State of Missouri

  1. The state of Missouri  is located in the Midwestern United States bordered by Iowa, Illinois, Kentucky, Tennessee, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Kansas and Nebraska.
  2. Total Area: 21st among states, 180,545 sq km (69,709 sq mi).
  3. Missouri's capital is Jefferson City. The three largest urban areas are St. Louis, Kansas City, and Springfield.
  4. Missouri is first in the nation in production of lead. Lead deposits led the French to found Sainte Genevieve, the first permanent European settlement in Missouri, about 1750.Missouri suffered the most from the devastating flood of 1993, when flood crests set record heights along the Mississippi and Missouri rivers.
  5. The tallest monument built in the U.S., the Gateway Arch, in St. Louis, is 630 feet tall.
  6. The state is named for the Missouri River, which was named after the Siouan-language tribe, whose name in Illinois was ouemessourita (wimihsoorita), meaning "those who have dugout canoes".
  7. Among the early immigrants to St. Louis were Adolphus Busch and Eberhard Anheuser, who helped make brewing a national industry.
  8. The pronunciation of the final syllable of "Missouri" is variable and a matter of considerable controversy, with some insisting on a relatively tense vowel (as in "meet"), while others prefer a lax vowel ("mitt" or "mutt"). 
  9. The first parachute jump from an airplane was made at Jefferson Barracks, St. Louis on March 1, 1912.
  10. Missouri has been known for its population's generally "stalwart, conservative, noncredulous" attitude toward regulatory regimes, which is one of the origins of the state's unofficial nickname, the "Show-Me State."
  11.  St. Louis is the principal city of the largest metropolitan area in Missouri, comprising seventeen counties and the independent city of St. Louis; eight of those counties lie in the state of Illinois.
  12. Ice-cream cones were first served in 1904 at the Louisiana Purchase Exposition world’s fair in St. Louis.
  13. Walt Disney grew up in Marceline. Disneyland’s Main Street U.S.A. is based on that town. 
  14. Missouri has the second-lowest cigarette excise taxes in the United States (behind only South Carolina) at 17 cents per pack.
  15. The first Olympics held in the United States occurred in St. Louis in 1904.
  16. In 2007, Forbes named Missouri's largest metropolitan area, St. Louis, America's "best city for smokers."
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