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Des Moines
Capital of Iowa, at the meeting of two rivers
Des Moines sits at the confluence of the Des Moines and Raccoon rivers near the center of Iowa, in the heart of the Corn Belt. The name traces through French to the river, and the city grew from a frontier fort at the river junction into the state capital in 1857. Surrounded by some of the most productive farmland on the planet, it became a natural center for agriculture and, later, the insurance and finance industries.
The country around Des Moines is gently rolling prairie turned to corn and soybeans, drained by the rivers that meet downtown. The city anchors Iowa's largest metro and serves as the political and commercial hub of the state, famous every four years as a focal point of the first-in-the-nation presidential caucuses.