Iowa State Capitol Building More Beautiful Than South Dakotas

A ranking of the Top-10 State Capital Buildings is out. Iowa is on it...South Dakota and Minnesota, not so much. What's the deal?

The folks at attractionsofamerica.com put out their ranking of “Top 10 Most Beautiful State Capitol Buildings in the USA”.

The capital building is a representation of the history and pride of a state.

So states have invested a lot to design and preserve the structures in their capital cities.

In this recent ranking of the best of the best state capital buildings, Iowa came in #3.

South Dakota's capital building in Pierre and Minnesota's capital building in St. Paul didn't even make the list.

So what makes Iowa's State Capitol building so much better than South Dakota's?

Iowa's State Capitol was built between 1871 and 1886. Sure, it is an impressive 1.4 million gross square foot building with a large 275-foot high golden dome made of 100 ounces of 23-karat gold leaf.

 South Dakota's State Capitol Building was constructed between 1905 and 1910 and is a more modest 114,000-square-foot structure constructed of fieldstone, limestone, and marble.

OK...so all that means is South Dakota just didn't feel like being too showy. We are a modest people.

But hey...how many faces does Iowa have carved into any of its mountains? That's right...none.

Oh...and we have Jackalopes in South Dakota too!

Here is the full ranking of “Top 10 Most Beautiful State Capitol Buildings in the USA”.

1. Massachusetts State House, Boston
2. Wisconsin State Capitol, Madison
3. Iowa State Capitol, Des Moines
4. Texas State Capitol, Austin
5. Illinois State Capitol, Springfield
6. Connecticut State Capitol, Hartford
7. Utah State Capitol, Salt Lake City
8. Virginia State Capitol, Richmond
9. New York State Capitol, Albany
10. Washington State Capitol, Olympia