Car Hire Des Moines - Mini guide to Des Moines

Des Moines, Iowa’s capital city, is not only a great city to visit, but also provides the perfect springboard from which to explore other areas in the Midwest. Its attractions include something for everyone, with a range of good museums housing informative historical displays and art exhibits, a zoo and a local Botanical Centre, as well as amazing mounds created by Native American Indians.

The city has several notable buildings, including the Basilica of St John, which was built 15 years ago in Romanesque style and has a beautiful marble interior and stained-glass windows, and the historical Hoyt Sherman Place, dating from 1877 and showcasing artwork and antiques.

The history of America’s heartland is well documented in the Des Moines Historical Museum; while the Heritage Gallery and the Arts Centre, with exhibits of work from the 19th and 20th centuries, make ideal outings for art lovers.

The Botanical Centre, with the largest collection of plants to be found in the Midwest, is a wonderful place to spend a leisurely afternoon among indigenous flora. The nearby Blank Park Zoo provides a fun outing for families, with a range of local animals and more exotic species from farther afield. The zoo includes a display of 70 moon jellyfish in a 2,500-gallon saltwater cylinder, the first of its kind in Iowa.

An intriguing attraction, and one that no history buff should miss, is the Effigy Mounds National Monument, situated slightly northeast of Des Moines. Here you can view massive mounds, built over a thousand years ago by ancient Native Americans who vanished before the arrival of Christopher Columbus. Little else is known about the monument, except that most of the structures were burial sites.

There are 195 mounds spread over 1,022 hectares of land. Of these, 31 are shaped in an array of animal forms, depicting eagles, falcons, bear, bison, deer, turtles and lizards. The others are conical, linear or compound. Natural features in the mounds include forests, grasses, wetlands and rivers.

The major suburbs in Des Moines are: Clive, Crestwood, Fort de Moines, Lovington, Millman, Norwoodville, Pleasant Hill, Rider, Windsor Heights and Urbandale.