as the Fourth Street Elevator, it's oft-claimed to be the shortest and steepest railroad in the world (but other funiculars also make this claim). You would find this railway and the city of Dubuque in what Midwest state?
Answer: Iowa
13. Exploring the western portion of the Louisiana Purchase, the Lewis and Clark expedition spent a significant amount of time traversing what river that makes up present-day Iowa's western border? It shares a name with the M-state that hogs all of Iowa's southern border.
Answer: Missouri River
14. A monument shaped like a pair of black thick-rimmed glasses stands just outside of Clear Lake, Iowa, meant to commemorate what person who died in that location in 1959?
Answer: Buddy Holly
15. What third-largest city in Iowa is located along the Mississippi River and includes the Great Mississippi Valley Fairgrounds, a facility that hosts the Great Mississippi Valley Fair as well as numerous concerts, flea markets, car shows, and more?
Answer: Davenport
16. Iowan Norman Borlaug is often credited with saving a billion lives by developing high-yield strains of wheat and promoting modern farming methods in the 1950s and 1960s. The resulting increase in crop yields is often called the what Revolution?
Answer: Green
17. Herbert Hoover was the first U.S. president born west of the Mississippi. Despite being associated with the state of California, he wasn't born THAT far west of the Mississippi, just thirty miles away, in fact, in the town of West Branch in what state?
Answer: Iowa
18. In 1869, educator Arabella Mansfield of Iowa became the first woman in America to be licensed to practice what profession?
Answer: Law
19. "Marian the Librarian" runs the library of the small town of River City, Iowa, in what acclaimed and popular 1957 musical and its film adaptation?
Answer: The Music Man
20. What kind of animal was Dewey Readmore Books, who lived in the Spencer, Iowa library in whose book bin he'd once been abandoned, until his death in 2006?
Answer: Cat
21. In 2024, Iowa star Caitlin Clark scored her 3,668th point, surpassing a career record for points among D-I NCAA basketball players in both men's and women's competition, held for over 50 years by what LSU Tiger?
Answer: Pete Maravich
22. The Atanasoff-Berry Computer, the world’s first electronic digital computer, was built during the 1930s in what U.S. state nicknamed the “Hawkeye State”?
Answer: Iowa
23. The Cedar, Cutler-Donahoe, Hogback, Holliwell, Imes, and Roseman are a complete list of what six local landmarks around the town of Winterset, Iowa, and which collectively share a name with a 1995 Meryl Streep movie?
Answer: The Bridges of Madison County
24. Brownstar Insurance is the hard-to-swallow name of a company in a 2011 Ed Helms comedy film set in and named for what second-largest city in Iowa?
Answer: Cedar Rapids
25. Described on its own website as "Trucker's Disneyland," the "World's Largest Truckstop" includes eight restaurants, a chiropractor, and a barbershop. The complex is located off of I-80 near Walcott in what state?
Answer: Iowa
26. Electric cars are much older than Tesla. In the 1890s, William Morrison created the first successful electric car in the U.S. What Midwestern state was Morrison from?
Answer: Iowa
27. The gasoline-powered tractor was invented by John Froelich in 1892 in the village of Clayton in what Midwestern state?
Answer: Iowa
28. In 1874, a future President was born in this state, the first state WEST of the Mississippi River that a president would call home. What state was it?
Answer: Iowa
29. Which Kent brand with plants in Washington, Indiana, and Iowa is a global corn innovator who contributes to a range of industries (from pharm to table you might say)?
Answer: Grain Processing Corporation
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