by describer one

Created on: March 04, 2010

The Geography of Des Moines, Iowa is probably typical for this area of the Midwest.

The main feature is two rivers, the Raccoon and the Des Moines.  The Raccoon empties into the Des Moines, forming an irregular "Y" right in the middle of town.  So there are a lot of bridges crossing both rivers.  In fact, the city logo includes the bridges in stylized form.  The rivers have carved out valleys over the millenia.  So much of the downtown  is contained by river valley, surrounded by hills on both sides.  To the west, one can look out a window and see the land rising up to a ridge  (right around 42nd st).  To the East, the State Capitol occupies the high ground, with some dips and rises further east.  There are also hilly ridges to the South and the North of downtown.

 While people from mountainous states may think Iowa is flat, the area around Des Moines has many hills of varying heights.  Rains and weathering have created a wide variety in the landscape, and Humans have also done their part.  Anyone riding a bicycle knows that there are lots of hills in the area.  But this is good, because they add variety and interest to the landscape.

The entire area is, of course, agricultural land.  At one time there were many active coal mines in the area, mining lots of deposits.  There is still a bar somewhere on the East Side that is rumored to have a basement opening into a coal mine shaft.   There is also lots of sandstone and rich, black dirt covering the land.  In earlier millenia, it is probable that glaciers made it down to sculpt the land and shape it.  There were indian tribes that moved about in the area at different times.  In the 1840's a company of US Dragoons erected a fort at the confluence of the Racoon and Des Moines Rivers, and this was the beginning of the city of Des Moines. 

Des Moines is French for "The Monks" - it is unknown my this name was chosen, but there were French fur traders moving about in the early 1800's, so one or more of them may have contributed to the naming of the settlement.

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