Jason E. Andersen

Bonus Fun Fact: In French, ‘des moines’ translates to ‘of the monks,’ which for the name of a city, doesn’t make a lot of sense to me. The capital of Iowa, Des Moines, is named after the Des Moines River, which flows through the city. Early French explorers called the river ‘La Rivière des Moines,’ which means ‘river of the monks.’ It’s fuzzy on exactly how it got that name, but many believe it was named after the French monks that lived at the confluence of the Des Moines and Mississippi Rivers. Des Moines was initially founded as Fort Des Moines in the mid-1800’s and the name was later shorted to Des Moines in 1857.