Missouri named after the Missouri Siouan Indian tribe whose Illinois name, ouemessourita,
(meaning "those who have dugout canoes", is a central state in the
United States. It is a state with both Midwestern and Southern cultural influences,
reflecting its history as a border state between the two regions. The state's
nickname is the Show-Me State, first recorded in 1894; the state's name is
also occasionally pronounced "Missourah", a term often used by former
U.S. President Harry S. Truman, who was born in the state. The Mississippi
and Missouri rivers are the two large rivers which flow through the state.
Missouri's
border physically touches a total of eight different states (as does its neighbor,
Tennessee. No state in the U.S. touches more than eight states). 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 across the Missouri River.) The two largest
Missouri rivers are the Mississippi which defines the eastern boundary of
the state and the Missouri river that flows west to east through the state
connecting the two largest cities, Kansas City and St. Louis.
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.
Little Dixie is an area of Missouri that lies along the northern side of the Missouri River. The area is so named because of its settlement by people from the American South, also called "Dixie." It was settled before and following the Missouri Compromise of 1820.
The Ozark plateau, part of the Upland South, begins south of the Missouri
river and extends into Arkansas, southeast Kansas, and northeast Oklahoma.
Springfield 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. It is in the Ozarks that a distinct dialect,
often compared to that of residents in certain areas of Kentucky and Tennessee,
still exists.
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, and among the poorest. It is also the most
fertile. Cotton and rice production are prominent in this area. The Bootheel
area was the location of the epicenter of the New Madrid Earthquake of 1811–1812.
Although today the state is often considered part of the Midwest, Missouri
is also commonly and historically considered a Southern state, the institution
of slavery in the state contributing in no small part to this. For example,
Mark Twain, who grew up in Hannibal, in Life on the Mississippi described
his upbringing as in "the South". Residents of 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,
while in rural areas and cities farther south (Cape Girardeau, Poplar Bluff,
Springfield, and Sikeston), people typically consider themselves more Southern.
Metropolitan areas by population
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