Travel Oracles 50 States: Missouri
As part of my summer series - Travel Oracles 50 States - I am revisiting each os the fifty American states as an overview on travel culture and history. Today: Missouri
Joined: August 10, 1821, officially making Missouri the 24th state in the union as part of the Missouri Compromise. Acting on the ordinance passed by the Jackson government, the Confederate Congress admitted Missouri as the 12th confederate state on November 28, 1861 BUT…the state actually saw a huge number of its men fight on both sides of the Civil War. Over 109,000 men enlisted and fought for the Union and at least 30,000 men fought for the Confederacy.
Original Indigenous Peoples: Native peoples within the state included the Kickapoo, Shawnee, Ioway, Otoe, Delaware, and Osage
First Settlers: Jesuit missionaries established the first European settlement in modern Missouri at the Mission of St. Francis Xavier (near modern Des Peres) in 1700
History moment: When the Missouri Territory first applied for statehood, a debate ensued over the government’s right to restrict slavery. The Missouri Compromise granted Maine entrance into the Union as a free state while allowing Missouri permission to enter without restrictions on slavery. An amendment was added that prohibited slavery in the remaining Louisiana Purchase territory north of latitude 36°30’, but the Missouri Compromise was ultimately ruled unconstitutional by the Supreme Court in 1857. Charles Lindbergh’s flight from Long Island to Paris May 20-21, 1927, took 33 and one half hours to complete and was the first nonstop solo transatlantic flight in history. Named The Spirit of St. Louis in recognition of the St. Louis, Missouri, businessmen who funded its construction, Lindbergh’s single-engine plane had a 46-foot wingspan and weighed 2,150 pounds when empty.
Known for: Barbecue, The Gateway Arch in St. Louis, Home to the Anheuser-Busch (maker of Budweiser beer), homes state of former President Harry S. Truman
Places: St. Louis, Kansas City, Jefferson City, the Ozarks
Movie setting: Three Billboards outside Ebbing Missouri, Winter’s Bone, and the smash hit show “Ozark”
Musicians from: Charlie Parker, Chuck Berry, Sheryl Crow, Nathaniel Rateliff
Surprising facts: Missouri has the largest beer-producing plant in the country. The Gateway Arch in St. Louis is the country’s tallest manmade monument at 630 feet. Completed in 1965, the structure was built to commemorate the city’s importance in settling the west following President Thomas Jefferson’s Louisiana Purchase in 1803.
Located on the Mississippi and Missouri Rivers, the state was an important hub of transportation and commerce in early America, and the Gateway Arch in St. Louis is a monument to Missouri’s role as the “Gateway to the West.” St. Louis, Missouri, is home to the Anheuser-Busch, the maker of Budweiser beer, and boasts the largest beer-producing plant in the country. Siting where the Midwest meets the South, and the state’s central location—along with its great rivers—has made it an important hub for explorers and pioneers over the centuries. The Missouri River carried Lewis and Clark north as they began their great expedition; soon after, its banks saw the rise of the 19th-century wagon trails heading west. Once frequented by steamboats, both the Missouri and the Mississippi are now home to riverboat gambling, a controversial part of the state’s tourism industry. Elsewhere in Missouri, a wealth of lakes, rivers, and caves provide plenty of opportunities for outdoor recreation. Let’s travel to Missouri
My Experience: Never been! But I suspect I will be stopping in sometime so given some projects in the region
Kansas City: Kansas City bills itself as the "Heart of America." Within 250 mi of both the geographic and population centers of the nation, the city is famous for its stockyards, saxophone player Charlie "Bird" Parker and his Kansas City–style bebop, and some of the best barbecue in the world. The city has more boulevards than Paris and more working fountains (212 and counting) than any city but Rome. An unwritten rule dictates that a fountain be added to nearly every new commercial structure built, giving Kansas City its second nickname: "The City of Fountains." Things to do
St. Louis: St. Louis is known as the Gateway to the West. This was certainly the case for Lewis and Clark, who stopped here for provisions during their famous expedition. In the years that followed, the city became a manufacturing center for wagons, guns, blankets, saddles, and everything pioneers would need on their journeys west. Things to do.
Nature: There are 7 national parks: Gateway Arch National Park (a future National Memorial), George Washington Carver National Monument, Harry S Truman National Historic Site, Ozark National Scenic Riverways, Ste. Genevieve National Historical Park., Ulysses S. Grant National Historic Site., Wilson's Creek National Battlefield.
Ranking in US: Per the annual US News report, Missouri is currently ranked #28 out of 50 in 2021 and in 2019.