AGENCY 027 - WEBCAM CHAT MISSOURI
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Missouri (pronounced /m?'z?ri/ or /m?'z?r?/) is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States[3] bordered by Iowa, Illinois, Kentucky, Tennessee, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Kansas and Nebraska. Missouri is the 18th most populous state. It comprises 114 counties and one independent city. Missouri's capital is Jefferson City. The four largest urban areas are, in descending order, St. Louis, Kansas City, Springfield, and Columbia.[4] Missouri was originally purchased from France as part of the Louisiana Purchase and part of the Missouri Territory was admitted into the union as the 24th state in 1821. Missouri mirrors the demographic, economic and political makeup of the nation as a mixture of urban and rural culture. It has long been considered a political bellwether state.[5] It is a state with both Midwestern and Southern cultural influences, reflecting its history as a border state. 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 highly varied. The northern part of the state lies in dissected till plains while the southern part lies in the Ozark Mountains, with the Missouri River dividing the two. The confluence of the Mississippi and Missouri rivers is located near St. Louis.[6] Contents [hide]
The 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, there are simply patterns of variation, diachronic as well as synchronic, according to such divisions as geography, age, education, and/or rural vs. urban location.
Although today the state is usually considered part of the Midwest,[9][10] historically Missouri was sometimes considered a Southern state,[11], chiefly because of the settlement of migrants from the South and its status as a slave state before the Civil War. The counties that made up "Little Dixie" were those along the Missouri River in the center of the state, settled by Southern migrants who held the greatest concentration of slaves. Residents of cities farther north and the state's large metropolitan areas, including those where most of the state's population resides (Kansas City, St. Louis, Columbia), typically consider themselves Midwestern. In rural areas and cities farther south, such as (Cape Girardeau, Poplar Bluff, Springfield, and Sikeston), people typically consider themselves more Southern.
The southeastern part of the state is home to the Bootheel, part of the Mississippi Alluvial Plain or Mississippi embayment. 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, as the economy is mostly agricultural.[12] It is also the most fertile. Cotton and rice production are prominent in this area. The Bootheel area was the epicenter of the New Madrid Earthquake of 1811–1812.
Monthly Normal High and Low Temperatures For Various Missouri Cities
See also: List of Missouri state parks [edit] History Originally the state's western border was a straight line, defined as the meridian passing through the Kawsmouth,[14] the point where the Kansas River enters the Missouri River. The river has moved since this designation. This line is known as the Osage Boundary.[15] In 1835 the Platte Purchase 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.[16] As many of the early settlers in western Missouri migrated from southern states, they brought along enslaved African Americans and a desire to continue the institution of slavery. In the early 1830s, Mormon migrants from northern states and Canada began settling near Independence and areas just north of there. Conflicts over slavery and religion arose between the 'old settlers' (mainly from the south) and the Mormons (mainly from the north and Canada). The 'Mormon War' erupted. By 1839 settlers expelled the Mormons from Missouri. Conflicts over slavery exacerbated border tensions among the states and territories. In 1838-1839 a border dispute with Iowa over the so-called Honey Lands resulted in both states calling up militias along the border. After many incidents with Kansans crossing the Western border for attacks (including setting a fire in the historic Westport area of Kansas City), a border war erupted between Missouri and Kansas. From the 1830s to the 1860s, Missouri's population almost doubled with every decade. Most of the newcomers were Americans, but many Irish and German immigrants arrived in the late 1840s and 1850s. Having fled famine, oppression and revolutionary upheaval, they were not sympathetic to slavery. Most Missouri farmers practiced subsistence farming. The majority of those who held slaves had fewer than 5 each. Planters, defined by historians as those holding 20 or more slaves, were concentrated in the counties known as "Little Dixie", in the central part of the state along the Missouri River. The tensions over slavery had to do with the future of the state and nation. In 1860 enslaved African Americans made up less than 10% of the state's population of 1,182,012. After the secession of Southern states began, the Missouri legislature called for the election of a special convention on secession. The convention voted decisively to remain within the Union. Pro-Southern Governor Claiborne F. Jackson ordered the mobilization of several hundred members of the state militia who had gathered in a camp in St. Louis for training. Alarmed at this action, Union General Nathaniel Lyon struck first, encircling the peaceful camp and forcing the state troops to surrender. Lyon then directed his soldiers, largely non-English-speaking German immigrants, to march the prisoners through the streets, and opened fire on the largely hostile crowds of civilians who gathered around them. Soldiers killed unarmed prisoners as well as men, women and children of St. Louis in the incident that became known as the "St. Louis Massacre." These events heightened Confederate support within the state. Governor Jackson appointed Sterling Price, president of the convention on secession, as head of the new Missouri State Guard. In the face of General Lyon's rapid advance in the state, Jackson and Price were forced to flee the capital of Jefferson City on June 14, 1861. In the town of Neosho, Missouri, Jackson called the state legislature into session. They enacted a secession ordinance, recognized by the Confederacy on October 30, 1861. With the elected governor absent from his capital and the legislators largely dispersed, Union forces installed an unelected pro-Union provisional government with Hamilton Gamble as provisional governor. President Lincoln's Administration immediately recognized Gamble's government as the legal government. This decision 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 Arkansas and Texas under General Ben McCulloch. After winning victories at the battle of Wilson's Creek and the siege of Lexington, Missouri and suffering losses elsewhere, the Confederate forces had little choice but to retreat to Arkansas and later Marshall, Texas, in the face of a largely reinforced Union Army. Though regular Confederate troops staged some large-scale raids into Missouri, the fighting in the state for the next three years consisted chiefly of guerrilla warfare. "Citizen soldiers" such as Colonel William Quantrill, Frank and Jesse James, the Younger brothers, and William T. Anderson made use of quick, small unit tactics. Pioneered by the Missouri Partisan Rangers, such insurgencies also arose in other portions of the Confederacy occupied during the Civil War. Recently historians have assessed the James brothers' outlaw years as continuing guerrilla warfare after the official war was over.
The U.S. Census of 2000 found that the population center of the United States is in Phelps County, Missouri. The center of population of Missouri itself is located in Osage County, in the city of Westphalia [3]. As of 2004, the population included 194,000 foreign-born (3.4 percent of the state population). Demographics of Missouri (csv) The five largest ancestry groups in Missouri are: German (23.5 percent), Irish (12.7 percent), American (10.5 percent), English (9.5 percent), French (3.5 percent). "American" includes those reported as Native American or African American. 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. A relatively small number of recent Bosniak immigrants lives mostly 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.
The religious affiliations of the people of Missouri according to the 2001 American Religious Identification Survey: Christian – 77%
The agriculture products of the state are beef, soybeans, pork, dairy products, hay, corn, poultry, sorghum, and eggs. Missouri is ranked 6th in the nation for the production of hogs and 7th for cattle. Missouri is ranked in the top five 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 Texas. Missouri actively promotes its rapidly growing wine industry. Missouri has vast quantities of limestone. Other resources mined are lead, coal, Portland cement, and crushed stone. Missouri produces the most lead of all of the states. Most of the lead mines are in the central eastern portion of the state. Missouri also ranks first or near first in the production of lime. Tourism, services and wholesale/retail trade follow manufacturing in importance. Personal income is taxed in 10 different earning brackets, ranging from 1.5 percent to 6.0 percent. Missouri's sales tax rate for most items is 4.225 percent. Additional local levies may apply. More than 2,500 Missouri local governments rely on property taxes levied on real property (real estate) and personal property. Most personal property is exempt, except for motorized vehicles. 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 inheritance tax and limited Missouri estate tax related to federal estate tax collection. Missouri is the only state in the Union to have two Federal Reserve Banks: one in Kansas City (serving western Missouri, Kansas, Nebraska, Oklahoma, Colorado, northern New Mexico, and Wyoming) and St. Louis (serving eastern Missouri, southern Illinois, southern Indiana, western Kentucky, western Tennessee, northern Mississippi, and all of Arkansas).[citation needed]
[edit] Air
Springfield remains an operational hub for BNSF Railway.
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.
[edit] United States highways See also: List of Missouri state highways and Missouri Supplemental Route [edit] Law and government [edit] Framework 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 supreme court 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.
Missouri was long a state that voted for the Democratic party. Its most prominent Democratic statesman was U.S. President Harry S. Truman. Since the late 1970s, the state has trended to Republican candidates, yet neither party is dominant. Democrats are generally strongest in the inner cities of Kansas City, St. Louis and Columbia, home of the University of Missouri–Columbia. 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 (childhood home of Rush Limbaugh). Many of the rural areas have recently been favoring Republican candidates. Missouri is a bellwether on hot-button issues such as same-sex marriage and embryonic stem cell research. In 2004, Missouri voters overwhelmingly (71%) passed an amendment to the Constitution of Missouri defining marriage as being the union of one man and one woman. More than 20 states have followed Missouri's lead and effected the same amendments. In 2006, a ballot initiative labeled "Amendment 2" regarding embryonic stem cell research drew widespread attention. This issue was a factor in the 2006 U.S. Senate race between Republican incumbent Jim Talent, who opposed embryonic stem cell research, and Democratic challenger Claire McCaskill, who supported it. The measure narrowly passed by 51%-49%. Claire McCaskill also narrowly defeated Jim Talent for that Senate seat, a race which was considered crucial as to which political party would control the U.S. Senate.
Missouri always has had among the most permissive alcohol laws in the United States. It never enacted statewide prohibition. Missouri voters rejected prohibition in three separate referenda in 1910, 1912, and 1918. Alcohol regulation did not begin in Missouri until 1934. Today, alcohol laws are controlled by the state government, and local jurisdictions are prohibited from going beyond those state laws. Missouri has no statewide open container law or prohibition on drinking in public, no alcohol-related blue laws, no local option, no precise locations for selling liquor by the package (thereby allowing even drug stores and gas stations to sell any kind of liquor), no differentiation of laws based on alcohol percentage, no prohibition on consumption by minors (as opposed to possession), and no prohibition on absinthe. State law protects persons from arrest or criminal penalty for public intoxication and also expressly prohibits any jurisdiction from going dry. Missouri law also expressly allows parents and guardians to serve alcohol to their children. Along with the French Quarter in New Orleans, Louisiana, the Power & Light District 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: List of smoking bans in Missouri Additionally, in Missouri, it is "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.[25]
The largest county by size is Texas County (1,179 sq. miles) and Shannon County is second (1,004 sq. miles). Worth County is the smallest (266 sq. miles). The independent city of St. Louis City has only 62 square miles of area. The largest county by population (2000 U.S. Census) is St. Louis County (1,016,315 residents), with Jackson County the second (654,880 residents). Worth County is the least populous, with 2,382 residents.
St. Louis is the largest metropolitan area in Missouri and is the principal city of the sixteen-county St. Louis Metropolitan Statistical Area and includes eight counties in the state of Illinois. As of 2004, it was the 18th largest metro in the nation. Some of the major cities making up the St. Louis Metro area in Missouri include St. Charles, St. Peters, Florissant, Chesterfield, Creve Coeur, Maryland Heights, O'Fallon, Clayton, Ballwin, and University City. Kansas City is the principal city of the fifteen-county Kansas City Metropolitan Statistical Area and includes six counties in the state of Kansas. 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 Independence, Lee's Summit, Blue Springs, Raytown, Liberty, and Gladstone.
[edit] Missouri State Board of Education
Notable highly rated[26] private institutions include Saint Louis University and Washington University in St. Louis. Lincoln University in Jefferson City is one of a number of historically black colleges and universities. Founded in 1866, it was created by members of the 62nd and 65th United States Colored Infantry as "Lincoln Institute", to provide education to freedmen. It was created on a model of combining academics and labor. In 1921, the state officially recognized the growth of Lincoln's undergraduate and graduate programs by classifying it as a university. The institution changed its name to "Lincoln University of Missouri." In 1954, the university began to accept applicants of all races. To develop new teachers for needed public schools, in 1905 the state established a series of normal schools at colleges in each region of the state. This was based on the widely admired German model of public education. Normal schools were for the training of teachers of students in primary/elementary schools. The initial network consisted of Southeast Missouri State University in Cape Girardeau, Missouri State University (formerly Southwest Missouri State University) in Springfield, Truman State University (formerly Northeast Missouri State University) in Kirksville, Northwest Missouri State University in Maryville, and University of Central Missouri (formerly Central Missouri State University) in Warrensburg. Within several years, the normal school curriculum expanded to a full four years of academic subjects. There are numerous junior colleges, trade schools, church universities and private universities in the state. The state also funds a $2000, renewable merit-based scholarship, Bright Flight, given to the top 3 percent of Missouri High School graduates who attend a university in-state. The 19th c. border wars between Missouri and Kansas have continued as a sports rivalry between the University of Missouri - Columbia and University of Kansas. The rivalry is chiefly expressed through football games between the two colleges. It is the oldest college rivalry west of the Mississippi River 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.
[edit] Minor leagues [edit] Former professional sports teams [edit] Miscellaneous topics
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