Iowa Water Trivia Answers

1. What is the average annual rainfall in Iowa?
32 inches

2. What is Iowa's average annual snowfall?
32 inches

3. What is considered the greatest natural disaster in Iowa's history?
The Flood of 1993

4. During the flood of 1993, for how many days was the entire city of Des Moines without drinking water?
Twenty

5. What was the first man-made lake in Iowa?
Pine Lake

6. Clam shells found at the bend of a river near Muscatine lead to what industry?
Pearl button making

7. On the bluffs of what river is one of the only locations in the world where cliff-dwelling pigeons can be found?
Iowa River

8. When a dike broke after torrential rains in 1986, Crystal Lake, a thirty-five-acre lake near DeWitt, drained in how many minutes?
15

9. In what year was the first railroad bridge built across the Mississippi River?
1856

10. What Spencer woman is credited with creating the word Blizzard in 1868 after reading a story about a man named Mr. Blizzard who had a raging temper?
Lephe Wells Coates

11. What is the Iowa record amount of snowfall for one day?
24 inches April 20, 1918 in Lenox

12. What underground river cavern is near McGregor?
Spook Cave

13. What Iowa lake is one of the three 'blue lakes' of the world?
West Okoboji

14. What wildlife refuge contains nearly 8K acres of the Missouri River flood plain between Iowa and Nebraska?
DeSoto National Wildlife Refuge

15. In 1891 a large glacial boulder found in Black Hawk County was used to construct what building in Waterloo?
Boulder Church

16. Rainwater falling on the east side of what county courthouse eventually flows into the Mississippi River, while that falling on the west side flows into the Missouri River?
Lucas County Courthouse in Chariton

17. Situated at Fort Madison, what is the name of the largest double-deck, swing-span bridge in the world?
Santa Fe Bridge

18. What is the only natural substance that can be restored to its original rocklike state by adding water?
Gypsum

19. In what town did an artesian well drilled in August 1886 sprout so strong that efforts to harness it continued until October 1887?
Belle Plaine

20. Large artesian wells beneath the town gave Goldfield what nickname?
Fountain City

All Questions are from the book Iowa Trivia by Janice E. Stock, Allen Beck, and Ken Beck and published by Rutledge Hill Press. They are included here with permission from Rutledge Hill Press. If you hunger for more Iowa Trivia this book is for you. Questions about the trivia on this page contact the Iowa Project WET office.