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Missouriana

Geography Missouri is located in the central mid-western United States, where the northern foothills of the Osage Mountains meet the high plains of the northwestern prairies. The ancient Ozarks rise up from the Arkansas border towards the muddy Missouri, sudden hills covered in oak and cedar and deep, dark, whippoorwill-haunted hollows.  Travelling northward, the plains open around you.  Now we are in the midst of gently undulating fields where weathered grey barns stand sentinel.  Far to the southeast, the bootheel lies in swamp land, perched precariously on the New Madid fault while everyone prays that the Big One will not come after all. Every valley and hollow has its stream or river and the state is defined by the two biggest rivers of all, the muddy Missouri and the mighty Mississippi.  The Mississippi runs down the state's eastern border.  The Missouri comes down the western border to Kansas City, then crosses the state to St. Louis where it overtakes the Mississippi in a headlong rush to the sea. I live in the lakes region, a few miles from Truman Lake.  The lakes in southwest central Missouri are mostly the result of dambuilding.  The Lake of the Ozarks was created by the construction of Bagnell Dam between 1929 and 1931.  The shoreline of Lake of the Ozarks is longer than the California Pacific coast. Truman Lake was created by the construction of the Harry S Truman Dam, which began in 1964, under the name "Kaysinger Bluff Dam" and continued throughout the seventies.  Truman Lake is the largest flood control lake in Missouri and, like Lake of the Ozarks, has a longer shoreline than California. It is nationally recognized for its crappie fishing and every spring we see hordes of fishermen turning up for organized tournaments.

This is a great site for pictures and stories about Bagnall Dam and Lake of the Ozarks area history.  Be sure to read "Jaws: The Freshwater Version"!  Yikes! This is Truman Lake just above the dam.  The dam is visible to the right and the visitors' center is straight across the lake.     This is a dirt road I sometimes drive to get to Clinton.  When the lake is high, the water rises.  In this picture, it's right over the bridge!

Nature OMIGOD!  Last week I saw a PELICAN!  In Missouri!  On MY road!  I didn't actually believe that was what I had really seen, but I told my co-workers about it and one of them told me that pelicans have, in fact, been seen in the area and that there was an article in the paper about it a couple of years ago. As you might guess from my reaction, pelicans are not native to Missouri.  Neither are the armadillos which have been moving up from the south for the past several years.  Last summer I was excited to see an actual living armadillo!  I was like, "woah!  They're NOT born as roadkill!"  Sad to say, but that's almost always how we see them around here. We do have some strange native creatures, or critters if you will.  The much-maligned possum (or opossum, if you prefer) is a lovely animal.  Several years ago my mother found a dead female who had eleven living young in her pouch and she and I tried our best to raise them, but sadly they all died.  (Lewis and Clark had the same luck with a young possum they tried to keep.)  They were charming creatures, though ugly as sin.  They have opposing thumbs on both hands and feet as well as prehensile tails and will hold a bottle with all four extremities or swing from your fingers like little monkeys. Another odd creature that you find in Missouri is the spoonbill (or paddlefish), a fish you almost have to see to believe.  Imagine a swordfish, only instead of a sword it's got a long, flat, spoonlike snout.  There is a set spoonbill season in the spring and you can get t-shirts that have the outline of a spoonbill and the boast, "I GOT MINE".  I've never fished for spoonbill, being a vegetarian and animal lover, but I understand they make a challenging adversary.  The largest spoonbill caught in the Lake of the Ozarks was reported to be about 135 pounds.

My new best friend is the U.S. Department of Fish and Wildlife.  They maintain a wonderful image library of nature photos, all in the public domain.  These pictures of local Missouri creatures are all from there. This is an armadillo.  Photo by John and Karen Hollingsworth. This is a paddlefish or spoonbill.  Artwork by Timothy Knepp. This fine fellow is a bobcat.  Photo by Conrad Fijetland. I hear coyotes like this one all the time.  They howl and my dogs howl back.  No photographer listed. Red Fox.  Photo by Jim Frates.

Culture Education Trying to round up Missouri colleges and universities for this section, I've found, is like trying to catch minnows with your bare hands.  The little devils are everywhere!  In the interests of not having the college kids take over the website, I'm going to limit this section to a few notable institutions. The University of Missouri - The University of Missouri system consists of four separate campuses, a health-care system, a series of research parks and an extension program.  The University of Missouri - Columbia, also known as MU or Mizzou, is the oldest and largest campus in the system.  It was founded in 1839 and is the oldest university west of the Mississippi.  Its School of Journalism, established in 1908, was the first in the world.  Mizzou is one of only six public universities in the nation to have schools of medicine, veterinary medicine and law all on one campus.  It is a member of the Association of American Universities, one of only 34 public universities elected to that august body.  The MU mascot is Truman the Tiger.  The name Truman, of course, comes from President Harry Truman.  The Tiger as a school symbol, though, dates back to the Civil War, when a non-partisan home guard unit was known as the Columbia Fighting Tigers. On January 1, 2008, the Missouri Tigers football team went to the Cotton Bowl and had BACON!  (MU 38, Arkansas Razorbacks 7) Other Campuses in the University of Missouri System are the Missouri University of Science and Technology at Rolla, the University of Missouri - Kansas City and the University of Missouri - St. Louis. Cottey College - located in the tiny town of Nevada (pronounced "Neh-vay-duh"), Cottey College is one of only two private women's colleges in Missouri.  It is also my alma mater -- I graduated from Cottey before transferring to Mizzou and this small campus will always hold a special place in my heart.  Cottey was founded in 1884 by Vera Alice Cottey Stockard and is now owned and administrated by the P.E.O. Sisterhood, a philanthropic and educational organization (though that is probably not what "P.E.O." stands for).  Cottey has an enrollment of about 350 women from all over the world.  When I went there our senior class president was French and I had one suitemate who was Chinese and another from Japan.  It was at Cottey, incidentally, that I first adopted the policy of "if someone says 'taste this -- it's disgusting!' -- DON'T!"  Cottey offers a two-year associate's degree and over 95% of graduates go on to four-year instititions. The other women's college in Missouri is Stephens College, a four-year women's college in Columbia, very close to MU and even older, having been founded in 1833.  Stephens is a liberal arts college with the emphasis being on dance, theater and fashion.  In 2006, U.S. News and World Report named Stephens College Theater as the number two college theater in America.  Their list of alumni, I was surprised to see, includes Annie Potts, one of my all-time favorite comic actresses, and Dawn Wells (Mary Ann from Gilligan's Island). Finally, I have to mention the College of the Ozarks.  This little Christian school, affiliated with the Presbytarian church, has been included in U.S. News and World Report's list of best colleges in the Midwest for ten years straight.  Its unique work/study program means that many students, combining on-campus work and scholarship and grants, can attend at no cost.  This makes an education available to many students who could not otherwise afford one and the actual work experience gives C of O graduates an edge in the workforce.  College of the Ozarks is located in a rural area at Point Lookout, south of Springfield on Lake Taneycomo.		I'm going to hit these institutions up for some graphics to fill in this space.  In the meantime, here are links to all of the named institutions' websites. Mizzou Missouri University of Science and Technology The University of Missouri - Kansas City The University of Missouri - St. Louis Cottey College Stephens College The College of the Ozarks And, finally, here is a Wikipedia article with a long list of Missouri Colleges and Universities.
The Arts Music Theater and Dance Museums
Cities and Towns Clinton - This is the town that I call home.  The population is about 9,000 people.  Named after New York governor DeWitt Clinton, Clinton is the Henry County seat.  During the first half of the twentieth century Clinton was known as the "mail order baby chick capitol of the world" and trains carried crates of baby chicks from coast to coast, as far north as Canada and as far south as South America.  We also had a famous white sulfer artesian that was believed to have healing powers and for a long time in the latter nineteenth century and early twentieth Clinton was a popular resort destination.  Another local tidbit -- Chinese checkers was invented by a Henry County resident.  Our high school sports teams are the Clinton Cardinals and Lady Cards. Columbia - Located on I-70 midway between Kansas City and St. Louis and near the center of the state, Columbia is known as "College Town U.S.A." because of the 20,000 students who flock to its three colleges each semester.  They are:  Mizzou, the flagship of the University of Missouri campuses; Stephens College and Columbia College.  Columbia is a pleasant small city with several good used book stores and a variety of restaurants. Jefferson City - Jeff City, as it is known, is the state capitol and it is well worth a visit just to tour the capitol building with its impressive architecture, murals and really nifty bronze-doored elevator.  (We went there when I was in grade school and met the governor.  As I remember, the thing we were really impressed by was the elevator!)  The state penitentiary is in Jefferson City and it is where the death penalty is carried out, making it a focal point for rallies by people who are opposed to capital punishment.  Other than this, I honestly know little about the place except that every time I go there I get lost. Kansas City - One of our two largest cities, KC sits on the Kansas border at the point where the Missouri River heads east.  It is famous for jazz, barbecue,  the Kansas City Royal (an enormous cattle show), and Worlds of Fun (a great theme park).  Kansas City is home to Royals baseball, Chiefs football, and Wizards soccer. Sedalia - Sedalia is located on 65 highway about thirty miles south of I-70.  It is home to the Missouri State Fair every August and to State Fair Community College. Springfield - Springfield is located at the junction of Missouri highway 13 and I-44 about 175 miles south of Kansas City.  If I had to live in a city I'd probably choose Springfield, a pleasant little community with an abundance of bookstores, a nice variety of restaurants and a good "oldies" radio station.  My favorite spot on Springfield is on Glendale Road about a block south of  Kearney where there is a great used book store and an Italian fast food place flanking a frozen custard shop.  I mean, seriously!  What else do you need out of life? Ste. Genevieve - Ste. Genevieve, located in the southeast part of the state, is Missouri's oldest town.  It still has a lot of the original French flavor, with a number of the old buildings surviving.  Ste. Genevieve is a long way from my house.  I've only been there once and that wasn't on purpose (I get lost a lot).  It looked like a pretty little town, but it was too late for me to look around much. St. Louis - Missouri's other big city, St. Louis is known as the Gateway to the West and is most famous for the Gateway Arch.  It sits at the confluence of the Missouri and Mississippi Rivers and is home to Cardinals baseball and Rams football.  There is a lot of history in St. Louis.  It is also prominent in the world of true ghost stories (something I've loved since I read The Haunting of Hill House for the first time at the age of seven).  In 1980 the Lemp Mansion, once home to the tragedy-prone Lemp brewing family, was listed by Life Magazine as one of the ten most haunted places in America.  Across the river in Alton, Illinois, there is a bookstore called (I think) Riverboat Annie's that is entirely stocked with books about ghosts.  One word of warning about the Arch -- though I have never been there myself, I have it on good authority that the Arch sways in the wind and that the motion is very noticable, especially when you are riding in the elevator.  This is not a good place to visit if you are prone to motion sickness! Tightwad - About eight miles from my house, located on 7 highway between Clinton and Racket, there is a small town (population 63) called Tightwad.  I've heard of it all my life so it doesn't seem strange to me, but I've noticed a lot of people seem to find the name amusing so I'm mentioning it.		Clinton Links - Clinton Chamber of Commerce Clinton Mainstreet Columbia Links - Columbia Visitors' Information Columbia Tribune Jefferson City Links - Jefferson City Visitors' Information Kansas City Links - Kansas City Government Pages Kansas City Visitors' Information Union Station Kansas City Royals Homepage Kansas City Chiefs Homepage Kansas City Wizards Homepage Kansas City Star Sedalia Links - Sedalia Visitors' Information Missouri State Fair Springfield Links - Springfield Visitors' Information Springfield Chamber of Commerce Springfield News-Leader Ste. Genevieve Links - Official Ste. Genevieve Homepage Ste. Genevieve Visitors' Information Ste. Genevieve History St. Louis Links - St. Louis Government Pages St. Louis Visitors' Information St. Louis Arch St. Louis Cardinals Homepage St. Louis Rams Homepage St. Louis Blues Homepage St. Louis Post-Dispatch Tightwad city limits sign This little local fire department has an excellent reputation.  And I'm not just saying that because these are the folks who will show up if I do something stupid and set the world on fire. "The rear axles hold the kick of twenty Missouri jackasses." From "New Farm Tractor" by Carl Sandburg.
Missouri Facts		Thomas Hart Benton Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division, LC-USZ62-109983 DLC (b&w film copy neg. post-1992) Famous Missourians Thomas Hart Benton Mark Twain Scott Joplin Marlin Perkins Vincent Price And some guy named Brad Pitt

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