| I | INTRODUCTION |
Missouri, state in the central United States. Missouri
is bordered on the north by Iowa, on the west by Nebraska, Kansas, and Oklahoma,
on the south by Arkansas, and on the east by the Mississippi River, which
separates it from Tennessee, Kentucky, and Illinois. The name of the state is
taken from the Missouri River and is an Algonquian name for a group that lived
near the mouth of the river. The state’s most famous city, St. Louis, lies near
the convergence of two great inland water routes, the Missouri and the
Mississippi rivers. Jefferson City is Missouri’s capital. Kansas City is the
largest city.
Located in the geographic heart of the nation,
Missouri is one of the foremost agricultural states in the country and is one of
the most important manufacturing states in the Midwest. Midwestern in its grain
and cornfields, Southern in its cotton fields, Western in its cattle raising,
and Eastern in its manufacturing, Missouri is today more than ever the Center
State, as it is sometimes known, and a major transportation crossroads.
When it was admitted to the Union as the 24th
state on August 10, 1821, Missouri was the nation’s western frontier. Soon,
however, it became known as the Gateway to the West, because of the great
overland routes that led from Missouri to California and Oregon. Still another
nickname was added to the list in 1899, when Congressman Willard D. Vandiver
said: “I come from a country that raises corn and cotton and cockleburs and
Democrats, and frothy eloquence neither convinces nor satisfies me. I’m from
Missouri. You’ve got to show me.” After that, Missouri became known as the Show
Me State.
| II | PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY |
Missouri ranks 21st in size among the 50
states. Its area of 180,533 sq km (69,704 sq mi) includes 2,119 sq km (818 sq
mi) of inland water. The state’s distances at their maximum are 587 km (365 mi)
from east to west and 513 km (319 mi) from north to south. The mean elevation is
about 240 m (about 800 ft).
| A | Natural Regions |
Within Missouri are found three of the
major physiographic provinces of the United States: the Central Lowland, the
Ozark Upland, or Ozark Plateau, and the Gulf Coastal Plain. Each of these
physiographic regions and its subdivisions, or sections, has a distinctive
combination of topography, soils, and natural vegetation.
A large part of the Central Lowland in
Missouri constitutes a section called the Northern Plains, or the Dissected Till
Plains. This section occupies almost all of the state north of the Missouri
River. The Northern Plains occupy not only northern Missouri but also adjacent
portions of Kansas, Nebraska, and Iowa.
The name Dissected Till Plains suggests
the origin of this area’s topography. Till plains are gentle plains composed of
rock and soil particles and fragments left behind by retreating glaciers. In
Missouri, continental glaciers once reached approximately as far south as the
Missouri River, which marks the southern edge of the Northern Plains. After they
retreated, the glaciers left behind the gentle surface of a till plain. The
glaciation of northern Missouri occurred relatively early in the sequence of
ice-sheet advances and retreats in North America. Therefore there has been time
since glaciation for stream erosion to roughen the original gentle surface of
the till plain, and the plain has been dissected, or cut up, by the action of
rivers deepening and widening their valleys.
A succession of river valleys bordered by
belts of hilly country characterizes the landscape of the Northern Plains.
Between these dissected areas lie gently rolling or almost flat areas, which are
the remnants of the original till plain. The most level land in the Northern
Plains lies in a narrow belt just west of the Mississippi River, where
dissection has scarcely begun. Geographers sometimes treat this narrow band of
the Central Lowland in eastern Missouri as a separate section, which they call
simply the Till Plains. The Till Plains extend eastward into Illinois, where
they cover almost the entire state. In Missouri glacial till is usually from 15
to 30 m (50 to 100 ft) thick.
The vegetation prior to European
settlement in the Northern Plains consisted of both forest and prairie. The flat
floodplains of the rivers and the adjacent belts of hills were the most wooded
sections, with oak especially prominent. Areas at some distance from the major
streams tended to be covered with prairie grasses interspersed with patches of
woodland.
The Osage Plains form another section of
Missouri’s Central Lowland. They are often called the Western Plains. This
section lies south of the Northern Plains and west of the Ozark Upland. The
Osage Plains extend into Kansas, Oklahoma, and Texas.
These plains in southwestern Missouri lay
south of the limit of glaciation. Their surface, having received no glacial
deposits, reflects the results of erosion of the underlying bedrock and is
generally smoother than that of the Northern Plains. Occasional lines of low
hills have been formed where a relatively hard layer of rock has resisted
erosion and stands out above the rest of the terrain. However, the relief is not
impressive in this section of Missouri, nor are the wide shallow valleys cut by
the streams.
The Ozark Plateau, or Ozark Upland,
occupies most of Missouri south of the Missouri River. It extends into adjacent
parts of Arkansas and Oklahoma. The region is also called the Ozark Mountains
and sometimes the Ozark Hills or simply the Ozarks.
In overall form the Ozark Upland is an
uplifted dome elongated in a southwest-northeast direction. The highest part of
the dome in Missouri extends from the southwestern corner of the state
northeastward to the Saint Francois Mountains. Large areas along the crest of
this dome are between about 375 and 500 m (about 1,200 and 1,600 ft) high. This
is not high compared to the Appalachian or Rocky mountains, but it is markedly
higher than the surrounding plains. Southeastward from the crest the upland
descends fairly steeply, so that it is only about 120 m (about 400 ft) above sea
level at its junction with the plains along the Mississippi River. On the
northern side of the crest the descent is somewhat more gradual.
Topography in the Ozark Upland does not
correspond in any simple way to elevation. As in the Northern Plains, the
roughness of the local topography depends on the degree to which streams have
cut valleys into the surface, which originally was quite smooth. The most
dissected areas show picturesque tangles of deep stream valleys and intervening
ridges with steep slopes. They are found near the Current and Black rivers in
the southeast, near the White River in the extreme southwest, and near the Osage
and Gasconade rivers in central Missouri. In the most deeply dissected areas,
principally those on the southern slope of the dome, stream valleys have cut 120
to 210 m (400 to 700 ft) into the upland surface. The surface has been reduced
to a series of narrow interstream ridges.
In contrast to the hilly sections, large
areas near the top of the dome and some toward its lower edges are relatively
undissected. They give the appearance of monotonous, rolling plains. There are
deeply entrenched stream valleys in this area, but they are so widely spaced
that the casual observer may well be unaware of them. A name often applied to
most of this region is the Salem Upland. Part of it, in the southwest, is called
the Springfield Plateau. The Springfield Plateau adjoins the Osage Plains. Its
surface is almost as gentle as that of the plains, except for occasional river
valleys that have made cuts of 60 to 90 m (200 to 300 ft) into the plain.
Most of the Ozark Upland is composed of
sedimentary rocks, principally soluble limestones and dolomites, also known as
carbonate rocks. Over many thousands of years surface and underground waters
have burrowed the uplands into a labyrinth of thousands of caves, springs, and
sinkholes. It is known as karst topography. The carbonate rocks cover a hidden
core of older, harder igneous rocks. One section of the Ozark Upland, however,
differs in character from all other sections. This is the Saint Francois
Mountains, at the eastern end of the crest of the dome. Only in these mountains
have the sedimentary rocks been sufficiently eroded away so that the underlying
igneous rocks are exposed. They form the rounded, knoblike peaks of an old
mountain range. The peaks project, in isolation or in clusters, between 230 and
300 m (750 and 1,000 ft) above the surrounding sedimentary basins. One of these
knobs, Taum Sauk Mountain, reaches 540 m (1,772 ft) above sea level and is the
highest point in Missouri. However, the Saint Francois Mountains area is not
generally as rugged as some of the lower, stream-dissected areas.
Before the time of white settlers, forests
covered most of the Ozark Upland. These forests consisted of many species of
trees, most of which were deciduous hardwoods. Oaks were the most widespread.
Mixed with the hardwoods were stands of softwoods, including cedar and pine.
They were minor elements in the forest except in the southeast, where pines
locally made up a large proportion of the timber. In most areas the forest was
relatively open, with abundant grasses growing among the trees, and could be
considered a woodland or savanna. In the west the forest was thinner than in the
east and was interspersed with large areas of prairie grasses. Almost all of
this Ozark forest is gone, but large areas are covered with small second-growth
timber and scrub. In national and state forests and other managed lands the
forest has returned in dense stands.
A portion of the broad Gulf Coastal Plain
that extends across the South from Texas to Florida also extends northward into
southeastern Missouri. This section is known as the Mississippi Alluvial Plain
or simply as the Southeastern Lowland. It is also called the Bootheel because of
its shape.
The Southeastern Lowland is the lowest,
flattest, wettest, and most fertile part of Missouri. Its flat surface seems
almost featureless to the observer, although isolated ridges stand from 3 to 60
m (10 to 200 ft) above the level plain. This lowland rises less than 120 m (400
ft) above sea level in the north and less than 90 m (300 ft) in the south. The
lowest point in Missouri, at 70 m (230 ft), is in the Southeastern Lowland where
the Saint Francis River exits the state. Before settlement much of the region
was covered with standing water and a dense, swampy forest. It is now largely
cleared and artificially drained. The Southeastern Lowland was the focus of some
of the highest magnitude earthquakes in U.S. history. In 1811 and 1812 several
earthquakes of magnitudes above 8 on the Richter Scale shook the region around
New Madrid, causing some lands to sink, others to rise, and affected the course
of the Mississippi River. The threat of severe earthquakes continues in the
region.
| B | Rivers and Lakes |
Missouri lies in the drainage basin of the
Mississippi River, which forms the state’s eastern boundary. The Missouri River,
which forms the state’s northwestern boundary, turns east at Kansas City,
crosses the state to a point north of St. Louis, and empties into the
Mississippi.
The Northern Plains are drained by the
Missouri and by its tributaries the Chariton and Grand rivers. The Osage River
flows eastward through the Osage Plains and northern Ozarks and empties into the
Missouri River. The Gasconade River and the Meramec River also drain the
northern Ozarks. In the southern Ozarks are found the White, Current, Black, and
Saint Francis rivers. The Ozarks also contain more than 10,000 freshwater
springs. Much of the flow of the rivers enters the channels by springs. The
largest is Big Spring near Van Buren.
Maintaining channels of sufficient depth
for navigation on Missouri’s two principal rivers has not been easy. The rivers
tended to shift their courses, and the volume of water in the riverbeds could
vary tremendously from season to season. The gravest danger from these rivers
today is that of floods, which destroy farmland both by carrying away topsoil
and by depositing unwanted sand. Structures and roads may also be destroyed.
Numerous flood control projects in the form of levees have been undertaken on
these rivers. Missouri suffered the most from the Great Flood of 1993. Record or
near-record flood crests were set along the Mississippi and Missouri rivers. The
severity of the flood has prompted national reevaluation of the goals and
methods of river management in the United States.
Some of the most ambitious water projects,
however, have been undertaken on the smaller Ozark rivers. The damming up of
these streams for flood control, electric power generation, and recreation has
created Missouri’s major lakes. These lakes have become popular resorts.
The lakes have been created in three
general areas. In the northwestern Ozarks are Lake of the Ozarks and Truman Lake
on the Osage River, Stockton Lake on the Sac River, and Pomme de Terre Lake, on
the Pomme de Terre River. Lake of the Ozarks is large, with about 2,210 km
(about 1,375 mi) of twisting shoreline following the valleys of the Osage River
and several of its tributaries. In the southwestern corner of Missouri and in
adjacent Arkansas a series of dams on the White River have formed Table Rock
Lake, Lake Taneycomo, and Bull Shoals Lake. A dam in Arkansas on the North Fork
of the White River has formed Norfolk Lake, which extends into Missouri. In the
southeastern Ozarks are two smaller reservoirs, Wappapello, on the Saint Francis
River, and Clearwater, on the Black River. In northeastern Missouri is Mark
Twain Lake on the Salt River, and in northwestern Missouri is Smithville Lake on
the Little Platte River. There are many small reservoirs elsewhere in the state.
Most of them have been designed for residential developments, municipal water
supplies, recreational purposes, and for the preservation of wildfowl.
| C | Climate |
| C1 | Temperature |
The climate throughout Missouri is
humid. Summers are hot. July temperatures over the state range between 24° and
27°C (76° and 80°F). The average July day reaches a high of 32°C (90°F) or
higher and a low of between 18° and 21°C (65° and 70°F). Heat waves with
temperatures above 38°C (100°F) are common. The highest official temperature of
48°C (118°F) was recorded in 1954. Hot weather lasts from June to September.
Most of the state has a frost-free growing season from April into October.
Winter temperatures vary considerably
more among different parts of the state than summer temperatures. The average
January temperature is about -4°C (about 24°F) in the most northerly areas and
between 2°and 3°C (36° and 38°F) in the extreme south. The typical January day
in the north ranges between a low of -9°C (16°F) and a high of 2°C (36°F). In
the south it ranges between -2° and 9°C (28° and 48°F). However, the weather is
quite variable. In the depth of winter in any part of the state there may be
warm days above 10°C (50°F) and sometimes even above 16°C (60°F). They may be
followed by cold waves in which the temperature drops to -18°C (0°F) and below.
The lowest official temperature of -40°C (-40°F) was recorded in 1905. All of
the state except the southeast experiences some temperatures below -18°C (0°F)
during winter, but cold snaps do not last very long.
| C2 | Precipitation |
The average annual rainfall in Missouri
ranges from about 860 mm (about 34 in) in the northwestern corner of the state
to just over 1,270 mm (50 in) in the Southeastern Lowland. In the summer,
however, the northwest is for a few months the wettest part of the state. Summer
precipitation tends to occur in short intense thunderstorms, while winter
precipitation occurs as rain, sleet, or snow. Northern Missouri receives about
510 mm (about 20 in) of snow during winter. The south averages about 250 mm
(about 10 in) of snowfall during winter.
| D | Soils |
Missouri’s regions have a great variety of
soils. After the retreat of the glaciers the original surface of the Northern
Plains was covered by deposits of wind-blown silt known as loess. From
loess, soils of exceptional fertility have formed. The loess deposits were
thickest near the Missouri and Mississippi rivers, especially near the Missouri.
In other areas, where the loess deposits were thin, erosion has removed the
loess, and the soils are not as productive as those of the river lands. The
surface materials of northern Missouri today are the result of soil
processes.
Soils in the Osage Plains have been formed
by decomposition of the underlying rocks, mainly shales. They are only
moderately fertile. Over large areas the value of the soils has been decreased
by the existence of an impermeable hardpan layer slightly below the surface. The
hardpan hinders percolation of water downward through the soil in rainy periods
and upward in dry periods. It thus accentuates both drought and saturation
conditions. A hardpan layer is commonly found in level regions, for example, in
the more level sections of the Northern Plains of Missouri.
Ozark soils tend to be very poor. Enormous
quantities of chert or flint are present in the soils, and many of the dominant
limestone and dolomite rock formations have bits and nodules of chert imbedded
in them. When the surface of these rocks decomposes to form soil, the chert,
which resists decomposition, is left as loose bits of hard rock scattered
through the soil. Some areas are almost completely mantled with chert. In other
areas it is less prominent, or even absent. The soils near the Missouri and
Mississippi rivers are the most productive. The Southeastern Lowland has
alluvial soils formed from river deposits that are highly fertile.
| E | Plant Life |
Forests cover 32 percent of Missouri’s
land area. Most of the forestland is in the Ozarks or river valleys of the
state. Flowers native to the state include the violet, anemone, buttercup, wild
rose, phlox, aster, columbine, and goldenrod. The wild grape, ivy, and
honeysuckle are native vines. Bluegrass, though not native, is widespread.
| F | Animal Life |
Missouri is known for its rich biological
diversity in both plants and animals. This diversity is due to the state’s
central position in the United States and the river connections with other
regions that have allowed species to migrate into the state during climate
changes of the past. Wild animals found in Missouri include the deer, squirrel,
opossum, raccoon, rabbit, and skunk. The robin, bluebird, wood thrush, cardinal,
blackbird, oriole, meadowlark, owl, and crow are native birds, as are the hawk,
quail, wild turkey, and dove. Native fish include the bass, crappie, pike,
perch, catfish, buffalo fish, sturgeon, carp, and sunfish. Poisonous snakes
include the rattlesnake and the copperhead.
| G | Conservation |
Missouri’s environmental protection
programs are managed by the state department of natural resources. State and
federal land-management agencies and private organizations have vigorous
programs to protect and restore examples of native ecosystems. Prairie State
Park, for example, consists of native bluestem prairie, with bison, that once
covered one-third of Missouri. Big Oak Tree State Park preserves a portion of
the native swamp forest of southeastern Missouri. The state department of
conservation has also been highly successful in rebuilding populations of deer,
turkey, otter, and other species.
In 2006 Missouri contained 26 hazardous
waste sites given a national priority for cleanup due to their severity or
proximity to people. The total toxic chemicals emitted into the environment was
reduced by 6 percent in the period 1995–2000.
One of the state’s most notable
environmental problems came to light in the early 1980s, when high
concentrations of the deadly chemical dioxin were discovered in Times Beach and
at some 30 other sites across eastern Missouri. The properties in the entire
town were purchased and the residents moved, and Times Beach no longer exists.
Work continues to detoxify the site.
Air quality in Missouri has improved since
1970, although some problems remain, especially in the St. Louis and Kansas City
urban areas. While air quality is improving, federal standards for carbon
monoxide, ozone, and particulates are sometimes exceeded in certain areas, and
there are high levels of airborne lead and acids in some areas.
Severe water quality problems are in the
north and the southwest, where streams have been contaminated by acid runoff
from abandoned coal mines. Both the Missouri and the Mississippi rivers have
been polluted by municipal sewage discharges, agricultural runoff, and
industrial chemical releases. Since the 1980s, permits have been required for
all discharges into those rivers and standards set, so that in the mid-1990s
many discharges exceed the waters of the rivers themselves in water quality.
| III | ECONOMIC ACTIVITIES |
Missouri is one of the nation’s leading
agricultural states. As recently as 1940 more Missourians were employed in
agriculture than in manufacturing. After 1940, however, manufacturing, which had
been established early at St. Louis, developed rapidly, as did the various
services required by the rapidly growing urban areas. Agricultural growth during
the same years was substantial, although the role of agriculture in the overall
economy underwent a relative reduction. Many farms on the poorer soils of the
Ozark Plateau were abandoned, but the region has since become an important
tourist attraction. Today Missouri is one of the major manufacturing and
commercial states of the Midwest.
In 2006 Missouri’s labor force totaled
3,032,000 people. The largest share of those, some 36 percent, were employed in
the diverse service sector, doing jobs such as working in hospitals or
restaurants. Another 20 percent were employed in wholesale or retail trade; 11
percent in manufacturing; 16 percent in federal, state, or local government,
including those in the military; 18 percent in finance, insurance, or real
estate; 20 percent in transportation or public utilities; 5 percent in
construction; 3 percent in farming (including agricultural services), forestry,
or fishing; and only 0.2 percent in mining. In 2005, 12 percent of Missouri’s
workers were unionized.
| A | Agriculture |
In 2005 there were 105,000 farms in
Missouri, the second largest number among the states after Texas. The number of
small and part-time farms in Missouri is increasing, as is the number of large
farms, including those run by corporations. On the decline is the number of
mid-sized farms. Some 45 percent of the farms had annual sales of more than
$10,000. Many of the operators of farms in Missouri held additional jobs off
their farms. In 2005 farmland occupied 12.2 million hectares (30.1 million
acres), or two-thirds of the state’s land area. Crops accounted for 44 percent
of Missouri’s land area, while pasture and rangeland occupied another 15
percent.
In 1996 Missouri ranked 16th among the
states in income from all farm sales. Livestock and animal products accounted
for just more than one-half of farm income. Meat animals such as hogs, beef
cattle, broilers (young chickens used for food), and turkeys accounted for
one-quarter of all farm sales. Soybeans were the leading crop in terms of sales,
accounting for one-fifth of farm income. Corn, hay, cotton lint, winter wheat,
alfalfa, and sorghum grain were also important crops.
Much of Missouri’s corn, sorghum grain,
and hay is fed to livestock on the farm rather than sold. Corn, for example, is
often the leading crop in terms of quantity produced, but because most of it is
fed to livestock, it usually ranks behind soybeans in cash sales.
| A1 | Patterns of Farming |
The Southeastern Lowland is the most
productive region of Missouri. All of the state’s cotton and rice and much of
its soybeans and wheat come from this area. Many of the farmers in some counties
are tenants, and farms tend to be small. The productivity of the land contrasts
strikingly with the poverty of many of the people.
The other outstanding agricultural
region of the state is the western part of Missouri’s Northern Plains. This belt
of river-bordering hills, known as the Loess Hills, parallels the course of the
Missouri River from the northwestern corner of the state to the point in central
Missouri where the river intersects the Ozark Upland. Despite the rough terrain
the loess-derived soils and the adjacent alluvial soils are extremely fertile,
and there is more farmed and cultivated land, relative to total area, than in
most parts of Missouri. Farms in this area tend to be larger than the state
average, and sales and income of the individual farmer also tend to be
higher.
Missouri’s two main areas of
intermediate agricultural productivity are the Osage Plains and the central and
eastern portions of the Northern Plains. In these areas, which are known
principally for livestock production, the soils tend to be less suitable for row
crops than in the Southeastern Lowlands or in the Loess Hills. Also, parts of
the Northern Plains, notably near the Chariton River, are so dissected that the
amount of land level enough for cultivation is severely limited. However, such
difficulties by no means make these areas unproductive.
Another area that is intermediate in
agricultural productivity is the Springfield Plateau in southwestern Missouri.
This is the main dairy-farming region of Missouri. Much of Missouri’s dairy
production comes from within a 100-km (60-mi) radius of Springfield. Even within
this area, however, production of meat animals is almost as important as that of
dairy products. The emphasis on dairy farming is a result of the poor soils,
which are often better for pasture than for crops. Compared to the
meat-producing plains areas, farms on the Springfield Plateau tend to be small,
and the average income is lower.
Agricultural productivity is low in the
interior of the Ozark Upland. Poor soils are the major handicap, and in some
areas steep slopes are another. In most parts of the upland the land is not
farmed at all. Where there are farms, only a small proportion of the land is
cultivated. Unimproved natural pasture is likely to account for much of the
farmland, and woodlands are often used for pasture. Farms in the Ozark Upland
are not necessarily small, but production on them is low compared to the areas
involved. The main product is feeder cattle, which are sold to farmers for
fattening in areas where feed is relatively abundant. Part-time farming is
especially common in the Ozarks. The earnings of farmers in the Ozark region are
usually meager, although the farms themselves are about average size for the
state. In the southern Ozarks large cattle ranches are common. Counties in
extreme southwestern Missouri concentrate on poultry, which is even more
developed in adjacent northwestern Arkansas.
| B | Forestry |
Missouri is one of the leading states in
the production of charcoal, walnut and red cedar logs and lumber, barrel staves,
oak flooring, and wooden pallets. In the thinly populated Ozark Upland, wood
industries are a major source of employment and income. There, a host of small
sawmills and other plants turn out a great variety of products, including
hardwood lumber, flooring, railroad ties, pallets, barrel staves, posts,
handles, and charcoal. Many farmers in the Ozarks sell their timber to lumber
mills and are employed part-time by the mills. The Ozark forests also contribute
to the region’s economy by providing an attractive environment for a profitable
recreation and tourist industry. The forests are indirectly important
economically for watershed management and for preserving and enhancing
biological diversity.
| C | Mining |
Missouri is first in the nation in
production of lead. While lead ores are found in scattered locations in the
Ozark Upland, the main concentrations and mining areas are in and around the
Saint Francois Mountains, near the eastern end of the Ozark crest. The French
began producing lead there in the early 1700s, and since the American Civil War
(1861-1865) this region has been the foremost center of lead mining in the
United States.
Due to its high production of lead,
crushed stone, and lime, Missouri ranks among the top ten mining states for
nonfuel minerals. Among the minerals quarried or mined in the state is
limestone. Quarries in the Ozarks supply commercial lime plants in the southern
part of the state as well as cement mills in various areas. In 1997 Missouri
ranked first among the states in lime production. Ornamental granite, limestone
(marketed under the trade name of marble), and sandstone are quarried in a
number of Ozark counties.
Zinc was long mined in the western part
of the Ozarks, around the city of Joplin in southwestern Missouri. This region
was part of a tri-state mining area that extended into Kansas and Oklahoma. The
Missouri section of the area was the first to be exploited on a large scale, and
production there has now ceased. However, because zinc is contained in the lead
ores mined in the eastern Ozarks, enough zinc is still produced to rank Missouri
fourth among the states. Copper and silver are also produced as byproducts of
lead smelting.
A number of other minerals also
contribute to the Missouri economy. Bituminous coal underlies the Osage Plains
and most of the Northern Plains. It is mined at scattered locations, chiefly in
the Osage Plains, almost entirely by strip mining coal seams that lie close to
the surface. Although reserves are large, thin seams and a high sulfur content
have limited production, which has declined significantly since the mid-1980s.
Barite, a mineral used in drilling oil and gas wells, is also produced in the
state. Although the quantity extracted is relatively small, Missouri was the
nation’s third leading barite producer in the late 1990s. Missouri ranks first
in the production of refractory, or fire, clays that withstand extremely high
temperatures. Small quantities of other minerals, such as common clays and
petroleum, are extracted in various parts of the state. Iron-ore deposits are
mined in the Ozark Upland. Crushed stone and construction sand and gravel
account for the largest share of the value of the mining output.
| D | Manufacturing |
Missouri is one of the leading
manufacturing states west of the Mississippi, with a value added by industry of
$45 billion in 2006. Manufacturing is highly diversified. Leading industries are
the manufacture of transportation equipment, especially motor vehicles, railroad
cars, and aircraft and missiles; the processing of foods, especially malt
beverages, soft drinks, meat, poultry and eggs, blended flour, and preserved
fruits and vegetables; the production of chemicals, including soaps and
detergents, agricultural chemicals, and pharmaceuticals; and printing and
publishing. A wide variety of industrial machinery is manufactured in Missouri,
including refrigeration and heating equipment, engines, farm machinery, tools
and dies, construction machinery, and industrial furnaces. The fabrication of
metal into basic parts, especially for construction, occupies many workers.
Manufacturing in Missouri is concentrated
in the metropolitan areas centered on St. Louis and Kansas City, although a
number of smaller cities have some industry. St. Louis marks the western end of
the great manufacturing belt that extends through the Northeastern and
North-Central states. St. Louis, together with the part of its metropolitan area
that lies in Illinois, accounts for more than half of the total manufacturing
employment in the state. This area has long been known for the wide variety of
goods it produces. The St. Louis metropolitan area is one of the leading centers
for brewing and baking in the country. It is also a leading automobile,
aircraft, spacecraft, and missile producing area. Other manufactures are
chemicals, primary metals, nonelectrical machinery, fabricated metals, petroleum
and coal products, electrical equipment, and stone, clay, and glass products.
St. Louis is also a center for the printing and publishing industries. St. Louis
is the corporate headquarters of several of the nation’s largest companies.
The Kansas City metropolitan area
accounts for more than one-fourth of the state’s industry. Like that of St.
Louis, the Kansas City metropolitan area lies in two states. Its industrial
structure, although much smaller than that of the St. Louis area, is as diverse.
The industries that are important in St. Louis are also significant in Kansas
City, with the exception of aircraft manufacturing and petroleum and coal
processing. The city is a national center for meat-packing and grain milling,
although meat-packing is done largely in the Kansas part of the metropolitan
area. Kansas City is one of the national centers for agribusiness.
| E | Electricity |
Of the electricity generated in Missouri
in 2005, 90 percent came from steam-driven power plants principally burning
coal, 9 percent came from a nuclear power plant, and 1 percent came from
hydroelectric power plants. The state’s only nuclear power plant, located near
Fulton, began operation in 1984. Among the best known of the hydroelectric
plants is Bagnell Dam, built on the Osage River in 1931. It supplies electricity
to the St. Louis area. St. Louis also obtains hydroelectric power from the
Keokuk, Iowa, and the Taum Sauk dams.
| F | Transportation |
Missouri’s two major cities, St. Louis
and Kansas City, are its principal centers of transportation and trade. Both
were commercial centers by the time of the Civil War, when the Mississippi River
and its tributaries were the principal transportation routes of the central
United States. Later the two cities became the major railroad and highway
centers for the state.
Missouri has 202,492 km (125,823 mi) of
public highways, which ranks it sixth among the states. These roads, which
include 1,902 km (1,182 mi) of national interstate highways, enable Missouri and
its principal cities to continue playing their historic role as links between
the East, West, and Southwest.
St. Louis is the focal point for river
transportation and is the nation’s largest inland riverport. The Missouri River
has a channel 2.3 m (7.5 ft) deep throughout most of its length, while the
Mississippi can be used by riverboats drawing 2.7 m (9 ft).
Many of the country’s largest railroads
serve Missouri, and haul principally food products, farm products, and
transportation equipment. Railroad track in the state totals 6,634 km (4,122
mi).
The chief airports in the state are in
St. Louis in the east and Kansas City in the west. St. Louis was the country’s
tenth busiest airport in the mid-1990s and acts as a transportation hub for much
of the surrounding region. Missouri has 11 airports, most of them private
airfields.
| IV | THE PEOPLE OF MISSOURI |
| A | Population Patterns |
Missouri had a population of 5,595,211 in
2000, according to the national census. That was 9.3 percent more than in 1990,
when the state had a population of 5,117,073. The average population density in
2006 was 33 persons per sq km (85 per sq mi). The density is lowest in the
rugged central portion of the Ozark Upland and in the rolling farmlands of the
north.
Whites constitute 84.9 percent of the
population and blacks 11.2 percent. Nearly three-fifths of the state’s black
population lives within the city boundaries of Kansas City or St. Louis. Asians
are 1.1 percent of the people, Native Americans 0.4 percent, Native Hawaiians
and other Pacific Islanders 0.1 percent, and those of mixed heritage or not
reporting race 2.3 percent. Hispanics, who may be of any race, are 2.1 percent
of the population.
| B | Principal Cities |
Some 69 percent of the Missouri
population lived in urban areas in 2000. The principal urban areas are centered
on St. Louis in the east and Kansas City in the west. St. Louis had a 2005
population of 344,362. The limits of St. Louis proper were set in 1876, and St.
Louis has not annexed any land since then, but it is the center of a
metropolitan region with a population of 2.8 million, including nearby Illinois
communities. In the early 1980s, Kansas City overtook St. Louis in population,
becoming the state’s largest city. Kansas City had 444,965 inhabitants in 2005.
The entire Kansas City metropolitan area, including Kansas City, Kansas, and its
suburbs, had 2 million people in 2006. Other large Missouri cities are
Springfield, in the south, with 150,298 inhabitants in 2005, and Independence, a
suburb of Kansas City, with 110,208. Several smaller cities lie on or near the
major transportation lines between the two metropolitan centers. Among them are
Jefferson City, which is the state capital, with 39,062 inhabitants, and
Columbia, with a population of 91,814. The principal city in the southwest is
Joplin with 47,183 inhabitants. In the northwest is Saint Joseph with a
population of 72,661. The Southeastern Lowland has a number of small urban
communities. The most thinly populated and most rural sections of Missouri are
the Ozark Upland and the north central section of the Northern Plains near
Iowa.
The mean population center of the United
States moved into Missouri from Illinois in the 1980 census. In 1990 it was
located in the northern Ozarks, near Steelville; in 2000 the center was near
Edgar Springs in Phelps County. The mean center of population is the point at
which a rigid map of the United States would balance if identical weights were
placed on the map at the location of every person.
| C | Religion |
Protestant denominations, including
Baptists, Methodists, and Lutherans, predominate in Missouri. The state has
large numbers of Roman Catholics, who represent about one-fifth of all religious
adherents. The Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, a Mormon
group, has its headquarters in Independence. The Church of the Nazarene has its
international headquarters in Kansas City, the international headquarters of the
Assemblies of God is in Springfield, and the national headquarters of the
Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod is in Clayton, near St. Louis (see
Lutheranism).
| V | EDUCATION AND CULTURAL INSTITUTIONS |
| A | Education |
The first schools in the area that is now
Missouri were opened by French settlers at St. Louis in the latter part of the
18th century. The state constitution of 1820 provided for a statewide public
school system, but little came of that provision. The nation’s first
tax-supported kindergarten was opened in St. Louis in 1873, adopting an
education method which had been viewed as a radical concept a few years earlier.
Missouri now requires that all children ages 7 to 16 enroll in school. Some 13
percent of those children attend private schools. Also permitted and growing in
popularity is home-schooling, in which children are taught in a structured
manner in the home, usually by parents.
In the 2002–2003 school year Missouri
spent $8,600 on each student’s education, compared to a national average of
$9,299. There were 13.9 students for every teacher (the national average was
15.9). Of those in the state who were older than 25, 85 percent had a high
school diploma.
| A1 | Higher Education |
The University of Missouri has campuses
at Columbia, Rolla, Kansas City, and St. Louis. The Columbia campus, founded in
1839, was the first state university west of the Mississippi. The state also
supports regional state colleges and universities at Cape Girardeau, Joplin,
Kirksville, Maryville, Saint Joseph, St. Louis, Springfield, and Warrensburg.
Lincoln University, originally established in 1866 for blacks, is located at
Jefferson City. The state helps fund a system of junior, community, and
technical colleges.
Missouri’s private educational
institutions include military schools, junior colleges, four-year colleges, and
specialized schools for the study of art and theology. Two well-known
universities in the state, Washington University and St. Louis University, both
in St. Louis, are privately administered. In 2004–2005 Missouri had 33 public
and 92 private institutions of higher learning.
| B | Libraries |
The Missouri State Library, housed in
Jefferson City with the state archives, is the official library agency of the
state. Specialized collections in Missouri include those of the State Historical
Society at Columbia, the Missouri Historical Society and the Mercantile Library
in St. Louis, the supreme court at Jefferson City, the scientific collection in
the Linda Hall Library in Kansas City, and the documents in the Harry S. Truman
Library at Independence. The Pius XII Memorial Library at St. Louis University
contains microfilm copies of documents in the Vatican Library. The University of
Missouri-Columbia, Washington University, and St. Louis University have major
research libraries. Public libraries annually circulate an average of 7.7 books
per state resident.
| C | Museums |
The St. Louis Art Museum and Kansas City’s
Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art both house excellent collections, and the museum of
the Missouri Historical Society in St. Louis displays a notable collection
relating to Charles Lindbergh’s solo transatlantic flight in 1927 in his
monoplane, The Spirit of St. Louis. In the state capitol building in
Jefferson City are a large museum and a mural collection on the history and
resources of the state. The Negro Leagues Baseball Museum in Kansas City houses
a collection of memorabilia related to the black baseball league that played
while baseball was segregated.
| D | Communications |
The state’s newspaper history goes back to
1808, when Joseph Charless founded the Missouri Gazette at St. Louis.
Later in the century, Joseph Pulitzer established the much-respected St.
Louis Post-Dispatch. In 1908 the world’s first school of journalism was
established at the University of Missouri.
In 2002 Missouri residents had a choice of
45 daily newspapers. Among the leading dailies were the St. Louis
Post-Dispatch, the Kansas City Star, the Springfield
News-Leader, the eastern Jackson County Examiner, the Joplin
Globe, and the Daily Capital News and Post-Tribune (Jefferson
City).
In 2002 Missouri had 82 AM radio stations,
123 FM radio stations, and 33 television stations. The state’s first radio
station, WEW, at St. Louis University, began broadcasting in 1921.
| E | Music |
St. Louis and Kansas City are the cultural
centers of the state. The St. Louis Symphony, one of the oldest symphony
orchestras in the nation, was founded in 1800. The Kansas City Symphony was
organized in 1933. Kansas City played a major role in the development of jazz
music, and St. Louis in the development of blues music.
| VI | RECREATION AND PLACES OF INTEREST |
Missouri has much to offer the tourist. It
has scenic diversity as well as a colorful history. Some towns retain their
early architecture. Sainte Genevieve has the largest collection of French Creole
architecture in the United States. Altenburg, Westphalia, Hermann, and other
small towns along the Missouri River still retain much of their original German
character.
Principal attractions include the two
largest cities—Kansas City and St. Louis—and the Ozark region, with its many
scenic gorges, caverns, and large reservoirs, which provide ample opportunities
for recreational activities. Cities in the Ozarks of particular interest to
tourists include Branson, which offers country-music concerts by a variety of
performers, and Silver Dollar City, which is a replica of a late-19th century
Ozark mining town.
| A | National Parks |
The Jefferson National Expansion Memorial
Historic Site, extending along the St. Louis riverfront, includes the Gateway
Arch, which has a sweeping curve that reaches 192 m (630 ft) above the city and
commemorates the westward expansion of the United States; the Old Courthouse,
site of the Dred Scott slave trial; and the Lisa Warehouse, the oldest building
in the city. The George Washington Carver National Monument, near Diamond in
southwest Missouri, marks the birthplace of the famous scientist. Wilson’s Creek
National Battlefield, near Springfield, preserves the site of an important
American Civil War battle for control of Missouri. The Harry S. Truman Home and
the Truman Library and Museum, both in Independence, contain exhibits on the
life and career of the 33rd president. The Mark Twain National Forest provides
recreation areas and wildlife refuges in southern Missouri. The Ozark National
Scenic Riverways, the first national riverway, protects the free-flowing Current
and Jacks Fork rivers and a number of caves and springs.
| B | State Parks and Forests |
Many of the natural attractions of
Missouri are concentrated in the Ozarks. There, state parks have been developed
around such scenic features as caves, giant springs, rugged canyons, creeks, and
large constructed lakes. Scattered throughout the state are others of the
state’s 79 parks and numerous state forests. Among the historic landmarks are
the birthplace of Mark Twain in Mark Twain State Park, east of Paris; the Arrow
Rock Tavern at Arrow Rock State Historical Site, near Marshall; the Anderson
Home, which served as a field hospital for the Union army in the Battle of
Lexington in the Civil War, at Lexington; and the boyhood home of General John
J. Pershing, at Laclede.
| C | Other Places to Visit |
The Harry S. Truman birthplace in Lamar
honors the former president. The Pony Express Stables and the home where Jesse
James died may be visited in Saint Joseph. Mark Twain’s boyhood home is now a
museum in Hannibal. In Saint Charles the house that served as Missouri’s first
capitol is open to visitors. Among the many limestone caverns in the Ozarks is
Marvel Cave, where a waterfall pours over a group of limestone formations. The
Missouri Botanical Garden in St. Louis, also called Shaw’s Garden, has a large
Japanese garden and the Climatron, a geodesic dome. In Fulton is the Winston
Churchill Memorial, which commemorates Churchill’s “Iron Curtain” speech of 1946
and the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 with a portion of the wall.
| D | Annual Events |
The sweep of life in Missouri is
witnessed in the variety of annual events held in the state’s small communities
and major cities. Fishing tournaments, rodeos, Native American gatherings,
ethnic celebrations, craft shows, and historical reenactments fill the year’s
calendar. The festival season begins with one of the nation’s largest Saint
Patrick’s Day parades in Kansas City in March. The beginning of the Pony Express
and the end of outlaw Jesse James are celebrated in Saint Joseph in April, the
same month visitors flock to a championship turkey-calling contest in
Kirksville. Hermann holds its German Maifest in May. National Tom Sawyer Days in
Hannibal in July includes a fence painting championship for children and
culminates with a fireworks show on Independence Day, as do many Fourth of July
celebrations across the state. Fair St. Louis, held at the Gateway Arch in St.
Louis, is called the nation’s largest Fourth of July Celebration. Sainte
Genevieve commemorates its French heritage with Bastille Days celebrations two
weeks later. Missouri’s agricultural heritage is showcased in one of the
country’s largest state fairs in August in Sedalia. Old Mines relives its French
Creole past by serving croquignolles amid old log cabins at its Fête d’Automne
in October. For more than a century outdoor lights have dazzled holiday shoppers
in Kansas City’s Country Club Plaza.
| E | Sports |
Missouri has many professional sports
teams, including the St. Louis Cardinals and Kansas City Royals (baseball), the
Kansas City Chiefs and the St. Louis Rams (football), and the St. Louis Blues
(ice hockey). A greater variety of spectator sports are provided by the state’s
colleges and universities.
Facilities for sports are widely
available in Missouri. Interest in horse shows and racing dates back to the
period of early settlement by Kentuckians and Virginians. Among game hunted are
quail, pheasant, doves, deer, wild turkey, raccoon, squirrel, and rabbit.
Thousands of miles of streams ranging from creeks to broad rivers and thousands
of lakes ranging from farm ponds to huge reservoirs make every sort of fishing
possible. Bass, catfish, bluegill, perch, trout and jack salmon are plentiful.
Canoeing and float fishing, or fishing from a boat while it slowly floats
downstream, are popular in the Ozarks.
| VII | GOVERNMENT |
Missouri’s present constitution was
adopted in 1945 and is the fourth since Missouri became a state in 1821. It has
provisions for initiative and referendum. A constitutional amendment may be
proposed by a majority vote of each house of the state legislature or by
initiative, and it must be ratified by a majority vote of the electorate.
| A | Executive |
Missouri’s governor is elected for a
term of four years and may not serve more than a total of two terms. The
lieutenant governor, secretary of state, attorney general, state treasurer, and
state auditor are also elected for terms of four years.
| B | Legislative |
The legislature, called the General
Assembly, consists of a Senate of 34 members, elected for four years, and a
House of Representatives of 163 members, elected for two years. The General
Assembly meets in annual sessions beginning in January.
| C | Judicial |
The court system consists of a Supreme
Court with seven members, three courts of appeals, and circuit courts. Each
county has one or more magistrate courts and a probate court. The governor
appoints Supreme Court justices and appellate judges from a list of candidates
supplied by a nonpartisan commission. Once appointed judges must be approved by
voters in the next general election; once approved they complete a 12-year term.
Circuit court judges serve six-year terms, and probate and magistrate court
judges serve four years.
| D | Local Government |
Missouri is divided into 114 counties
and the city of St. Louis. Most counties are governed by elected county
commissions consisting of three commissioners. These commissions administer
county taxation, property, and roads. Most cities, including St. Louis, have a
mayor-council type of government. Kansas City and others have a council and city
manager.
| E | National Representation |
Missouri elects two U.S. senators and
nine members of the U.S. House of Representatives. The state casts 11 electoral
votes in presidential elections.
| VIII | HISTORY |
| A | Early Inhabitants |
In the prehistoric period, successive
stages of human development took place in Missouri. Nomadic hunters, called
Paleo-Indians by archaeologists, were present perhaps as early as 12,000 years
ago. Divided into small bands, they ranged widely over the land, hunting many
now-extinct animals. The next stage, called Archaic, lasted from about 10,000 to
3,000 years ago. In this period, woven baskets and highly specialized stone
tools abounded. Following that was the Woodland culture, which saw the
introduction of pottery and agriculture. Southeastern Missouri contains many
artifacts and relics of the culture called Mississippians or Mound Builders, a
village society that started about ad 800.
The peoples who inhabited the area
during the era of exploration and settlement were seminomads who were attracted
by the forests and prairies in the lower part of the Missouri River valley,
which abounded with game. They lived about half the year in villages, growing
crops. Most powerful and numerous were the Osage, who lived along the Osage
River. North of the Missouri lived the Otoe, and a village of the Missouria
people was located at the confluence of the Grand and Missouri rivers. The name
of the village was applied to the people, the river, and finally the state. The
Iowa and, later, the united Sac (Sauk) and Fox drove out the other groups by the
early 19th century. Some Shawnee and Delaware were temporarily moved to Missouri
by the Spanish, but all of the Native Americans had been forced out of the state
by 1837.
| B | European Exploration and Settlement |
European discovery, exploration, and
settlement of the Mississippi and Missouri valleys were accomplished by French
trappers, traders, and missionaries. In 1673 explorers Jacques Marquette and
Louis Joliet boated down the Mississippi River and charted it past the mouth of
the Missouri. René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle, claimed the entire
Mississippi drainage area, including the Missouri Valley, for France in 1682,
naming it Louisiane (in English, Louisiana). By 1700 the mission of Saint
Francis Xavier was established on the site of modern St. Louis. In 1714 Étienne
Véniard de Bourgmont explored the Missouri River, and nine years later he built
Fort Orleans near the mouth of the Grand. Antoine de La Mothe, Sieur de
Cadillac, governor of Louisiana, explored the lead region of southeastern
Missouri in 1715, and Captain Charles Claude du Tisne made an overland journey
into Osage territory in 1719.
The lead deposits led the French to
found Sainte Genevieve, the first permanent white settlement in Missouri, about
1750. In 1763 the Maxent and Laclède Company of New Orleans obtained a monopoly
of the fur trade in the Missouri Valley. Pierre Laclède and his party, including
14-year-old René Auguste Chouteau, selected the site of St. Louis for their
trading post. Early in 1764, under Chouteau’s guidance, settlers began clearing
land for the village. A few months later, news arrived that France had ceded
Louisiana to Spain. Don Pedro Piernas, the first Spanish governor, reached St.
Louis in 1770 and made it the capital of the district of Upper Louisiana.
| C | The Revolutionary Period |
During the American Revolution
(1775-1783), the French and Spanish in St. Louis openly sympathized with the
United States against Great Britain and aided U.S. Lieutenant Colonel George
Rogers Clark, who fought the British nearby in present-day Indiana. This led to
an attack on the town in 1780 by a British and Native American force, but the
invaders were beaten.
When the war ended in 1783 and the
Illinois country on the other side of the Mississippi was ceded to the United
States, many of the French settlers of Illinois moved into Upper Louisiana.
Anxious to make the territory self-supporting, the Spanish government encouraged
immigration from the United States, going so far as to offer settlers Spanish
citizenship and free land. Between 1795 and 1804, hundreds of Kentuckians,
Tennesseans, Virginians, and Carolinians took advantage of the offer. Among them
was the famed pioneer Daniel Boone, who lived in the Femme Osage region of Saint
Charles and served as a syndic, or frontier judge.
In 1787 the Congress of the United
States passed the Northwest Ordinance, which provided for the organization of
territory ceded from Great Britain, including the Illinois country, and
prohibited slavery in these territories. However, west of the Mississippi, the
Spanish government welcomed slavery, thus inducing Southerners who wanted to
expand the institution of slavery to settle in Missouri.
| D | The 19th Century |
| D1 | Territorial Period |
By 1804 the population of Missouri
exceeded 10,000. The French ruler Napoleon Bonaparte, who had forced Spain to
return Louisiana to France in 1800, sold it to the United States in 1803 (see
Louisiana Purchase). However, the Spanish remained in authority in St. Louis
until 1804, when U.S. Army Captain Amos Stoddard took over the government.
Congress organized Upper Louisiana as the Louisiana Territory in 1805. St. Louis
remained the capital. General James Wilkinson, the first governor, was
unpopular, and in 1807 he was replaced by the well-known explorer Captain
Meriwether Lewis.
On June 4, 1812, Missouri Territory,
with some privileges of self-government, was carved out of Louisiana Territory.
It had the same borders as the present state except for the northwestern
triangle, which was added in 1837. The next few years saw frequent Native
American attacks on outlying settlements, part of a British plan of harassment
during the War of 1812 (1812-1815). When peace came, a flood of immigrants
poured into the territory, raising the population to nearly 70,000 by 1820. Many
settlers came from the South, bringing their slaves. However, in contrast to the
plantation life of the South, subsistence farming, lead mining, and trapping
were the principal pioneer occupations. Some tobacco and pork were produced and
rafted down the Mississippi to New Orleans.
Life in territorial Missouri was
characterized by land speculation, gambling, drinking, brawling, and little
attention to religion or social amenities. Although many American settlers were
essentially honest and industrious, they were often crude and illiterate. The
most stable cultural influences came from the old French Catholic families of
St. Louis and Ste. Genevieve.
Missouri’s geography made it a
natural crossroads between the East and the unexplored West. In 1804 the Lewis
and Clark Expedition had set out westward from St. Louis, and later, Zebulon
Pike and Stephen Long set out from the same city. These early Western explorers
brought back reports of fur-rich country, and before long, trader Manuel Lisa
organized the Missouri Fur Company. Soon, St. Louis became the eastern base of
the Rocky Mountain Fur Company of Jedediah Smith, William Sublette, James
Bridger, and William Ashley, and of the American Fur Company of John Jacob Astor
and the Chouteau family.
| D2 | The Missouri Compromise |
By 1817 Missourians were lobbying for
statehood. Petitions were circulated, and Congress began to consider the issue
in 1818. Missouri’s request caused an extended debate over slavery. The
institution had long been a sore point in Congress between politicians of the
Northern states, who wanted to limit or abolish it, and those of the South, who
wanted to preserve it. To maintain harmony, the issue had been avoided as much
as possible. Now, however, the Northerners took a stand against extension of
slavery into new territories. The Southerners were just as adamant because they
wanted to preserve their power in the United States Senate. The seats were
evenly divided between North and South, which meant that the South could block
bills that threatened its system. However, if all new states were free states,
the slave states would soon be a minority in the Senate. Missouri became the
test case.
Congressman Henry Clay of Kentucky
worked out a solution. Missouri would be allowed to enter the federal Union as a
slave state, Maine (a territory that prohibited slavery) would be admitted as a
free state, and slavery would be allowed elsewhere in the former Louisiana
Territory below Missouri’s southern boundary, latitude 36°30’N. This was the
Missouri Compromise of 1820. The admission of one free and one slave state
preserved the free-versus-slave balance in Congress, and the demarcation line
assured the South that more slave states could be admitted in the future.
Although much more of the new
territory was located north of the line than south of it, Southerners felt that
few states could be formed from the northern part because explorers Zebulon Pike
and Stephen Long had described the area—the Great Plains—as a “great
desert.”
| D3 | Early Statehood |
On July 19, 1820, Missouri’s
constitutional convention approved a document that allowed slavery and
prohibited immigration of free blacks to the state. The ban on free blacks was
another barrier to admission, because the Constitution of the United States
guaranteed that a citizen’s rights in one state could not be withheld in another
state. Clay, anxious to save his compromise, secured the promise of the Missouri
legislature that it would never enforce that clause of the constitution.
Under the new Missouri constitution,
Alexander McNair was elected governor; William H. Ashley, lieutenant governor;
and John Scott, U. S. representative. The legislature later chose David Barton
and Thomas Hart Benton as the state’s first U.S. senators. Missouri was admitted
to the Union as the 24th state on August 10, 1821, by proclamation of President
James Monroe, after the legislature passed a declaration that the provision
barring free blacks would never be enforced. It was not long, however, before
the legislature reneged on its agreement, passing laws restricting free blacks
in 1825.
| D4 | Economic Development |
A severe nationwide economic slump
following the panic of 1819 created serious problems for the new state. The Bank
of St. Louis failed, and confidence in banknotes, supported by Eastern capital,
quickly fell. In response, the legislature established loan offices to issue
state currency and placed a moratorium on debt repayment. Missourians distrusted
banking and paper currency in general and supported national political leader
Andrew Jackson, who was a Westerner, a staunch ally of Benton’s, and a champion
of hard money (money backed by gold reserves). Jackson’s Democratic Party
did well in Missouri elections. In the Senate, Benton urged expansion of the fur
trade, protection of overland trails, a free land policy, and other measures
that would concentrate political and economic power in the West.
The constitutional convention and the
first legislature had met in St. Louis. In 1821 the legislature moved to St.
Charles, and in 1826, when a statehouse was completed, it moved to Jefferson
City. In its early years, Jefferson City was a village of mud streets, tents,
and log houses, where coonskin-capped legislators carried on lively debates on
internal improvements and on the relative merits of hard and soft money. In
spite of the capital city’s natural importance, it was St. Louis that became the
commercial center of the state.
Missouri continued to be the gateway
to the Far West. The Santa Fe, Oregon, California, and other overland trails
originated in Missouri; Franklin, Westport, Independence, and Saint Joseph
became successive staging centers. The lucrative Santa Fe trade brought gold and
silver to Missouri, while Oregon’s lush Willamette Valley and California’s gold
lured many Americans to and through Missouri. The state’s role in the
development of the Rocky Mountain area is reflected in the thousands of Western
families who trace their beginnings to Missouri.
| D5 | Population Growth |
St. Louis had long been the supply
point for Western expeditions and a port for the increasing river traffic. From
the early days its people were a blend of French and Spanish, and to these were
rapidly added fur traders, pioneers, French-speaking slaves, and immigrants from
abroad. Irish, English, and German immigrants came in great numbers after 1820.
Among the early German immigrants were John Sutter, on whose California land the
Gold Rush began; Adolphus Busch and Eberhard Anheuser, who helped make brewing a
national industry; and Carl Schurz, a writer, journalist, and U.S. senator from
Missouri after the Civil War. St. Louis and Kansas City attracted large
communities of Italians, Greeks, Poles, and Jews.
Missouri’s growth from 1820 to the
Civil War was spectacular. The population increased 18-fold in 40 years,
reaching nearly 1.2 million in 1860. Hemp joined tobacco and pork as major cash
products of the farms and plantations, and merchandising developed in answer to
the demands of the fur and trading companies. By 1860 some important industrial
foundations had been laid. Ironworks at Meramec Spring, Springfield, Ironton,
and Pilot Knob expanded rapidly as native coal replaced wood and other fuels.
Successful steamboat operations on the Missouri and the Mississippi delayed
railroad construction until the 1850s. In the decade before the war, the state
appropriated $25 million in bonds to promote railroad building. The Pacific
Railroad broke ground in 1851, and in 1859 the Hannibal and St. Joseph became
the first line to cross the state. In 1858 the Butterfield Overland Mail began
operations between Tipton and San Francisco, California, and two years later the
first Pony Express rider left St. Joseph for California.
| D6 | The Mormon War |
In 1831 Joseph Smith, organizer of
the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, settled a band of his Mormon
followers at Independence. Smith designated Independence as “Zion,” the place to
which Jesus Christ would return. Converts flocked into western Missouri.
The Mormons were against slavery and
favored immigration of free blacks. Their views soon brought them into conflict
with proslavery factions, and they were forced north across the Missouri River
into Clay County. Violence continued, and in 1836 the legislature set aside
Caldwell County for the Mormons, where they settled and founded the town of Far
West. However, some also moved into Davies and Carroll counties, where
opposition from their neighbors led to the Mormon War. Governor Lilburn W. Boggs
called out the state militia with the order that the Mormons had to be
“exterminated or driven from the state.” By April 1839 most Mormons had left
Missouri and gone first to Illinois, and later founded a new Zion in Salt Lake
City, Utah.
However, to many of Smith’s original
followers, Independence was still the Mormon Zion. In 1860 his son Joseph Smith
III accepted leadership of the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day
Saints, who were the largest group of dissident Mormons and still lived largely
in the Midwest. He established the headquarters of this body at
Independence.
| D7 | The Mexican War and the Slavery Question |
Missourians interested in expansion
of trade were vigorous supporters of the Mexican War (1846-1848). More than
9,000 Missourians volunteered to fight the Mexicans. The federal generals
Stephen Watts Kearny and John C. Frémont (Senator Benton’s son-in-law) and the
Missouri volunteer colonels Alexander W. Doniphan and Sterling Price were
instrumental in bringing victory to the United States.
In the peace treaty of 1848 Mexico
ceded to the United States the vast lands of California and New Mexico. Debate
began in Congress about the status of slavery in these new territories. The
Missouri legislature directed its Congressional delegation to vote for the
protection of slavery in the new territories. Senator Benton displayed great
political courage in ignoring these instructions and openly endorsing a ban on
slavery. However, he lost his seat in 1850 in a bid for reelection.
In 1854 the Kansas and Nebraska
territories were formed out of the northern part of the old Louisiana Territory.
Both were wholly above the 1820 compromise line of latitude 36°30’N, in the
Great Plains region that had been called a desert. It was clear by now, however,
that the plains were fertile farmland and could be divided into several new
states. The Southern states saw that they would be in a minority in the Senate
if the 1820 line were retained. Because many slaveowners lived in Kansas, the
South pressed to have it admitted as a slave state. After much bitter debate,
Congress passed the Kansas-Nebraska Act in 1854, repealing the Missouri
Compromise and allowing the two territories to decide whether they would be free
or slave states.
Almost immediately the
Missouri-Kansas border became a battleground, as proslavery and antislavery
groups crossed into Kansas to vote in its decisive 1855 election. What was
called the Border War ensued, with much destruction and killing in both Kansas
and Missouri. Southern sympathizers, led by David Rice Atchison and others,
raided antislavery towns on both sides of the border, while opponents of slavery
such as John Brown and James Lane ravaged proslavery areas.
The anger of the North over slavery
was further aroused by a decision of the Supreme Court of the United States
about the status of a Missouri slave, Dred Scott. Scott’s owner had taken him
from Missouri to Fort Snelling, in what is now Minnesota, where slavery was
banned at the time under the Northwest Ordinance of 1787. In 1846, back in
Missouri, Scott sued for his freedom on the grounds that residence in a free
territory released him from slavery. The Supreme Court of Missouri, however,
ruled in 1852 that upon his being brought back to territory where slavery was
legal, he became a slave again. Scott’s lawyers had the case shifted to federal
court, then appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court. On March 6, 1857, the U.S.
Supreme Court ruled, not only that Scott was not free, but that the U.S.
Constitution gave Congress no authority to prohibit slavery anywhere in the
territories. Northern condemnation of the decision was furious.
| D8 | Civil War |
The hostility of Northerners to the
Dred Scott Case, which included threats to abolish slavery in the states where
it existed, helped convince Southerners of their growing insecurity within the
Union. Many came to believe that secession from the Union was the only way to
protect what they called “Southern rights,” including the right to own slaves.
The presidential election of 1860 brought the issue to a crisis. That year,
Abraham Lincoln was elected president as the candidate of the Republican Party,
which opposed the spread of slavery. The Southern state of South Carolina had
threatened to secede if the Republicans won, and in December 1860 it did so.
Other Southern states followed. On February 8, 1861, they set up a confederacy
called the Confederate States of America.
In February 1861 the legislature
called a state convention to consider Missouri’s relation to the Union. None of
the delegates favored immediate secession, but Governor Claiborne F. Jackson was
pro-Southern and refused to respond to Lincoln’s call for troops in April 1861,
when the American Civil War began. Instead he ordered the state militia to
assemble at Camp Jackson in St. Louis. Union Army General Nathaniel Lyon soon
marched against the camp and forced its surrender. Agitators attacked the Union
troops, who then fired into the crowd, killing several people.
In a last effort to maintain peace,
on June 11, Lyon met Jackson in St. Louis, but the conference ended when Lyon
would not approve Missouri’s neutrality and Jackson refused to permit Union
troop movements in the state. Jackson called for 50,000 volunteers and placed
Sterling Price in command of the militia; Lyon then occupied the capital.
Jackson and remnants of the legislature fled to Neosho. On June 17, Price’s
militia attacked Lyon’s troops at Boonville, but Lyon was victorious. However,
at a bloody battle at Wilson’s Creek on August 10, Lyon was killed and his
troops routed. Price led his Confederate soldiers to another victory at
Lexington the next month.
In October the Neosho government
approved Missouri’s secession. However, the state convention set up a
provisional government in July 1861, with Hamilton R. Gamble as governor.
Largely through Gamble’s diplomacy, Missouri stayed in the Union. Thus it later
avoided many of the agonizing problems of Reconstruction, as the restoration of
the Union was called. As the war proceeded and the government’s position was
consolidated, Confederate strength declined.
A Union Army victory in March 1862 at
Pea Ridge, Arkansas, ended the Confederate threat to seize Missouri, but
fighting continued in the state in the form of raids and guerrilla action.
Confederate guerrilla bands such as that of Captain William Quantrill were
particularly difficult to control. Such notorious Missourians as Jesse James,
Frank James, and Cole Younger rode with Quantrill. Notable battles included
Price’s defeat at Pilot Knob on September 27, 1864, when he lost 1,500 men in
less than half an hour, and the Battle of Westport on October 21, 1864, which
ended the movement of Confederate troops in Missouri. During the war
approximately 110,000 Missourians served with Union forces and nearly 40,000
with the Confederate forces, and more than 1,000 battles and skirmishes took
place in Missouri.
| D9 | Reconstruction and Postwar Development |
The major issues facing Missourians
at the close of the Civil War related to Reconstruction and the rebuilding of
the war-torn state. The provisional government of 1861 continued to function,
but as early as 1863 it split into factions. A wing of the Republicans, called
Radicals, who favored harsh measures gained control of the state government in
1864 and called a constitutional convention. The resulting constitution of 1865
abolished slavery, freeing the 115,000 remaining slaves, promoted public
education, and prohibited further commitment of state funds to promotional
ventures such as railroads. It also required a test oath to bar former
Confederate sympathizers from holding public office, voting, teaching,
practicing law, and preaching. The unpopularity of this extremism led to the
swift downfall of Radical rule. In 1866 the U.S. Supreme Court declared portions
of the test oath unconstitutional, and in the 1869 and 1870 elections a
coalition of moderate Republicans and Democrats made Carl Schurz U.S. Senator
and Benjamin Gratz Brown governor. In 1872 the Radicals were ousted, and the
Democrats gained in strength as the moderate Republicans declined. In 1875 the
state approved its third constitution, the second in ten years. It eliminated
all hints of reprisals against former Confederates, stipulated that at least 25
percent of the general revenue be used for public education, created commissions
to regulate the railroads, placed tax restrictions on local communities, and
lengthened the governor’s term to four years.
| D10 | Growth and Industrialization |
Missouri, which had the largest
population among slave states in 1860, continued its rapid growth after the
Civil War. It ranked fifth among the states in population from 1870 to 1900.
This growth was principally in the newer inland counties and in the lead mining
and zinc mining areas in southwestern Missouri. The mining boom of the 1870s led
to the development of Joplin and other smaller towns.
However, progress was not uniform.
Nationwide economic slumps in 1873 and 1893 erased the gains made by farmers
during economic booms. Also, in some areas, particularly on the western border,
the Civil War had caused devastation of farms. The farmers were chronically in
debt, and their debtor status was virtually guaranteed by deflation of the
dollar, rising costs, and, in some counties, exploitation by the railroads.
Foreign immigrants continued to come to the St. Louis and lower Missouri River
areas after the war, flooding the labor market and causing wages to fall.
Because of the financial difficulties of the farmers and laborers, the Greenback
Party and People’s Party enjoyed great popularity in Missouri. The Greenbackers
endorsed soft money (paper money whose value was not tied to the price of
gold) and the People’s Party endorsed free coinage of silver, both measures that
were expected to inflate the dollar and thereby help the farmers and laborers
pay off their debts.
But also during this period,
industries and the state’s general development were stimulated by the growth of
railroads. By 1870 there were 3,200 km (2,000 mi) of track, an increase of
almost 250 percent in ten years. Crops could now be transported to distant
markets, and livestock could be profitably carried to the new stockyards in St.
Louis and Kansas City.
| E | The 20th Century |
| E1 | Reform |
After 1905, statewide reform of the
government was led by governors Joseph W. Folk and Herbert S. Hadley. Their
combined eight-year record included prosecution of Standard Oil Company and
other monopolies, passage of direct primary election laws to restrict political
machines (organized political groups under the control of strong leaders or
factions), and regulation of lobbying, public utilities, child labor, and food
and drug production. William T. Harris, later the U.S. commissioner of
education, paved the way for education reforms and innovations during his tenure
as superintendent of the St. Louis schools, and Frederick D. Gardner was a
pioneer in penal reforms. The desire for reform led Missouri in 1904 to vote for
Theodore Roosevelt, the first time after Reconstruction that the state voted for
a Republican presidential candidate.
The entry of the United States into
World War I (1914-1918) checked the reform movement. More than 140,000
Missourians joined the armed forces of the United States.
| E2 | Economic Ups and Downs |
At the war’s end most of Missouri was
prosperous, although an economic slump in agriculture in 1921 soon ended the
prosperity of the farmers. Nevertheless, Missourians launched an extensive road
building effort during the 1920s that did what an early slogan demanded, “Get
Missouri Out of the Mud.” While farmers suffered, most areas of the economy grew
during the 1920s, but beginning with the stock market crash of 1929, the Great
Depression spread across the Missouri economy. To offer some relief, state and
federal construction programs were begun.
| E3 | Reform Resumed |
Although emphasizing relief, the
state resumed its long-interrupted struggle against political corruption.
Despite the direct primary laws, the state still had political machines. An
outstanding example in the 1930s was the one run by the boss of the Kansas City
Democratic Party, Thomas J. Pendergast. Pendergast’s influence declined after he
broke with Governor Lloyd Stark in 1938, but it was not ended until 1939, when
Pendergast was sentenced to prison for income tax evasion. One of the most
notable products of the Pendergast machine was Harry S. Truman, a Jackson County
judge, who was elected to the U.S. Senate in 1934 and elected vice president in
1944. With the death of President Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1945, Truman became
the first Missourian to serve as president of the United States.
| E4 | Missouri After 1940 |
More than 450,000 Missourians served
with U.S. armed forces during World War II (1939-1945). The war also made
demands on Missouri’s minerals, and the production of aircraft brought the state
out of the economic despair of the 1930s. Missouri’s McDonnell Aircraft
Corporation (subsequently known as McDonnell Douglas and now part of The Boeing
Company), one of the state’s chief employers, established itself during the war
as a defense contractor.
Missourians approved a fourth state
constitution in 1945. This constitution gave labor the right to bargain
collectively and largely removed education from political control. The executive
department was streamlined, and the tax system was modernized. However, the
constitution also segregated the educational system: black and white children
were to be educated in separate public schools. This clause remained in effect
until the historic 1954 decision of the U.S. Supreme Court, in Brown v.
Board of Education, outlawing segregation.
The urbanization and industrialization characteristic of Missouri
during the 20th century were accelerated after World War II. Rural counties
declined in population, and the metropolitan areas of St. Louis and Kansas City
spread for miles into the adjacent countryside. Organized labor became a
powerful force in state affairs, peaking in influence during the 1950s and
1960s, but began to decline in the 1970s. A part of the decline was caused by
the transformation of the Missouri economy. Manufacturing was replaced by the
service sector as the chief employer of labor. Much of the subsistence farming
in the Ozarks was replaced by business enterprises associated with recreation,
as state and federal programs of conservation and waterpower created huge lakes
in the southern half of the state. In the more productive agricultural areas,
farm units increased in size and the number of farms and farmers greatly
declined.
As Missouri entered the 1980s, social
issues remained to be dealt with, including the persistence of racial
segregation in the public schools of St. Louis and Kansas City. The high
interest rates and recession of the early 1980s caused some hardship, especially
among farmers and miners. Missourians were also made aware of serious
environmental problems when residents of the town of Times Beach had to abandon
their homes because of the dioxin contamination discovered in 1982. Both the
state and the federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) launched massive
cleanup efforts. The state spent more than $40 million on dioxin cleanup, and
the EPA built and operated a special dioxin incinerator at Verona. The EPA
closed and dismantled its incinerator in 1988.
| E5 | Missouri at the End of the Century |
Many of the trends of the 1980s
persisted into the 1990s. Efforts to end segregation in Kansas City and St.
Louis continued to tax the state’s school funds and led to a U.S. Supreme Court
decision, Missouri v. Jenkins, requiring reconsideration of
achievement requirements and across-the-board pay raises for Kansas City
schools. Changes in racial attitudes on the part of both black and white
Missourians made the future of desegregation efforts even more questionable as
some black activists called for black-controlled schools as preferable to
integrated ones, and many whites expressed dismay at the cost of desegregation
attempts in the two cities. Indeed, the results of these efforts satisfied
few.
Politically, Democrat Mel Carnahan
broke Republican control of the governor’s office in 1992. Republicans
Christopher Bond and John Ashcroft had held the governor’s position during the
1980s (both were subsequently elected to the U.S. Senate). Quickly, Carnahan
succeeded in getting the Democratically controlled legislature to create a new
formula that increased and equalized state support for public elementary and
secondary schools. New standards of expectations for student achievement also
became a part of the 1993 law.
Many of the difficulties that faced
Missourians in the 1990s were the same as in the rest of the nation. The changes
in educational policy reflected the ongoing concern about economic trends that
increasingly placed greater emphasis on adequate levels of education and
training for employment. Competition in a world economy meant that Missouri
companies had to produce more efficiently. Important manufacturing firms such as
McDonnell-Douglas (now part of The Boeing Company) employed fewer people and
became more profitable. Those who remained employed often made more money than
before, and those who had to find work in service occupations often received
lower wages.
At the same time, public institutions
of higher education raised their fees, making it more difficult for many
Missourians to continue their schooling. Many middle-class people in both rural
and urban Missouri struggled to maintain their standards of living. The number
of two-parent families with both parents working increased, leaving children
with less parental supervision and with greater dependence on day care centers.
Teenage gangs, drive-by shootings, drug use, out-of-wedlock births, and other
signs of social breakdown received frequent media attention, not only in St.
Louis and Kansas City, but also in Springfield and other medium-sized and rural
places.
During the 2000 general election,
Carnahan, who had been reelected governor in 1996, ran against Ashcroft for his
Senate seat. A few weeks before the election, Carnahan was killed in a plane
crash as he traveled to a campaign event. At the time of his death, it was too
late to remove his name from the ballot, and thus he remained the Democratic
candidate. In November Carnahan won the election posthumously. The new Missouri
governor, Democrat Bob Holden, appointed Carnahan’s wife, Jean Carnahan, to fill
his seat for a special two-year term. Although Ashcroft lost the election, he
was appointed U.S. attorney general by President George W. Bush. At the end of
her special two-year term, Carnahan sought election to complete her late
husband’s term, but she was defeated by Republican James Talent.
The Republicans recaptured the
governor’s mansion in the 2004 elections with the selection of Matt Blunt as
governor. The same year Ashcroft resigned as U.S. attorney general.
The history section of this article
was contributed by Lawrence O. Christensen. The remainder of the article was
contributed by Walter A. Schroeder.
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