Over the last couple of months, I’ve been trying to go to a few places that I missed on my first loop of the US, including the states of Nebraska, North Dakota, Iowa, and parts of Southern Illinois.  I found that some of this area is beautiful expansive farm land — not empty space, but not the most interesting country to drive though either.  But every now and then I came across a gem, such as the State Capitol Building in Des Moines, Iowa.  I’ll admit that I went there because I was struggling to find landmarks or sites of interest in Iowa and it looked like it was one of the few options, but it really would have been worth the trip in it’s own right.  I don’t usually rave about buildings, but prepare yourself, because this one was special.

It was a beautiful warm day, and even from the outside the building looked impressive, in spite of some scaffolding around the main dome.  The building was constructed between 1871 and 1886, and had five domes in total, the four corners being made of copper, and the central dome covered in gold leaf.

After a quick security check, I was told that a tour was just beginning, so I rushed up the stairs to the main floor to join the group being led by Terry.  I didn’t actually hear a lot of what he said for the first few minutes, however, because I was looking around in wonder at the elaborate hall.

As I crossed the center of the hall, I looked up, to see the inside of the gorgeous dome above me!  Keep an eye on those pink marble pillars that you see just below the gold ceiling, because the tour took me all the way to that level.  You can walk around the building on your own, but you’re only allowed to climb up in into the dome with a guide.

When I began to focus on the tour again, we were led into the main office wing of the building.  We saw historical photographs and information about the governors of Iowa, but I was still most impressed with the building itself.  This stately door enters directly into the governor’s private office.

We were led rather quickly through both the ceremonial and the working offices of the governor, because her staff was there working.  Although they were welcoming and obviously used to tours, their work didn’t stop while we were there, although they took the time to smile and wave.  The current governor of Iowa is Kim Reynolds, who took over from Terry Branstad when he was recently appointed the US Ambassador to China.  She is the first female governor of Iowa.

In addition to the governor’s offices, we visited several other elaborately decorated rooms, where I was amazed to learn that there was absolutely no wall paper in the building.  The patterns on the walls in the picture below are all painted, and the ceilings are flat, the moulding and ceiling roses are also painted.  It’s hard to show in pictures what a wonderful deception this is — until I got up close, I was convinced that the walls must be papered!  We were told that it took several years to complete the painting of this room.

There’s still a chamber in the building for the Iowa Supreme Court, although the court now usually meets in the courthouse building next door.  The room was again spectacular, and Terry told us about the carving of the elaborate wooden panel at the front of the room.

The attention to detail was impeccable, and apparent throughout the entire building, even down to the door hinges.  Yes, I took pictures of the door hinges…

We climbed the main staircase to the next floor, and saw the huge painting that commemorates the westward movement of the pioneers across the prairies of the Midwest.  And up above were elaborate mosaics depicting… um… people and things… of some sort.  Apparently I didn’t focus on what they depicted, sorry.

But in our upward progress through the building we did eventually walk across that walkway you see in front of the mosaics, and they are indeed beautifully done.  Here’s a bird.

There was so much to see all around that I had to keep reminding myself to look up, but it was worth doing.  All the ceilings were beautiful as well.

We next entered the library, which was five stories high.  There was a spiral staircase at each end, amazing ironwork, and beautiful chandeliers.

Looking up in the ceiling in the library was also a treat.  I’d love to spend time in this peaceful library, but I’m not sure that I’d get much work done!  What would it be like to work in such an inspirational place?

I looked briefly at some of the volumes on the shelves, and most of them were law books.  These on modern wiretapping seemed particularly timely…

In keeping with the rest of the rooms, the House of Representatives was very impressive…

And the Senate chambers were, if anything, even more so…

We next proceeded up to the base of the dome.  Although less elaborate than the public parts of the building, the spiral stairways were in themselves impressive.  We went up and down them at a rather quick pace, so it was hard not to get a bit dizzy.

This is the view down from the base of those pink columns that were visible in the picture of the dome above.  The floor directly below is where the library and chambers were located, and the greyish circle (actually glass floor tiles) down below is the floor with the governor’s office.  You can see some of the tile work on the floors better from here.

Looking up, it becomes apparent that the gold ceiling contains many lights and has a hole in the center, though which the highest dome, painted with a partly cloudy sky, is visible.  The flag and emblems are suspended on wires across the opening — if you look closely you can just see the wires in this picture.

Before descending, I was able to peak out at one of the other domes though the scaffolding outside.

Having reached the pinnacle of the tour, in more ways than one, we were led back down from the dome and set free to wander at will.  I puttered around for a while, discovering details that I had somehow missed before.

I can’t say that my time travelling through Iowa was the most exciting part of this trip, but this building is without a doubt the most impressive I’ve seen in the US, and that includes Washington DC.  It’s worth a trip through the corn fields of Iowa just to see it.  It is truly amazing.