It is the host of the Prime Beef festival,[4] held annually the week after Labor Day.

[6] In 1841, Latter Day Saint movement founder Joseph Smith appeared before Judge Stephen A. Douglas in an extradition hearing held at Monmouth's Warren County courthouse.

Attorney Orville Browning, who would assume Douglas's Senate seat following his death, represented Smith.

Controversial Civil War general Eleazer A. Paine practiced law there for many years.

[7] Ronald Reagan lived in Monmouth for a while as a child when his father worked as a shoe salesman at the Colwell Department Store.

Mass murderer Richard Speck lived in Monmouth briefly as a child, and again in the spring of 1966.

Pi Beta Phi, the first national secret college society of women to be modeled after the Greek-letter fraternities of men, was founded on its campus in 1867.

Originally known as The Maroons, the Zipper nickname came about in the late 1930s when the school had a fast basketball team that would "Zip" up and down the court.

Monmouth was the home of Western Stoneware, known for its "Maple Leaf" imprint and for producing "Sleepy Eye" collectible ceramics, which are recognizable by the blue-on-white bas-relief Indian profile.

Three former employees of Western Stoneware now operate the facility under the name "WS", Incorporated and have leased the building and logo from the city of Monmouth.

Burlington Trailways provides intercity bus service to the city on a route between Indianapolis and Denver.