Des Moines, Iowa

As I sat down to write this post, and much to my surprise, I discovered that 2 ½ years had already gone by since we last visited a State Capitol. The summer of 2011 we were in a capitol visitation frenzy, zigzagging across the East Coast and a dozen State Buildings over the course of three months, chalking up our total visits to 38 - followed by nothing between then and now. We broke the dry spell on May 2, 2014 with a visit to Des Moines, Iowa, the first of ten capitols we hope to visit before this year is out as we work our way north and east and ultimately to New York and the New England States this summer. The most striking feature of the Des Moines State Capitol is the 23-karat gold-covered dome that rises 275 feet above the Capitol grounds. The gold leaf covering the dome is so thin that 250,000 sheets pressed together measure only 1 inch thick. We picked a good season to visit as the Kwanzan cherry trees were in full bloom everywhere we looked, including the Capitol grounds. The inside of the State Capitol is a showcase for artwork, woodcarving, artifacts, spiraling staircases, and decorative wall and ceiling painting and stenciling. A collection of dolls depicting Iowa's former and current first ladies can be found near the Governor's Office, and a painting of a basket of corn called Plenty is prominently displayed at the top of one of the lavish stairways. What would the capitol of Iowa be without one or more depictions of corn? Here are some pictures of our visit to the Iowa State Capitol.