Missouri

Missouri ( or ) is a in the  of the   bordered by , , , , , ,  and. Missouri is the eighteenth most populous state and is made up of and one. Missouri's capital is, it's largest city is , and four largest are, in descending order, , , , and. Missouri was originally purchased from as part of the  and part of the  was admitted into the union as the 24th state in.

Missouri mirrors the demographic, economic and political makeup of the nation as a mixture of and  culture and has long been considered a political. It is a state with both ern and cultural influences, reflecting its history as a  between the two regions. It is also a blend between the eastern and western United States as St. Louis is often called the "western-most eastern city" and Kansas City the "eastern-most western city." Missouri's geography is also highly varied, the northern part of the state lies in dissected till plains while the southern part lies in the, with the dividing the two. The of the  and  rivers is located near St. Louis.

Etymology and Pronunciation
The state is named after the Missouri River which in turn is named after the Indian tribe whose  name, ouemessourita (wimihsoorita ), means "those who have dugout s". . The etymology lies behind Bob Dyer's tribute, "River of the Big Canoes."

The "proper" pronunciation of the final syllable of "Missouri" is a matter of controversy, with significant numbers insisting on a relatively tense vowel (as in "meet") or lax ("mitt" or "mutt"); the most thorough study of the question was done by dialectologist Donald Max Lance. From a linguistic point of view, there is no "correct" pronunciation, but rather, patterns of synchronic and diachronic variation according to such divisions as geography, age, education, rural/urban location.

Geography
Missouri's borders physically touch a total of eight different states, as does its neighbor, Tennessee. No state in the U.S. touches more than eight states. Missouri is bounded on the north by ; on the east, across the Mississippi River, by, , and ; on the south by ; and on the west by , , and (the latter across the Missouri River.) The two largest Missouri rivers are the  which defines the eastern boundary of the state and the  that flows west to east through the state connecting the two largest cities, Kansas City and St. Louis.

Although today the state is usually considered part of the, Missouri is also occasionally historically considered a ern state, the institution of slavery in the state contributing in no small part to this. Residents of cities farther north and the state's large metropolitan areas, including those where most of the state's population resides, typically consider themselves Midwestern, while in rural areas and cities farther south (, , , and ), people typically consider themselves more Southern.

Topography
North of the Missouri River lie the Northern Plains that stretch into Iowa, Nebraska and Kansas. Here, gentle rolling hills remain behind from a glacier that once had extended from the north to the Missouri River. Missouri is made up of many large river bluffs along the Mississippi, Missouri, and Meramec Rivers. The Ozark foothills begin around Rolla, and the plateau begins around Springfield and extends into northwestern Arkansas, southeast Kansas, and northeast Oklahoma. in southwestern Missouri lies on close to the northernmost part of the Ozark plateau. Southern Missouri is the home of the, a surrounding the.

The southeastern part of the state is home to the, part of the Mississippi Alluvial Plain or. It is in this part of the state as well as the South Central  part that speech patterns comparable to those of Kentucky, Arkansas, and Tennessee still exist. This region is the lowest, flattest and wettest part of the state, and among the poorest. It is also the most fertile. Cotton and rice production are prominent in this area. The Bootheel area was the location of the epicenter of the of 1811–1812.

Climate
Missouri generally has a humid continental climate ( Dfa), with cold winters and hot and humid summers. In the southern part of the state, particularly in the Bootheel, the climate borders on a humid subtropical climate (Koppen Cfa). Due to its location in the interior United States, Missouri often experiences extremes in temperatures. Not having either large mountains or oceans nearby to moderate its temperature, its climate is alternately influenced by air from the cold Arctic and the hot and humid Gulf of Mexico.

History
Originally part of the, Missouri was admitted as a state in 1821 as part of the. It earned the nickname "Gateway to the West" because it served as a departure point for settlers heading to the west. It was the starting point and the return destination of the.

Originally the state's western border was a straight line, defined as the meridian passing through the Kawsmouth, the point where the enters the Missouri River. The river has moved since this designation. This line is known as the Osage Boundary. In 1835 the was added to the northwest corner of the state after purchasing the land from the native tribes, making the Missouri River the border north of the Kansas River. This addition made what was already the largest state in the Union at the time (about 66,500 square miles to Virginia's 65,000 square miles (which included West Virginia at the time) even larger.

Many of the early settlers in western Missouri came from the southern states, and along with them came the institution of slavery. In the area of Independence and areas just north of there, settlers began arriving in the early 1830s. It wasn't long before conflict arose between the 'old settlers' (mainly from the south originally) and the Mormons (mainly from the north and Canada). The '' erupted and by 1839 the Mormons had been expelled from Missouri. In 1838-1839 a border dispute with Iowa over the so-called resulted in both states calling up militias along the border.

After many incidences with Kansans crossing the Western border (including a fire in the historic Westport area of ), a border war began between Missouri and. The tradition continues between the and. The rivalry is mainly focused on football between the two colleges. It is the oldest college rivalry west of the and the second oldest in the nation. Each year when the universities meet to play, the game is coined "Border Showdown." An exchange occurs following the game where the winner gets to take a historic marching band drum which has been passed back and forth for decades.

After the secession of Southern states began, the MO legislature called for the election of its own special convention on secession. The convention voted decisively to remain within the Union, but pro-Southern Governor ordered the mobilization of several hundred members of the state militia who had gathered in a camp in  for training. Union General struck first, encircling the peaceful camp and forcing the state troops to surrender. Lyon then directed his soldiers, largely non--speaking immigrants, marched the prisoners through the streets then opened fire on the largely hostile crowds of civilians who gathered around them, killing unarmed prisoners as well as men, women and children of St. Louis in an incident that became known as the "."

These events caused greater Confederate support within the state. Governor Jackson appointed, president of the convention on secession, as head of the new. Jackson and Price were forced to flee the state capital of on, , in the face of Lyon's rapid advance against the state government. In the town of, Jackson called the state legislature into session where they enacted a secession ordinance that was recognized by the Confederacy on ,. With the elected governor absent from his capital and the legislators largely dispersed, Union forces installed an unelected pro-Union provisional government with as provisional governor. President Lincoln's Administration immediately recognized Gamble's government as the legal government, which provided both pro-Union militia forces for service within the state and volunteer regiments for the Union Army.

Fighting ensued between Union forces and a combined army of General Price's Missouri State Guard and Confederate troops from and  under General. After winning victories at the battle of and the siege of  and losses elsewhere, the Confederate forces had little choice but to retreat to Arkansas and later, in the face of a largely reinforced Union Army. Though regular Confederate troops staged large-scale raids into Missouri, the fighting in the state for the next three years consisted mainly of conducted by citizen soldiers such as Colonel,  and , the , and. Such small unit tactics pioneered by the Missouri Partisan Rangers were also seen elsewhere in occupied portions of the Confederacy during and after the Civil War.

Demographics


In 2006, Missouri had an estimated population of 5,842,713; an increase of 45,010 (0.8 percent) from the prior year and an increase of 246,030 (4.4 percent) since the year 2000. This includes a natural increase of 137,564 people since the last census (480,763 births less 343,199 deaths), and an increase of 88,088 people due to net into the state. from outside the United States resulted in a net increase of 50,450 people, and migration within the country produced a net increase of 37,638 people. Over half of Missourians (3,145,584 people, or 56.2%) live within the state's two largest metropolitan areas–St. Louis and Kansas City.

The of Missouri is located in, in the city of.

As of 2004, the population included 194,000 foreign-born (3.4 percent of the state population).

The five largest ancestry groups in Missouri are: (23.5 percent),  (12.7 percent), American (10.5 percent),  (9.5 percent),  (3.5 percent). "American" includes those reported as or.

German Americans are an ancestry group present throughout Missouri. African Americans are a substantial part of the population in St. Louis, Kansas City, and in the southeastern bootheel and some parts of the Missouri River Valley, where plantation agriculture was once important. Missouri Creoles of French ancestry are concentrated in the Mississippi River valley south of St. Louis. The State has a Small community mostly living in the St. Louis area

In 2004, 6.6 percent of the state's population was reported as younger than 5 years old, 25.5 percent younger than 18, and 13.5 percent was 65 or older. Females were approximately 51.4 percent of the population. 81.3 percent of Missouri residents were high school graduates (more than the national average), and 21.6 percent had a bachelor's degree or higher. 3.4 percent of Missourians were foreign-born, and 5.1 percent reported speaking a language other than English at home.

In 2000, there were 2,194,594 households in Missouri, with 2.48 people per household. The homeownership rate was 70.3 percent, and the mean value of an owner-occupied dwelling was $89,900. The median household income for 1999 was $37,934, or $19,936 per capita. There were 11.7 percent (637,891) Missourians living below the poverty line in 1999.

The mean commute time to work was 23.8 minutes.

Religion
Of those Missourians who identify with a religion, three out of five are Protestants. There is also a moderate-sized Catholic community in some parts of the state; approximately one out of five Missourians are Catholic. Heavily Catholic areas include St. Louis and Kansas City.

The religious affiliations of the people of Missouri according to the 2001 American Religious Identification Survey:
 * – 77%
 * – 22%
 * – 7%
 * – 4%
 * – 4%
 * Other Protestant – 12%
 * – 19%
 * – 1%*
 * Other or unspecified Christian – 8%
 * Other religions – 2%
 * Not religious – 15%
 * No answer – 5%
 * No answer – 5%

Several religious organizations have their headquarters in Missouri, including the, which has its headquarters in , as well as the in Hazelwood, both outside St. Louis. Kansas City is the headquarters of the. , outside of Kansas City, is the headquarters for the (formerly the ), and the  group. This area, and other parts of Missouri is also of significant religious and historical importance to, which maintains several sites/visitors centers, and whose members comprise about 1 percent of Missouri's population. is the headquarters of the and the. The has its headquarters in. The is headquartered in.

Economy
The estimates that Missouri's total state product in 2003 was $195 billion. Per capita personal income in 2003 was $29,464, ranking 27th in the nation. Major industries include, , , , printing/, , , and.

The agriculture products of the state are, , , , , , , and. Missouri is ranked 6th in the nation for the production of hogs and 7th for cattle. Missouri is ranked in the top 5 states in the nation for production of soy beans. As of 2001, there were 108,000 farms, the second largest number in any state after. Missouri also actively promotes its rapidly growing.

Missouri has vast quantities of. Other resources mined are, , and crushed. Missouri produces the most lead of all of the states in the Union with most of these mines in the of the state. Missouri also ranks first or near first among the production of.

Tourism, services and wholesale/retail trade follow manufacturing in importance.

Personal is taxed in 10 different earning brackets, ranging from 1.5 percent to 6.0 percent. Missouri's rate for most items is 4.225 percent. Additional local levies may apply. More than 2,500 Missouri local governments rely on es levied on real property and. Most personal property is exempt, except for motorized vechicles. Exempt real estate includes property owned by governments and property used as nonprofit cemeteries, exclusively for religious worship, for schools and colleges and for purely charitable purposes. There is no and limited Missouri  related to  collection.

Air
The state of Missouri has two major hubs:  and.

Rail
is still a major hub for, , , and. Kansas City is the second largest freight rail center in the US. Like , is a major destination for train freight. passenger trains serve, , , , , , , , and. The only light rail/subway system in Missouri is the which connects the City of St. Louis with suburbs in Illinois and St. Louis County. As of 2007 preliminary planning is being performed for a light rail system in the Kansas City area.

remains an operational for the Railway.

River
The and  are commercially navigable over their entire lengths in Missouri. St. Louis is a major destination for barge traffic on the Mississippi River.

Road
Several s, detailed below, traverse the state.

Following the passage of Amendment 3 in late 2004, the Missouri Department of Transportation (MoDOT) began its Smoother, Safer, Sooner road-building program with a goal of bringing 2,200 miles of highways up to good condition by December 2007. In 2005. the number of traffic deaths in the state increased by 10 percent to 1,241.

Interstate highways

 * [[Image:I-29.svg|20px]], [[Image:I-229.svg|25px]]
 * [[Image:I-35.svg|20px]], [[Image:I-435.svg|25px]] (Perimeter around ), [[Image:I-635.svg|25px]]
 * [[Image:I-44.svg|20px]]
 * [[Image:I-55.svg|20px]], [[Image:I-155.svg|25px]] , [[Image:I-255.svg|25px]]
 * [[Image:I-57.svg|20px]]
 * [[Image:I-64.svg|20px]]
 * [[Image:I-70.svg|20px]], [[Image:I-170.svg|25px]] , [[Image:I-270.svg|25px]] (the Perimeter around the Missouri side of ), [[Image:I-470.svg|25px]]  , [[Image:I-670.svg|25px]]
 * [[Image:I-72.svg|20px]]
 * [[Image:I-49.svg|20px]] (Proposed)
 * [[Image:I-66.svg|20px]] (Proposed)

Framework
The current constitution of Missouri, the fourth constitution for the state, was adopted in 1945 and provides for three branches of government—the legislative, judicial and executive branches. The legislative branch consists of two bodies—the House of Representatives and the Senate. These bodies comprise the General Assembly of the State of Missouri.

The House of Representatives has 163 members that are apportioned based on the last decennial census. The Senate consists of 34 members from districts of approximately equal populations. The judicial department consists of a consisting of 7 judges. Superior and inferior courts are also provided. The executive branch is headed by the governor and includes five other state-wide elected offices.

Status as a political bellwether
One interesting fact about Missouri is its status as a bellwether of national politics. Missouri has a longer stretch of supporting the winning presidential candidate than any other state, having voted with the nation in every election since 1904 with the exception of in 1956. In 2004, George W. Bush won the state's 11 electoral votes by a margin of 7 percentage points with 53.3 percent of the vote. Missouri has a very notable, as Democrat John Kerry only won four of the state's 115 counties: St. Louis City, St. Louis County, Ste. Genevieve, and Jackson County (which contains most of Kansas City).

Missouri has previously been considered a Democratic state, with its most prominent Democrat being. However, since the late 1970s the state has trended to Republicans, yet neither party is dominant. Democrats are generally strongest in the inner cities of Kansas City and St. Louis and Columbia, home of the. Republicans are strongest in the southwestern areas near Springfield (home of Governor Matt Blunt) and Joplin and southeastern areas near Poplar Bluff and Cape Girardeau (home of Rush Limbaugh) of the state. Many of the rural areas throughout have recently trended to vote Republican.

Missouri is also viewed as a bellwether on hot-button issues such as and  research. In, Missouri voters overwhelmingly (71%) passed an amendment to the Constitution of Missouri defining marriage as being the union of one man and one woman. Over twenty states have followed Missouri's lead and effected the same through constitutional referenda. In, a ballot initiative labeled "Amendment 2" regarding embryonic stem cell research drew widespread attention as to the national sentiment on the issue. It also was a factor in the  race between Republican incumbent, who opposed embryonic stem cell research, and Democratic challenger , who supported it. A television advertisement featuring actor expressing his support for the measure drew harsh comments and criticism from talk radio host. The measure narrowly passed by 51%-49%. Claire McCaskill also narrowly defeated Jim Talent for the U.S. Senate seat, a race which was considered crucial as to which party would control the Senate.

Laissez-faire alcohol and tobacco laws


Throughout its history, 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 official nickname, the "Show-Me State." As a result, and combined with the fact that Missouri is one of America's leading alcohol-producing states, regulation of and  in Missouri is widely known to be among the most  in the United States.

Missouri always has had some of the most permissive. It never enacted statewide, and Missouri voters rejected prohibition in three separate referenda in , , and. Alcohol regulation did not begin in Missouri until. Today, alcohol laws are controlled by the state government, and local jurisdictions are prohibited from going beyond those state laws. Missouri has no statewide or prohibition on drinking in public, no alcohol-related s, no, no precise locations for selling liquor by the package (thereby allowing even s and s to sell any kind of liquor), no differentiation of laws based on alcohol percentage, no prohibition on consumption by minors, and no prohibition on. State law protects persons from arrest or criminal penalty for and also expressly prohibits any jurisdiction from going. Missouri law also expressly allows parents and guardians to serve alcohol to their children. Along with the in, the  in Kansas City is one of the few places in the United States where a state law explicitly allows persons over the age of 21 to possess and consume open containers of alcohol in the street, as long as the beverage is in a plastic cup.


 * See also: 

As for tobacco, Missouri has the second-lowest cigarette excise taxes in the United States (behind only ), at 17 cents per pack, as of November,. The electorate voted in and  to keep it that way. No statewide ever has been proposed before the, and only 20% of Missourians support such a statewide ban in all public places. In 2007,  named as America's "best city for smokers." As of November, 2007, only eleven cities in Missouri have any smoking restrictions at all, and only eight smaller cities have smoking bans in effect for all workplaces, including bars and restaurants.

Additionally, Missouri state law renders it "an improper employment practice" for an employer to refuse to hire, to fire, or otherwise to disadvantage any person because that person lawfully uses alcohol and/or tobacco products when he or she is not at work.

Counties
Missouri has 114 counties and one.

The largest county by size is (1,179 sq. miles),  second (1,004 sq. miles), and with  being the smallest (266 sq. miles). The independent city of St. Louis City is smaller yet, at only 62 sq. miles.

The largest county by population (2000 ) is (1,016,315 residents),  second (654,880 residents), and with Worth County being the least populous (2,382 residents).

Important cities and towns
The seven largest cities in Missouri are, , , , ,  and.

is the largest metropolitan area in Missouri and is the principal city of the sixteen-county and includes eight counties in the state of. As of 2004, it was the 18th largest metro in the nation. Some of the major cities comprising the St. Louis Metro in Missouri include, , , , , , , , , and.

is the principal city of the fifteen-county and includes six counties in the state of. Kansas City is Missouri's largest city. As of 2004, it was the 27th largest metro in the nation. Some of the other major cities comprising the Kansas City Metro in Missouri include, , , , , and.

Missouri State Board of Education
The has general authority over all public education in the state of Missouri. It is made up of eight citizens appointed by the governor and confirmed by the Missouri Senate.



Primary and secondary schools
Education is compulsory from ages seven to sixteen in Missouri, commonly but not exclusively divided into three tiers of and :,  or  and. The public schools system includes kindergarten to 12th grade. District territories are often complex in structure. In some cases, elementary, middle and junior high schools of a single district feed into high schools in another district. High school athletics and competitions are governed by the or MSHAA.

Colleges and universities
The is Missouri's statewide public university system,  the flagship institution and largest university in the state is the  campus in. The others in the system are, and  (which will become Missouri University of Science and Technology on , ). Notable private institutions include and.

In 1905 the state established a series of s to teach "teaching norms" at colleges in each region of the state. The initial network consisted of in,  (formerly Southwest Missouri State University) in ,  (formerly Northeast Missouri State University) in ,  in , and  (formerly Central Missouri State University) in. There are numerous junior colleges, trade schools, church universities and private universities.

The state also funds a $2000, renewable merit-based scholarship,, given to the top 3 percent of Missouri High School graduates who attend a university in-state.

Sports

 * and
 * and
 * and
 * and
 * , and
 * and
 * , and

Minor leagues

 * Baseball:
 * (Class AA, )
 * (Independent, )
 * (Independent, Frontier League)
 * Farmington Firebirds (Independent, KITTY League)
 * St. Joseph Blacksnakes (Independent, )

Former Professional Sports Teams

 * (moved from in ; moved to  in  and are now the )
 * (active in only)
 * (Blues/Cowboys) (active -, folded)
 * (independent team, joined the NFL for the last three weeks of the season and folded thereafter)
 * (moved from in ; moved to  after the  season and are now the )
 * (moved from in ; moved to  after the  season and are now the
 * (charter franchise in, joined the NBA when it formed in ; ceased operations in )
 * (moved from in ; moved to  in  and are now the )
 * (moved to in  and are now the )
 * ( expansion team, moved to in  and became the, and would move again to ; now called the )
 * ( relocation of the, folded after the - season)
 * (moved to in  and are now the )
 * ( expansion team, moved to in  and became the, and would move again to ; now called the )
 * ( relocation of the, folded after the - season)
 * ( relocation of the, folded after the - season)

Miscellaneous topics

 * The, a , was named in honor of the state.
 * The phrase "I'm from Missouri" means I'm skeptical of the matter and not easily convinced. This is related to the state's motto of "Show Me," whose origin is popularly ascribed to an 1899 speech by Congressman, who declared that "I come from a country that raises corn and cotton, cockleburs and Democrats, and frothy eloquence neither convinces nor satisfies me. I'm from Missouri, and you have got to show me." However, according to researchers, the phrase was in circulation earlier in the 1890's. According to another story, the phrase was originally a reference to Missouri laborers being brought to Colorado to quell a miner's strike and requiring frequent instruction.
 * Missouri is known as "The Cave State." In fact, Perry County is believed to have 650, more than any other county in the state.