Iowa Travel Trivia Quiz

Answer: US Highway 20 for about 300 miles

Both Sioux City and Dubuque are on Highway 20. All but about 85 miles of Highway 20 in Iowa is divided highway (2012 data), making travel between the two cities a much easier drive than it was when Highway 20 was only two lanes across the length of Iowa.

Answer: South Sioux City is in Nebraska and North Sioux City is in South Dakota.

Sioux City's 2010 population was 82,684, while South Sioux City's was 13,350 and North Sioux City's was 2,530. In 2010, Sioux City was Iowa's fourth-largest city, while South Sioux was Nebraska's 14th-largest.

Answer: Bemidji (Jane Russell)

Bemidji is in Minnesota. Wall Lake is in Sac County, Winterset is in Madison County, and Denison is in Crawford County. One can visit the birth homes of both Williams and Wayne, while Denison has a Donna Reed Theater. Corning, Iowa is also the birthplace of Johnny Carson.

Answer: I-29

Interstate 29 in Iowa follows the Missouri River along Iowa's "west coast". Its northern-most entry/exit point is at Sioux City where it enters/leaves South Dakota. In CW McCall's "Old Home Filler Up and Keep On Truckin Cafe", the singer's dog is named Sloan, and he and Mavis go to Pisgah "to the picture show", which happens to be a drive-in.

Although the song specifically mentions I-80, all of the exits in the question exist on I-29, which runs concurrently with I-80 for about 16-20 miles north of Council Bluffs.

Answer: Northern Iowa

I-80 passes through Des Moines (Drake) and Iowa City (U of I), while I-35 passes through Ames (ISU), making those three schools easy to reach from the Interstate. UNI's home, Cedar Falls, on the other hand, is roughly an hour east of I-35 and an hour north of I-80.

Answer: John Deere (Moline)

In 1804, John Deere moved from Vermont to Illinois, eventually choosing Moline as a base. The others are all Iowa "native" industries. Maytag was taken over by Whirlpool in 2006. Pella Corporation was founded as Rolscreen in 1925 in Des Moines, before moving to Pella in Marion County.

In 1992, it became Pella Corporation. Amana Refrigeration began in the Amana Colonies. Amana Refrigeration was sold to Maytag in 2002.

Answer: Davenport

According to Wikipedia, the Quad Cities is made up of FIVE cities, three in Illinois and two in Iowa. Bettendorf is Iowa's other member. In 2010, Davenport had over 99,000 inhabitants, Iowa's third-largest city. Bettendorf had over 33,000, while Moline was the largest of the Quad Cities in Illinois, with a population of 43,977. Also considered part of the Quad Cities are Rock Island and East Moline.

Answer: the Big Sioux River

The Big Sioux flows south from Sioux Falls, dividing Iowa from South Dakota, and eventually emptying into the Missouri River in Sioux City. A small portion of the Des Moines River also divides Iowa from Missouri as it flows south from Farmington and into the Mississippi just below Keokuk.

Answer: Cedar Rapids and Waterloo

I-380 actually connects the Iowa City suburb of Coralville to US Highway 20 just east of Waterloo, passing alongside Cedar Rapids on the way. In 2010, Cedar Rapids was Iowa's second-largest city and Waterloo was fifth-largest.

Answer: Madrid - Hispanic

Madrid was founded as a Swedish settlement originally known as Swede Point. The story I got from buying a deck of cards during Madrid's Centennial in 1983, was that the Swedish miners named the town "Madrid" to spite the mine owner, whom they apparently disliked a great deal, and who was going to name the town Stockholm. Elk Horn is known for its Danish Windmill and Danish Heritage Museum. Holstein once boasted a Turnverein and still has a Turnhalle on the National Registry of Historic Places. Orange City is famous for its annual Tulip Festival held in May each year.