Agriculture dominates the landscape here, with a neatly ordered patchwork of fields and farms occupying the softly rolling plains. It’s pleasant, with a gentle pace of life and hospitable, small-town feel, but its tourist appeal – and some would say excitement value – is limited; as Bill Bryson, born in its capital, memorably declared, “I come from Des Moines. Somebody had to.”
The two major tourist draws are the small white house that, along with its stony faced residents, was immortalised in Grant Wood’s American Gothic, and the bridges of Madison County, where the eponymous book and film were set.
Cinema buffs can also make a detour to see Dyerville’s baseball diamond, built for the filming of another tear jerker, 1989’s Field of Dreams.
In the westernmost part of the state, the dramatic ridges of the Loess Hills rise some 61 metres above the plains. Formed in the Ice Age by drifts of windblown sediment, they’re now home to a number of wildlife and nature reserves and State Parks, popular with hikers, hunters and campers.
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