Des Moines,

Des Moines, the capital and largest city of Iowa, is situated on the Des Moines River, at the mouth of the Raccoon River, 174 miles W. of Davenport by rail. The river, which rises in the SW. part of Minnesota, flows generally SE. through Iowa, and enters the Mississippi at the SE. extremity of the state, after a course of about 550 miles. Founded in 1846, the city has a fine state-house ($3,000,000), a marble post-office and courthouse, a Baptist university, and a state library containing over 22,500 volumes. Half-a-dozen bridges over the two rivers connect the different parts of the town, and there is a public park, with fine groves of forest trees. The town contains several foundries and planing and flouring mills, besides manufactories of machinery, engines, boilers, railway cars, &c. Pop. (1870) 12,035; (1880) 22,408; (1885) 32,469; (1890) 50,093.