Missouri

Missouri is a state in the Midwestern United States. With over six million residents, it is the 18th-most populous state of the Union. The largest urban areas are St. Louis, Kansas City, Springfield, and Columbia; the capital is Jefferson City. The state is the 21st-most extensive in area. In the South are the Ozarks, a forested highland, providing timber, minerals, and recreation. The Missouri River, after which the state is named, flows through the center of the state into the Mississippi River, which makes up Missouri's eastern border. Humans have inhabited the land now known as Missouri for at least 12,000 years. The Mississippian culture built cities and mounds, before declining in the 14th century. When European explorers arrived in the 17th century they encountered the Osage and Missouria nations. The French established Louisiana, a part of New France, and founded Ste. Genevieve in 1735 and St. Louis in 1764. After a brief period of Spanish rule, the United States acquired the Louisiana Purchase in 1803. Americans from the Upland South, including enslaved African Americans, rushed into the new Missouri Territory. Missouri was admitted as a slave state as part of the Missouri Compromise. Many from Virginia, Kentucky, and Tennessee settled in the Boonslick area of Mid-Missouri. Soon after, heavy German immigration formed the Missouri Rhineland. Missouri played a central role in the westward expansion of the United States, as memorialized by the Gateway Arch. The Pony Express, Oregon Trail, Santa Fe Trail, and California Trail all began in Missouri.

Missouri is known under different nicknames; aka Bullion State, or Show-Me State (used on license plates), or Gateway to the West, or Lead State, or Ozark State, or Mother of the West, or Iron Mountain State, or Pennsylvania of the West, or Cave State and detailed official information about Missouri can be found on the homepage at www. mo.gov.

The given Missouri location map shows that Missouri is located in the mid-western part of the US. Missouri map also shows that Missouri shares its state border with Illinois in the east, Iowa in the north, Nebraska in the north-west, Kansas in the west, Oklahoma in the south-west, Arkansas in the south, and Tennessee in the south-east.

Jefferson City is the capital of Missouri. In fact, Missouri was originally the part of France and it has been purchased from France and then defined as the Missouri Territory. However, after remaining as the Part of the Missouri Territory has admitted into the union as the 24th state on August 10, 1821.

Interestingly, it has both Midwestern and Southern cultural influences that reflects its history as a border state. Furthermore, it is also a transition between the Eastern and Western United States; St. Louis city is often called as "western-most Eastern city" and Kansas City as eastern-most Western city.

An 1880's theme park in Branson, Silver Dollar City offers something for all ages. Time your visit to experience the park's most magical event of the year, An Old Time Christmas. St. Louis city is located nearby the confluence of the Mississippi and Missouri rivers. In addition, the mean center of United States population is currently in Missouri. The climate type of Missouri is humid continental climate. Some of the important cities of Missouri are St. Louis, Kansas City, Springfield, and Columbia.

The US State Missouri occupies 178,053 m², about 1,95 % of the total territory of the USA of 9,148,020 m². The total population of the US State Missouri with 6,113,532 inhabitants (in 2017) has already increased by 9,26 % in this millennium. Almost 40 years ago there were 1,196,846 fewer people. The capital Jefferson City alone has 42,895 inhabitants.

Jefferson City was specifically designed to be the state capital.

Missouri's culture blends elements from the Midwestern and Southern United States. The musical styles of ragtime, Kansas City jazz, and St. Louis Blues developed in Missouri. The well-known Kansas City-style barbecue, and lesser-known St. Louis-style barbecue, can be found across the state and beyond. There is no official state nickname. However, Missouri's unofficial nickname is the "Show Me State", which appears on its license plates. This phrase has several origins. Other nicknames for Missouri include "The Lead State", "The Bullion State", "The Ozark State", "The Mother of the West", "The Iron Mountain State", and "Pennsylvania of the West". Missouri is landlocked and borders eight different states as does its neighbor, Tennessee. No state in the U.S. touches more than eight. Missouri is bounded by Iowa on the north; by Illinois, Kentucky, and Tennessee across the Mississippi River on the east; on the south by Arkansas; and by Oklahoma, Kansas, and Nebraska (the last across the Missouri River) on the west. Whereas the northern and southern boundaries are straight lines, the Missouri Bootheel protrudes southerly into Arkansas. The two largest rivers are the Mississippi (which defines the eastern boundary of the state) and the Missouri River (which flows from west to east through the state) essentially connecting the two largest metros of Kansas City and St. Louis. In 2005, Missouri received 16,695,000 visitors to its national parks and other recreational areas totaling 101,000 acres (410 km²), giving it $7.41 million in annual revenues, 26.6% of its operating expenditures. Missouri generally has a humid continental climate with cold snowy winters and hot, humid, and wet summers. In the southern part of the state, particularly in the Bootheel, the climate becomes humid subtropical. Located in the interior United States, Missouri often experiences extreme temperatures. Without high mountains or oceans nearby to moderate temperature, its climate is alternately influenced by air from the cold Arctic and the hot and humid Gulf of Mexico.