Missouri State

During my discovering the Lewis & Clark expedition on May 1084, I found out, that that journey went through the Missouri state. So, I would like to tell you some facts about this state.

What is the Origin of name "Missouri"?

Missouri gets its name from a tribe of Sioux Indians of the state called the Missouris. The word "Missouri" often has been construed to mean "muddy water" but the Smithsonian Institution Bureau of American Ethnology has stated it means "town of the large canoes," and authorities have said the Indian syllables from which the word comes mean "wooden canoe people" or "he of the big canoe."

General Facts from history:

Part of the 1803 Louisiana Purchase by the United States, Missouri earned the nickname "Gateway to the West" because it served as a major departure point for expeditions and settlers heading to the West in the 19th century. St. Charles, just west of St. Louis, was the starting point and the return destination of the Lewis and Clark Expedition, which departed up the Missouri River in 1804 to explore the western territories to the Pacific Ocean. St. Louis was a major supply point for decades for parties of settlers heading west.

Most Missouri farmers practiced subsistence farming before the Civil War. The majority of those who held slaves had fewer than five each. Planters, defined by historians as those holding twenty slaves or more, 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 chiefly 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. In order to control the flooding of farmland and low-lying villages along the Mississippi, the state had completed construction of 140 miles (230 km) of levees along the river by 1860.

Major information about Missouri:

State Abbreviation - MO
State Capital - Jefferson City
Largest City - Kansas City
Area - 69,709 square miles [Missouri is the 21st biggest state in the USA]
Population - 5,595,211
Major Rivers - Mississippi River, Missouri River, Osage River
State Nickname - The Show Me State
State Motto - "Salus populi suprema lex esto " - The welfare of the people shall be the supreme law
State Song - Missouri Waltz


Moreover, I would like to tell you about one of the Missouri cities.But not about the Kanzas, which is the largest, but about the St.Louis. So, St. Louis was transferred back to France in 1800, then sold to the United States in 1803 as part of the Louisiana Purchase, and the city became the territorial capital. Shortly after the purchase, the Lewis and Clark Expedition left St. Louis in May 1804, reaching the Pacific Ocean in summer 1805, and returning on September 23, 1806. Both Lewis and Clark lived in St. Louis after the expedition. 

With its French past and numerous Catholic immigrants in the 19th and 20th centuries, St. Louis is a major center of Roman Catholicism in the United States. St. Louis also boasts the largest Ethical Culture Society in the United States. Several places of worship in the city also are noteworthy, such as the Cathedral Basilica of St. Louis, home of the world's largest mosaic installation.

Other locally notable churches include the Basilica of St. Louis, King of France, the oldest Roman Catholic cathedral west of the Mississippi River and the oldest church in St. Louis, the St. Louis Abbey, whose distinctive architectural style garnered multiple awards at the time of its completion in 1962, and St. Francis de Sales Oratory, a neo-Gothic church completed in 1908 and the second largest church in the city.
Many cultural attractions are located in the Greater St. Louis area, such as the Gateway Arch and the Delmar Loop. The city is also defined by music and the performing arts, especially its association with blues, jazz, and ragtime. St. Louis is home to the St. Louis Symphony, the second-oldest symphony orchestra in the United States, and until 2010, it was also home to KFUO-FM, one of the oldest classical music FM radio stations west of the Mississippi River.
Unique city and regional cuisine includes toasted ravioli, gooey butter cake, Provel cheese, the slinger, the Gerber sandwich, the St. Paul sandwich, and St. Louis style pizza.


                                              Map of USA, (Missouri is the red state)

                                                                  Map of Missouri

                                                           St.Louis' Gateway to the West
Here are some links about Missouri:
http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0108234.html
http://www.50states.com/missouri.htm

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