Portal:Missouri

The Missouri Portal

Missouri (see pronunciation) is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. Ranking 21st in land area, it borders Iowa to the north, Illinois, Kentucky and Tennessee to the east, Arkansas to the south and Oklahoma, Kansas, and Nebraska to the west. In the south are the Ozarks, a forested highland, providing timber, minerals, and recreation. At 1.5 billion years old, the St. Francois Mountains are among the oldest in the world. The Missouri River, after which the state is named, flows through the center and into the Mississippi River, which makes up the eastern border. With over six million residents, it is the 19th-most populous state of the country. The largest urban areas are St. Louis, Kansas City, Springfield, and Columbia. The capital is Jefferson City.

Humans have inhabited present-day Missouri for at least 12,000 years. The Mississippian culture, which emerged in the ninth century, built cities with pyramidal and other ceremonial mounds before declining in the 14th century. The Indigenous Osage and Missouria nations inhabited the area when European people arrived in the 17th century. The French incorporated the territory into Louisiana, founding Ste. Genevieve in 1735 and St. Louis in 1764. After a brief period of Spanish rule, the United States acquired Missouri as part of the Louisiana Purchase in 1803. Americans from the Upland South rushed into the new Missouri Territory, taking advantage of its productive agricultural plains; Missouri played a central role in the westward expansion of the United States. Missouri was admitted as a slave state as part of the Missouri Compromise of 1820. As a border state, Missouri's role in the American Civil War was complex, and it was subject to rival governments, raids, and guerilla warfare. After the war, both Greater St. Louis and the Kansas City metropolitan area became large centers of industrialization and business.

Today the state is divided into 114 counties and the independent city of St. Louis. Missouri has been called the "Gateway to the West", the "Mother of the West", the "Cave State", and the "Show Me State". Its culture blends elements of the Midwestern and Southern United States. It is the birthplace of the musical genres ragtime, Kansas City jazz and St. Louis blues. The well-known Kansas City-style barbecue, and the lesser-known St. Louis-style barbecue, can be found across the state and beyond. (Full article...)

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Tiny Town, in Springfield, Missouri, was the first city built in miniature and had over a thousand structures. A smaller village version was completed in 1919, while the larger full version was completed in 1925. It was motivated primarily by a local homebuilding promotion. The project involved 10,000 students from the eighteen public schools in Springfield. The superintendent of the school system was a key instigator of the project and used it as a teaching aid to instruct students in government, home-ownership and citizenship. (Full article...)

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Official portrait, 2001

John David Ashcroft (born May 9, 1942) is an American lawyer, lobbyist, and former politician who served as the 79th United States attorney general under President George W. Bush from 2001 to 2005. A Republican from Missouri, Ashcroft represented the state in the United States Senate from 1995 to 2001, and held statewide office as the 29th auditor (1973–1975), 38th attorney general (1976–1985), and 50th governor of Missouri (1985–1993). He later founded The Ashcroft Group, a Washington D.C. lobbying firm.

Ashcroft graduated from Hillcrest High School in 1960 before receiving a Bachelor of Arts from Yale College and a J.D. from the University of Chicago Law School. After unsuccessfully running for the U.S. House of Representatives, he was elected Missouri State Auditor in 1974. He then served two consecutive terms as Missouri Attorney General and as Missouri Governor (a historical first for a Republican candidate in the state). He is the only Republican to serve two full consecutive terms as governor to date. He also served one term as a U.S. Senator from Missouri until losing a race for a second term in 2000. Ashcroft had early appointments in Missouri state government and was mentored by John Danforth. He has written several books about politics and ethics. (Full article...)

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The following are images from various Missouri-related articles on Wikipedia.

Image 1The population center for the United States has been in Missouri since 1980. As of 2020, it is near Interstate 44 in Missouri as it approaches Springfield. (from Missouri)
Image 2St. Louis-based Anheuser-Busch pioneered the use of refrigerator cars to market beer nationally. (from History of Missouri)
Image 32024 United States presidential election results by county
Democratic
Republican
(from Missouri)
Image 4A physiographic map of Missouri (from Missouri)
Image 5The Gateway Arch in St. Louis (from Missouri)
Image 6Child shoe workers in Kirksville, Missouri, 1910 (from Missouri)
Image 7Köppen climate types of Missouri (from Missouri)
Image 8Ethnic origins in Missouri (from Missouri)
Image 9World War I General John J. Pershing was raised in Laclede, Missouri. (from Missouri)
Image 10The George Washington Carver National Monument near Diamond, Missouri was the first U.S. National Monument dedicated to a non-President and the first for an African-American. (from History of Missouri)
Image 11African American boy in a sharecropper shack, New Madrid County, 1938 (from Missouri)
Image 12Missouri State quarter featuring the Lewis and Clark Expedition (from Missouri)
Image 13Missouri State quarter featuring the Lewis and Clark Expedition (from Missouri)
Image 14Most Missourians traveled longer distances by water, and large cargo was transported by bateaux (shown above). (from History of Missouri)
Image 15The historic Gem Theatre, located in Kansas City's renowned 18th and Vine Jazz District (from Missouri)
Image 16Mark Twain's boyhood home in Hannibal (from Missouri)
Image 17Union Station in St. Louis was the world's largest and busiest train station when it opened in 1894. (from Missouri)
Image 18Christopher Bond became the youngest person elected Governor of Missouri in 1972 and was part of the rise of the Republican Party in the state. (from History of Missouri)
Image 19Map of counties in Missouri by racial plurality, per the 2020 U.S. census
Legend
- Non-Hispanic White
    50–60%
  
    60–70%
  
    70–80%
  
    80–90%
  
    90%+
  
  Black or African American
    40–50%
(from Missouri)
Image 20The states and territories of the United States as a result of Missouri's admission as a state on August 10, 1821. The remainder of the former Missouri Territory became unorganized territory. (from Missouri)
Image 21Fur Traders Descending the Missouri by Missouri painter George Caleb Bingham (from Missouri)
Image 22The Shelley House in St. Louis was the focus of a 1948 U.S. Supreme Court case that prohibited restrictive covenants in housing. (from History of Missouri)
Image 23The population center for the United States has been in Missouri since 1980. As of 2020, it is near Interstate 44 in Missouri as it approaches Springfield. (from Missouri)
Image 24Price's Raid in the Trans-Mississippi Theater, 1864 (from Missouri)
Image 25World War I General John J. Pershing was raised in Laclede, Missouri. (from Missouri)
Image 26Missouri population density map (from Missouri)
Image 27Missouri is the only state to have two main Federal Reserve Banks (Kansas City bank pictured). (from Missouri)
Image 28Map of early Missouri settlements and trading posts (from History of Missouri)
Image 29The historic Gem Theatre, located in Kansas City's renowned 18th and Vine Jazz District (from Missouri)
Image 30The Bell Mountain Wilderness of southern Missouri's Mark Twain National Forest (from Missouri)
Image 31Missouri population density map (from Missouri)
Image 32Mel Carnahan served as Governor of Missouri from 1993 until his death in a plane crash in 2000. (from History of Missouri)
Image 33Union Station in St. Louis was the world's largest and busiest train station when it opened in 1894. (from Missouri)
Image 34Map of counties in Missouri by racial plurality, per the 2020 U.S. census
Legend
- Non-Hispanic White
    50–60%
  
    60–70%
  
    70–80%
  
    80–90%
  
    90%+
  
  Black or African American
    40–50%
(from Missouri)
Image 35Mark Twain's boyhood home in Hannibal (from Missouri)
Image 36The states and territories of the United States as a result of Missouri's admission as a state on August 10, 1821. The remainder of the former Missouri Territory became unorganized territory. (from Missouri)
Image 37The Bell Mountain Wilderness of southern Missouri's Mark Twain National Forest (from Missouri)
Image 38Child shoe workers in Kirksville, Missouri, 1910 (from Missouri)
Image 39Köppen climate types of Missouri (from Missouri)
Image 40A physiographic map of Missouri (from Missouri)
Image 41Fur Traders Descending the Missouri by Missouri painter George Caleb Bingham (from Missouri)
Image 42Areas of Spanish Louisiana around 1803 overlayed over the current American states that it encompassed. (from Missouri)
Image 43Price's Raid in the Western Theater, 1864 (from History of Missouri)
Image 44The Gateway Arch in St. Louis (from Missouri)
Image 45Ethnic origins in Missouri (from Missouri)
Image 46The Mississippi River at Hannibal (from Missouri)
Image 47Meramec Caverns (from Missouri)
Image 48Meramec Caverns (from Missouri)
Image 49Missouri is the only state to have two main Federal Reserve Banks (Kansas City bank pictured). (from Missouri)
Image 50The Mississippi River at Hannibal (from Missouri)
Image 51A Rural Electrification Administration lineman at work in Hayti, Missouri in 1942. (from History of Missouri)
Image 52Price's Raid in the Trans-Mississippi Theater, 1864 (from Missouri)
Image 53American pioneers such as Daniel Boone with his sons Daniel Morgan Boone, Nathan Boone, and other family members, came to Spanish-controlled Missouri during the 1790s. (from History of Missouri)
Image 54Forrest Smith, elected Governor of Missouri in 1948, was the first governor chosen under the 1945 state Constitution. (from History of Missouri)
Image 55African American boy in a sharecropper shack, New Madrid County, 1938 (from Missouri)
Image 562024 United States presidential election results by county
Democratic
Republican
(from Missouri)
Image 57Areas of Spanish Louisiana around 1803 overlayed over the current American states that it encompassed. (from Missouri)

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... that a Missouri TV station was twice denied in its efforts to move its transmitter tower to Kansas to increase its coverage area?
... that during the August 2023 Mid-South U.S. floods, 3.77 inches (96 mm) of rain fell in Columbia, Missouri, breaking a 113-year rainfall record?
... that a Missouri TV station blew up its call letters – literally?
... that despite Missourians voting for Henry Clay, Missouri representative John Scott voted for John Quincy Adams?
... that supporters of a 2020 ballot initiative to expand Medicaid in Missouri did not use the words "Medicaid expansion" to describe their proposal in some campaign material?
... that Missouri's annual Snake Saturday parade originally began in a hotel parking lot with only four floats?

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2002 Jackson County Executive election (edit | talk | history | links | watch | logs | tools) by PA Uploader (talk · contribs · new pages (145)) started on 2025-08-07, score: 30
1998 Jackson County Executive election (edit | talk | history | links | watch | logs | tools) by PA Uploader (talk · contribs · new pages (145)) started on 2025-08-07, score: 30

Trey Vaval (edit | talk | history | links | watch | logs | tools) by KerbHopper (talk · contribs · new pages (26)) started on 2025-08-04, score: 40

Stange Law Firm (edit | talk | history | links | watch | logs | tools) by Pur 0 0 (talk · contribs · new pages (3)) started on 2025-08-05, score: 38
Hyperaspis pratensis (edit | talk | history | links | watch | logs | tools) by B33tleMania12 (talk · contribs · new pages (924)) started on 2025-08-05, score: 20
Joe S. Price (edit | talk | history | links | watch | logs | tools) by Globg (talk · contribs · new pages (21)) started on 2025-08-05, score: 20
Sav Rodgers (edit | talk | history | links | watch | logs | tools) by Eric Shalov (talk · contribs · new pages (1)) started on 2025-08-04, score: 40
Chris McClellan (American football) (edit | talk | history | links | watch | logs | tools) by Butters.From.SouthPark (talk · contribs · new pages (42)) started on 2025-08-02, score: 34

2024 Missouri Amendment 7 (edit | talk | history | links | watch | logs | tools) by Folkezoft (talk · contribs · new pages (38)) started on 2025-08-04, score: 40
Gabi Jacobs (edit | talk | history | links | watch | logs | tools) by Hildreth gazzard (talk · contribs · new pages (149)) started on 2025-08-03, score: 28

W. W. Stone (edit | talk | history | links | watch | logs | tools) by Globg (talk · contribs · new pages (21)) started on 2025-08-03, score: 20
Peter Fuss (edit | talk | history | links | watch | logs | tools) by Xpander1 (talk · contribs · new pages (26)) started on 2025-07-31, score: 38

Jerry M. Hughes Athletics Center (edit | talk | history | links | watch | logs | tools) by JonRidinger (talk · contribs · new pages (1)) started on 2025-08-01, score: 60
List of St. Louis Soccer League seasons (edit | talk | history | links | watch | logs | tools) by SportingFlyer (talk · contribs · new pages (1)) started on 2025-08-01, score: 20
Claudia Ann Scott (edit | talk | history | links | watch | logs | tools) by SarahDezelin (talk · contribs · new pages (0)) started on 2025-07-22, score: 20

Tornado outbreak of May 7–9, 1927 (edit | talk | history | links | watch | logs | tools) by EF5 (talk · contribs · new pages (19)) started on 2025-08-01, score: 35

Thomas E. Austin (edit | talk | history | links | watch | logs | tools) by Saikmat (talk · contribs · new pages (1)) started on 2025-07-31, score: 20
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Stacy (surname) (edit | talk | history | links | watch | logs | tools) by Charles Matthews (talk · contribs · new pages (68)) started on 2025-07-28, score: 20

Philip Detro (edit | talk | history | links | watch | logs | tools) by PequodOnStationAtLZ (talk · contribs · new pages (3)) started on 2025-07-28, score: 36
Tom Novak (American football) (edit | talk | history | links | watch | logs | tools) by HuskerPower (talk · contribs · new pages (6)) started on 2025-07-28, score: 26

John M. Evans (Montana politician) (edit | talk | history | links | watch | logs | tools) by Tassedethe (talk · contribs · new pages (583)) started on 2025-07-26, score: 36

Esrom (disambiguation) (edit | talk | history | links | watch | logs | tools) by Shhhnotsoloud (talk · contribs · new pages (11)) started on 2025-07-26, score: 20

Baker Park (edit | talk | history | links | watch | logs | tools) by Taivorist (talk · contribs · new pages (47)) started on 2025-07-24, score: 20

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