Missouri

Missouri, named after the Missouri Siouan Indian tribe meaning "canoe", is a U.S. state in the United States with Jefferson City as its capital. It is a Midwestern state, with some Northern, Eastern, and Southern cultural influences. The state's nickname is the Show-Me State; the U.S. Post Office abbreviation for Missouri is MO and the state public university's main campus is located in Columbia. The Mississippi and Missouri rivers are the two large rivers which flow through this state.

Geography

Missouri's border physically touches a total of eight different states (more than any other state in the Union). It is bounded on the north by Iowa; on the east, across the Mississippi River, by Illinois, Kentucky, and Tennessee; on the south by Arkansas; and on the west by Oklahoma, Kansas, and Nebraska (the latter two across the Missouri River.)

Related Topics:
Iowa - Illinois - Kentucky - Tennessee - Arkansas - Oklahoma - Kansas - Nebraska

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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.

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The Ozark plateau begins south of the river and extends into Arkansas, S. E. Kansas, and N. E. Oklahoma. Springfield, Missouri in southwestern Missouri lies on the Ozark plateau. Southern Missouri is the home of the Ozark Mountains, a dissected plateau surrounding the Precambrian igneous St. Francois Mountains.

Related Topics:
Ozark - Springfield, Missouri - Dissected plateau - Precambrian - Igneous - St. Francois Mountains

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The southeastern part of the state is home to the Bootheel, part of the Mississippi Alluvial Plain or Mississippi embayment. This region is the lowest, flattest and wettest part of the state. It is also the most fertile. It is here that one finds cotton and rice production. The Bootheel area was the focus of the great New Madrid Earthquake of 1811–1812.

Related Topics:
Bootheel - Mississippi embayment - New Madrid Earthquake

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Although now generally considered part of the Midwest, Missouri was once thought of as Southern.

Related Topics:
Midwest - South

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For example, Mark Twain, who grew up in Hannibal, Missouri, in Life on the Mississippi described his upbringing as in "the South." Still, while larger cities, especially those in the northern part of the state (i.e. St. Louis, Columbia, Kansas City) consider themselves "Midwestern", rural areas and cities further south (i.e. Cape Girardeau and Springfield) consider themselves more "Southern".

Related Topics:
Mark Twain - Hannibal, Missouri - Life on the Mississippi

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Additional topics

• Climate of Missouri
• Missouri National and State Parks
• List of Missouri counties