Des Moines River - History

History

One of the earliest French maps that depicts the Des Moines (1703) refers to it as "R. des Otentas" which translates to "River of the Otoe"; the Otoe Tribe lived in the interior of Iowa in the 18th century. Another early name used by the Meskwaki and Sauk was "Ke-o-shaw-qua", (lit. Hermit's River) from which Keosauqua, Iowa derives its name.

The origin of the name "Des Moines" is obscure. It was given the name La Rivière des Moines, literally meaning "River of the Monks", by early French explorers. The name may have referred to early Trappist monks who built huts near the mouth of the river. It may also refer to moingona, an American Indian word meaning "river of the mounds" in reference to the burial mounds that were located near the banks of the river. The 1718 Guillaume Delisle map (pictured) labels it "le Moingona R."

It is also claimed that the name "des Moines" is the result of a hoax. In 1673 Father Jacques Marquette met some representatives of the Peoria tribe near the mouth of the modern-day Des Moines River. He asked them the name of the rival tribe that lived further along the banks of the river. The Peoria told him that tribe was called the Moingoana, which became the root for the word 'Moines'. But researcher Michael McCafferty of Indiana University, while studying the now extinct Miami-Illinois language, discovered that Moingoana, translated literally, meant "shit faces".

During the mid-19th century, the river provided the main commercial transportation across Iowa until the building of the railroads in the 1860s.