Source: http://www.worldheritage.org/articles/eng/Missouri
Timestamp: 2019-04-24 14:08:45+00:00

Document:
Missouri (see pronunciations) is a U.S. state located in the Midwestern United States. Missouri is the 21st most extensive and the 18th most populous of the 50 United States. Missouri comprises 114 counties and the independent city of St. Louis.
The four largest urban areas are St. Louis, Kansas City, Springfield, and Columbia. Missouri's capital is Jefferson City. The land that is now Missouri was acquired from France as part of the Louisiana Purchase and became known as the Missouri Territory. Part of the Territory was admitted into the union as the 24th state on August 10, 1821.
Missouri's geography is highly varied. The northern part of the state lies in dissected till plains while the southern part lies in the Ozark Mountains (a dissected plateau), with the Missouri River dividing the two. The state lies at the intersection of the three greatest rivers of North America, with the confluence of the Mississippi and Missouri Rivers near St. Louis, and the confluence of the Ohio River with the Mississippi north of the Bootheel. The starting points for the Pony Express, Santa Fe Trail, and Oregon Trail were all located in Missouri. The mean center of the United States population at the 2010 census was at the town of Plato in Texas County.
The state is named for the Missouri River, which was named after the indigenous Missouri Indians, a Siouan-language tribe. They were called the ouemessourita (wimihsoorita), meaning "those who have dugout canoes", by the Miami-Illinois language speakers. As the Illini were the first natives encountered by Europeans in the region, the latter adopted the Illini name for the Missouri people.
The name "Missouri" has several different pronunciations even among its present-day natives—the two most common pronunciations being and .  This situation of differing pronunciations has existed since the late 1600s. Further pronunciations also exist in Missouri or elsewhere in the United States, involving the realization of the first syllable as either or ; the medial consonant as either or ; the stressed second syllable as either or ; the third syllable as , , centralized ([ɪ̈]), or even ∅ (in other words, a non-existent third syllable); and the phoneme as either of two allophones: [ɹ] or [ɻ]. Any combination of these phonetic realizations may be observed coming from speakers of American English.
Politicians often employ multiple pronunciations, even during a single speech, to appeal to a greater number of listeners. Often, "eye dialect" spellings of the state's name, such as "Missour-ee" or "Missour-uh," are used informally to phonetically distinguish pronunciations.
There is no official state nickname. However Missouri's unofficial nickname is the "Show-Me-State" and that appears on its license plates. The phrase has several origins. One is popularly ascribed to a speech by Congressman Willard Vandiver in 1899, who declared that "I come from a state that raises corn and cotton, cockleburs and Democrats, and frothy eloquence neither convinces nor satisfies me. I'm from Missouri, and you have got to show me." This is in keeping with the saying "I'm from Missouri" which means "I'm skeptical of the matter and not easily convinced." However, according to researchers, the phrase "show me" was already in use before the 1890s. Another version states that the phrase is a reference to Missouri miners who were taken to Leadville, Colorado to replace striking workers. As the new men were unfamiliar with the mining methods, they required frequent instruction.
Other nicknames for Missouri include "The Lead State", "The Bullion State", "The Ozark State", "Mother of the West", "The Iron Mountain State", and "Pennsylvania of the West". It is also known as "The Cave State" because there are more than 6000 recorded caves in Missouri (second to Tennessee). The largest number of caves - and the single longest cave - are all in Perry County.
The official state motto is Latin: "Salus Populi Suprema Lex Esto" which means "Let the welfare of the people be the supreme law."
In 2005, Missouri received 16,695,000 visitors to its national parks and other recreational areas totaling 202,000 acres (820 km2), giving it $7.41 million in annual revenues, 26.6% of its operating expenditures.
A physiographic map of Missouri.
Missouri generally has a humid continental climate ( Dfa) with cold winters and hot and humid summers. In the southern part of the state, particularly in the Bootheel, the climate turns into a humid subtropical climate. Located in the interior United States, Missouri often experiences extremes in temperatures. Without high mountains or oceans nearby to moderate temperature, its climate is alternately influenced by air from the cold Arctic and the hot and humid Gulf of Mexico. Missouri's highest recorded temperature is 118 °F (48 °C) at Warsaw and Union on July 14, 1954 while the lowest recorded temperature is −40 °F (−40 °C) also at Warsaw on February 13, 1905.
Missouri also receives extreme weather in the form of thunderstorms and tornadoes. The most recent tornado in the state to cause damage and casualties was the 2011 Joplin tornado, which destroyed roughly 1/3 of the city of Joplin. The tornado caused an estimated $1–3 billion in damages, killed 159 (+1 non-tornadic), and injured over 1,000 people. The tornado was the first EF5 to hit the state since 1957. The tornado was the deadliest in the U.S. since 1947, making it the 7th deadliest tornado in American history, but the 27th deadliest in the world. St. Louis and its suburbs also have a history of experiencing particularly severe tornadoes; the most recent memorable one being an EF4 tornado that damaged Lambert International Airport on April 22, 2011. In fact, one of the worst tornadoes in American history struck St. Louis on May 27, 1896.
Monthly Normal High and Low Temperatures For Various Missouri Cities.
St. Louis was founded soon after by French from New Orleans in 1764. From 1764 to 1803, European control of the area west of the Mississippi to the northernmost part of the Missouri River basin, called Louisiana, was assumed by the Spanish as part of the Viceroyalty of New Spain, due to Treaty of Fontainebleau (in order to have Spain join with France in the war against England). The arrival of the Spanish in St. Louis was in September 1767.
Napoleon Bonaparte had gained Louisiana for French ownership from Spain in 1800 under the Treaty of San Ildefonso, after it had been a Spanish colony since 1762. But, the treaty was kept secret. Louisiana remained nominally under Spanish control until a transfer of power to France on November 30, 1803, just three weeks before the cession to the United States.
As many of the early American settlers in western Missouri migrated from the Upper South, they brought enslaved African Americans for labor, and a desire to continue their culture and the institution of slavery. They settled predominantly in 17 counties along the Missouri River, in an area of flatlands that enabled plantation agriculture and became known as "Little Dixie". In 1821 the territory was admitted as a slave state as part of the Missouri Compromise with a temporary state capitol in St. Charles. In 1826 the capital was shifted to its current, permanent location of Jefferson City, also on the Missouri.
Conflicts over slavery exacerbated border tensions among the states and territories. From 1838 to 1839, a border dispute with Iowa over the so-called Honey Lands resulted in both states' calling up militias along the border.
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.
Child shoe workers in Kirksville, Missouri, 1910. Photographed by Lewis Hine as part of the Progressive Era assault on child labor.
The Progressive Era (1890s to 1920s) saw numerous prominent leaders from Missouri trying to end corruption and modernize politics, government and society. Joseph "Holy Joe" Folk was a key leader who made a strong appeal to middle class and rural evangelical Protestants. Folk was elected governor as a progressive reformer and Democrat in the 1904 election. He promoted what he called "the Missouri Idea", the concept of Missouri as a leader in public morality through popular control of law and strict enforcement. He successfully conducted antitrust prosecutions, ended free railroad passes for state officials, extended bribery statues, improved election laws, required formal registration for lobbyists, made racetrack gambling illegal, and enforced the Sunday-closing law. He helped enact Progressive legislation, including an initiative and referendum provision, regulation of elections, education, employment and child labor, railroads, food, business, and public utilities. A number of efficiency-oriented examiner boards and commissions were established during Folk's administration, including many agricultural boards and the Missouri library commission.
The United States Census Bureau estimates that the population of Missouri was 6,044,171 on July 1, 2013, a 0.9% increase since the 2010 United States Census.
According to the 2010 Census, Missouri had a population of 5,988,927; an increase of 392,369 (7.0 percent) since the year 2000. From 2000 to 2007, this includes a natural increase of 137,564 people since the last census (480,763 births less 343,199 deaths), and an increase of 88,088 people due to net migration into the state. Immigration from outside the United States resulted in a net increase of 50,450 people, and migration within the country produced a net increase of 37,638 people. Over half of Missourians (3,294,936 people, or 55.0%) live within the state's two largest metropolitan areas–St. Louis and Kansas City. The state's population density 86.9 in 2009, is also closer to the national average (86.8 in 2009) than any other state.
In 2011, 3.7% of the total population was of Hispanic or Latino origin (they may be of any race). In 2011, 28.1% of Missouri's population younger than age 1 were minorities.
German Americans are an ancestry group present throughout Missouri. African Americans are a substantial part of the population in St. Louis (56.6% of African Americans in the state lived in St. Louis or St. Louis County as of the 2010 census), Kansas City, Boone County and in the southeastern Bootheel and some parts of the Missouri River Valley, where plantation agriculture was once important. Missouri Creoles of French ancestry are concentrated in the Mississippi River Valley south of St. Louis (see Missouri French). Kansas City is home to large and growing immigrant communities from Latin America esp. Mexico, Africa (i.e. Sudan, Somalia and Nigeria), and Southeast Asia including China and the Philippines; and Europe like the former Yugoslavia (see Bosnian American). A notable Cherokee Indian population exists in Missouri.
In 2010, there were 2,349,955 households in Missouri, with 2.45 people per household. The home ownership rate was 70.0 percent, and the median value of an owner-occupied housing unit was $137,700. The median household income for 2010 was $46,262, or $24,724 per capita. There were 14.0 percent (1,018,118) Missourians living below the poverty line in 2010.
Of those Missourians who identify with a religion, three out of five are Protestants of various denominations. The largest classified demographic in the state are Southern Baptists at 22%. The second largest, at 19%, are Roman Catholics with populations located in Jefferson City, St. Louis and stretches west and south of St. Louis. The third ranked demographic are the non religious at 15%.
Among the other denominations there are approximately 93,000 Mormons in 253 congregations, 25,000 Jewish adherents in 21 temples, 12,000 Muslims in 39 masjids, 7,000 Buddhists in 34 temples, 7,000 Hindus in 17 temples, 2,500 Unitarians in 9 congregations, 2,000 Baha'i in 17 temples, 5 Sikh temples, a Zorastrian temple, a Jain temple and an uncounted number of neopagans.
Church of Christ (Temple Lot) and the group Remnant Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. This area and other parts of Missouri are also of significant religious and historical importance to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church), which maintains several sites and visitors centers.
The agriculture products of the state are beef, cotton, rice, and eggs. Missouri is ranked 6th in the nation for the production of hogs and 7th for cattle. Missouri is ranked in the top five states in the nation for production of soy beans, and it is ranked fourth in the nation for the production of rice. In 2001, there were 108,000 farms, the second-largest number in any state after Texas. Missouri actively promotes its rapidly growing wine industry.
Missouri also has a growing science and biotechnology field. Monsanto, one of the largest gene companies in America is based in St. Louis.
In October 2013, the state’s unemployment rate was 6.5%, while the nation overall was 7.3%.
In 2012, Missouri had roughly 22,000 MW of installed electricity generation capacity. In 2011, 82% of Missouri's electricity was generated by coal. 10% was generated from the state's only nuclear power plant, the Callaway Plant in Callaway County, northeast of Jefferson City. 5% was generated by natural gas. 1% was generated by hydroelectric sources, such as the dams for Truman Lake and Lake of the Ozarks. Missouri has a small but growing amount of wind and solar power—wind capacity increased from 309 MW in 2009 to 459 MW in 2011, while photovoltaics have increased from 0.2 MW to 1.3 MW over the same period.
Missouri has two major airport hubs: Lambert–St. Louis International Airport and Kansas City International Airport.
Two of the nation's three busiest rail centers are located in Missouri. Kansas City is a major railroad hub for BNSF Railway, Norfolk Southern Railway, Kansas City Southern Railway, and Union Pacific Railroad. Kansas City is the second largest freight rail center in the US (but is first in the amount of tonnage handled). Like Kansas City, St. Louis is a major destination for train freight. Springfield remains an operational hub for BNSF Railway.
The only urban light rail/subway system operating in Missouri is MetroLink, which connects the city of St. Louis with suburbs in Illinois and St. Louis County. It is one of the largest systems (by track mileage) in the United States. A streetcar line in downtown Kansas City is scheduled to open in 2015.
The Gateway Multimodal Transportation Center in St. Louis is the largest active multi-use transportation center in the state. It is located in downtown St. Louis, next to the historic Union Station complex. It serves as a hub center/station for MetroLink, the MetroBus regional bus system, Greyhound, Amtrak, and taxi services.
Following the passage of Amendment 3 in late 2004, the Missouri Department of Transportation (MoDOT) began its Smoother, Safer, Sooner road-building program with a goal of bringing 2,200 miles (3,500 km) of highways up to good condition by December 2007. From 2006–2010 traffic deaths have decreased annually from 1,257 in 2005, to 1,096 in 2006, to 992 for 2007, to 960 for 2008, to 878 in 2009, to 821 in 2010.
Interstate 70 in Central Missouri.
The Bill Emerson Memorial Bridge connecting Cape Girardeau to East Cape Girardeau, Illinois.
The only section of freeway in Missouri to have High-Occupancy Vehicle Lane (HOV) is Interstate 55 from Ste. Genevieve, Missouri to Interstate 270-255 Interchange in St. Louis County. They were striped, registered, and opened on February 10, 2013. HOV Lanes are also being striped on Interstate 70 in St. Charles County through Interstate 270 in Saint Louis County, and on the North-South corridor of Interstate 270 in central St. Louis County.
The House of Representatives has 163 members who are apportioned based on the last decennial census. The Senate consists of 34 members from districts of approximately equal populations. The judicial department comprises the Supreme Court of Missouri, which has seven judges, the Missouri Court of Appeals (an intermediate appellate court divided into three districts), sitting in Kansas City, St. Louis, and Springfield, and 45 Circuit Courts which function as local trial courts. The executive branch is headed by the Governor of Missouri and includes five other statewide elected offices. Following the election of 2012, all but two of Missouri's statewide elected offices are held by Democrats.
Missouri is widely regarded as a bellwether in American politics, often making it a swing state. The state had a longer stretch of supporting the winning presidential candidate than any other state, having voted with the nation in every election since 1904 with three exceptions: in 1956 it voted for Democratic Governor Adlai Stevenson of neighboring Illinois over the winner, incumbent Republican President Dwight Eisenhower of neighboring Kansas, and in 2008 it voted for Republican Senator John McCain of Arizona over national winner Senator Barack Obama of neighboring Illinois. Missouri was still the closest state in the nation in both of these races, which were decided by extremely narrow margins of fewer than 4,000 votes each. However, in 2012, Missouri swung strongly Republican when it voted for former Governor Mitt Romney of Massachusetts over the winner, incumbent President Barack Obama, by a nearly 10-point margin. On October 24, 2012, there were 4,190,936 registered voters. At the state level, both Democratic Senator Claire McCaskill and Democratic Governor Jay Nixon were re-elected.
Missouri Digital Heritage, Missouri Government .
Missouri's African American History, Missouri Government .
Missouri State Tourism Office .
Energy & Environmental Data for Missouri, US: DoE .
real-time, geographic, and other scientific resources of Missouri, USGS .
"Missouri", QuickFacts (geographic and demographic information), US: Census ..
Missouri State Facts, USDA .
"http://wikis.ala.org/godort/Main_Page American Library Association Government Documents Roundtable", List of searchable databases produced by Missouri state agencies .
Missouri History, Geology, Culture, UM system .
Historic Sanborn Fire Insurance Maps of Missouri, UM system .
1930 Platbooks of Missouri Counties, UM system .
"Totals", Population estimates, US: Census, 2011 .
"States metropolitan areas cities", Population (estimates & projections), US: Census .
^ "Metropolitan Area Rankings; ranked by population" (Microsoft Excel). Census. US. 2000. Retrieved 2010-07-31.
^ "Introduction to Missouri – The Show Me State Capital Jefferson City". Netstate.com. Retrieved 2010-07-31.
^ "Pony Express National Historic Trail".
^ a b Wheaton, Sarah (October 13, 2012). "Missouree? Missouruh? To Be Politic, Say Both". The New York Times. pp. A1. Retrieved 2012-10-14.
^ Missouri - Definition and More from the Free Merriam-Webster Dictionary. Merriam-webster.com (August 31, 2012). Retrieved 2013-07-21.
^ a b Lance, Donald M. (Fall 2003). "The Pronunciation of Missouri: Variation and Change in American English". American Speech 78 (3): 255–284.
^ "Missouri pronunciation". Forvo.com. 2008. Retrieved 2012-11-20.
^ a b "Origin of "Show-Me" Slogan". State Archives Missouri History (FAQ). MO: Secretary of State. Retrieved 2010-02-20.
^ House, Scott (May 14, 2005). "Fact Sheet on 6000 Caves". The Missouri Speleological Survey. Retrieved 2008-03-16.
^ "Midwest Region Economy at a Glance". Bls.gov. Retrieved 2010-07-31.
^ "UNC-CH surveys reveal where the 'real' South lies". Unc.edu. June 2, 1999. Retrieved 2010-07-31.
^ "Missouri's Karst Wonderland – Missouri State Parks and Historic Sites, DNR". Mostateparks.com. June 6, 2008. Retrieved 2010-02-20.
^ "Income Inequality in Missouri". Ded.mo.gov. December 21, 2001. Retrieved 2010-07-31.
^ "Station Name: MO ST LOUIS LAMBERT INTL AP". National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Retrieved 2013-03-22.
^ 'MISSOURI V. IOWA'', 48 U.S. 660 (1849) – US Supreme Court Cases from Justia & Oyez"'". Supreme.justia.com. Retrieved 2010-07-31.
^ Historical Census Browser, 1860 Federal Census, University of Virginia Library. Retrieved 2008-03-21.
^ "First interstate project". Fhwa.dot.gov. Retrieved 2014-05-06.
^ "Resident Population Data". Resident Population Data. Census. 2010. Retrieved 2012-12-24.
^ "Population and Population Centers by State". United States Census Bureau. 2000. Retrieved 2008-12-05.
^ Ammon, Ulrich (1989). Status and Function of Languages and Language Varieties. Walter de Gruyter. pp. 306–8. ; International Sociological Association.
^ Carrière, J-M (1939). "Creole Dialect of Missouri". American Speech (Duke University Press) 12 (6): 502–3.
^ "Valparaiso University". Retrieved 2010-07-31.
^ Kellie Moore (2013-02-25). "Fox apologizes for comments on Wiccans at University of Missouri". Religious News Service. Retrieved December 23, 2013.
^ "FRB: Federal Reserve Districts and Banks". Federalreserve.gov. December 13, 2005. Retrieved 2010-02-20.
^ "Missouri Electricity Profile 2012". U.S. Energy Information Administration. 2014-05-01. Retrieved May 17, 2014.
^ a b c d National Association for State Energy Officials and the Kentucky Department for Energy Development and Independence. "Missouri Energy Profile". Retrieved 2013-07-14.
^ a b Sherwood, Larry (July 2010). "U.S. Solar Market Trends 2009". Interstate Renewable Energy Council (IREC). Retrieved 2010-07-28.
^ "Fact Sheet: High Speed Intercity Passenger Rail Program: Chicago – St. Louis – Kansas City". Retrieved 2010-01-28.
^ "KC Streetcar - About KC Streetcar". Retrieved 2013-10-27.
^ "Number of Persons Killed or Injured in Missouri Crashes by Year". Missouri State Highway Patrol. Retrieved 2012-09-30.
^ Wade, Lynn A. (August 7, 2010). "Upgrade of U.S. 71 to I-49 coming to Missouri soon". Nevada Daily Mail. Retrieved 2011-03-29.
^ "Registered Voters in Missouri 2012". Missouri Secretary of State. October 24, 2012. Retrieved 2012-10-28.
^ "Missouri Secretary of State – State Archives – Origin of "Show Me" slogan". Sos.mo.gov. Retrieved 2010-07-31.
^ "Mo. Rev. Stat. § 290.145". Moga.mo.gov. August 28, 2009. Retrieved 2010-07-31.
^ "Mo. Rev. Stat. § 67.305". Moga.mo.gov. August 28, 2009. Retrieved 2010-07-31.
^ "Mo. Rev. Stat. § 311.170". Moga.mo.gov. August 28, 2009. Retrieved 2010-07-31.
^ "Mo. Rev. Stat. § 311.310". Moga.mo.gov. August 28, 2009. Retrieved 2010-07-31.
^ "Mo. Rev. Stat. § 311.086". Moga.mo.gov. August 28, 2009. Retrieved 2010-07-31.
^ "State Cigarette Excise Tax Rates" (PDF). Retrieved 2014-07-09.
^ Best Cities for Smokers," ''Forbes Magazine'', November 1, 2007""". Forbes. Archived from the original on 2010-05-31. Retrieved 2010-07-31.
^ "Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, "Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System – Adults who are current smokers", September 19, 2008". Apps.nccd.cdc.gov. May 15, 2009. Retrieved 2010-07-31.
^ "Mo. Rev. Stat. § 407.931.3". Moga.mo.gov. Retrieved 2010-07-31.
^ "Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services, ''County Level Survey 2007: Secondhand Smoke for Missouri Adults'', October 1, 2008". Dhss.mo.gov. Retrieved 2010-07-31.
^ "Mo. Rev. Stat. § 191.769". Moga.mo.gov. August 28, 2009. Retrieved 2010-07-31.
^ "Missouri (USA): State, Major Cities, Towns & Places". City Population. February 19, 2011. Retrieved Oct 29, 2014.
^ "Annual Estimates of the Population for Incorporated Places in Missouri". United States Census Bureau. Retrieved 2008-07-12.
^ Missouri Department Of Elementary And Secondary Education (September 2, 2009). "Home Schooling". Dese.mo.gov. Retrieved 2010-02-20.
^ Don Colborn, PhD. "HLGU - About HLG". Hlg.edu. Retrieved 2011-12-10.
^ "Animals of Conservation Concern". Retrieved 2014-03-27.
^ West, Mary Jane (1968). "Range Extension and Solitary nest founding in Polistes Exclamans".
See entire collection at List of people from Missouri.
There has also been a migration of insects from the south to Missouri. One example of this is the wasp Polistes exclamans.
Within historic times, the passenger pigeon, the carolina parakeet, and the ivory-billed woodpecker were all found in Missouri, but they have since been eliminated.
Within historic times, pronghorn, gray wolf, and brown bear were all found in Missouri, but have since been eliminated. Wapiti and American bison were formerly common, but are currently confined to private farms and parks.
Missouri is home to a diversity of both flora and fauna. There is a large amount of fresh water present due to the Mississippi River, Missouri River, and Lake of the Ozarks, with numerous smaller tributary rivers, streams, and lakes. North of the Missouri River, the state is primarily rolling hills of the Great Plains, whereas south of the Missouri River, the state is dominated by the Oak-Hickory Central U.S. hardwood forest.
USS Missouri (SSN-780), a Virginia-class submarine, joined the fleet after a commissioning ceremony July 31, 2010 at the Naval Submarine Base New London.
Missouri has five major sports teams: the Royals and Cardinals of MLB, the Chiefs and Rams of the NFL, and the Blues of the NHL.
"Ride With the Devil" starring Jewel and Tobey Maguire were also filmed in the countryside of Jackson County (also where the historic events of the film took place).
Most of HBO's film "Truman" were filmed in Kansas City, Independence, and the surrounding area. Gary Sinise won an Emmy for his portrayal of Harry Truman in the 1995 film.
Part of the 1973 movie, Paper Moon, which starred Ryan and Tatum O'Neal, was filmed in St. Joseph.
John Carpernter's Escape from New York was filmed in Saint Louis in the early eighties, due to the high number of abandoned buildings in the city.
Up in the Air starring George Clooney was filmed in St. Louis.
The award-winning 2010 film Winter's Bone was shot in the Ozarks of Missouri.
White Palace was filmed in St. Louis.
The Thanksgiving holiday film Planes, Trains, and Automobiles was partially shot at Lambert–St. Louis International Airport.
Part of the 1983 road movie National Lampoon's Vacation was shot on location in Missouri, for the Griswold's trip from Chicago to Los Angeles.
Meet Me in St. Louis, a musical involving the 1904 St. Louis World's Fair, starred Judy Garland.
Several Film versions of Mark Twain's novels The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn have been made.
Filmmaker, animator, and businessman Walt Disney spent part of his childhood in the Linn County town of Marceline before moving to Kansas City, Missouri. Disney began his artistic career in Kansas City, where he founded the Laugh-O-Gram Studio.
Famed authors Kate Chopin, T. S. Eliot and Tennessee Williams were all from St. Louis.
Kansas City-born writer William Least Heat-Moon currently resides in Rocheport. He is best known for Blue Highways, a chronicle of his travels to small towns across America. The book was on the New York Times Bestseller list for nearly a year in 1982-1983.
Missouri is the native state of Mark Twain. His novels The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn are set in his boyhood hometown of Hannibal.
Branson is well known for its music theaters, most of which bear the name of a star performer or musical group. These facilities have made Branson one of America's most popular tourist destinations..
The Kansas City Symphony and the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra are the state's major orchestras. The latter is the nation's second-oldest symphony orchestra and achieved prominence in recent years under conductor Leonard Slatkin.
Rock and Roll singer Steve Walsh of the group Kansas was born in St. Louis and grew up in St. Joseph.
Jazz saxophonist Charlie Parker lived in Kansas City.
Ragtime composer Scott Joplin lived in St. Louis and Sedalia.
Rapper Eminem was born in St. Joseph and also lived in Savannah and Kansas City.
Country singers from Missouri include New Franklin native Sara Evans, Cantwell native Ferlin Husky, West Plains native Porter Wagoner, Tyler Farr of Garden City, and Mora native Leroy Van Dyke, along with bluegrass musician Rhonda Vincent, a native of Greentop.
During the late nineteenth and early twentieth century the state established a series of normal schools in each region of the state, originally named after the geographic districts: Northeast Missouri State University (now Truman State University) (1867), Central Missouri State University (now the University of Central Missouri) (1871), Southeast Missouri State University (1873), Southwest Missouri State University (now Missouri State University) (1905), Northwest Missouri State University (1905), Missouri Western State University (1915), and Missouri Southern State University (1937). Lincoln University and Harris–Stowe State University were established in the mid-nineteenth century and are historically black colleges and universities.
Jesse Hall and the Francis Quad on the University of Missouri campus.
Another gifted school is the Missouri Academy of Science, Mathematics and Computing, which is located at the Northwest Missouri State University.
Education is compulsory from ages seven to seventeen, and it is required that any parent, guardian or other person with custody of a child between the ages of seven and seventeen the compulsory attendance age for the district, must ensure that the child is enrolled in and regularly attends public, private, parochial school, home school or a combination of schools for the full term of the school year. Compulsory attendance also ends when children complete sixteen credits in high school..
St. Louis is the principal city of the largest metropolitan area in Missouri, composed of 17 counties and the independent city of St. Louis; eight of those counties lie in Illinois. As of 2009, St. Louis was the 18th largest metropolitan area in the nation with 2.83 million people. However, if ranked using Combined Statistical Area, it is 15th largest with 2.89 million people. Some of the major cities making up the St. Louis Metro area in Missouri are St. Charles, St. Peters, Florissant, Chesterfield, Creve Coeur, Wildwood, Maryland Heights, O'Fallon, Clayton, Ballwin, and University City.
The largest county by population (2012 estimate) is St. Louis County (1,000,438 residents), with Jackson County second (677,377 residents), St. Charles third (368,666), and St. Louis fourth (318,172). Worth County is the least populous with 2,171 (2010 census) residents.
As for tobacco (as of June 2014), Missouri has the lowest cigarette excise taxes in the United States, at 17 cents per pack, and the state electorate voted in 2002, 2006, and 2012 to keep it that way. In 2007, Forbes named Missouri's largest metropolitan area, St. Louis, America's "best city for smokers."
Today, alcohol laws are controlled by the state government, and local jurisdictions are prohibited from going beyond those state laws. Missouri has no statewide open container law or prohibition on drinking in public, no alcohol-related blue laws, no local option, no precise locations for selling liquor by the package (allowing even drug stores and gas stations to sell any kind of liquor), and no differentiation of laws based on alcohol percentage. Missouri has no laws prohibiting "consumption" of alcohol by minors (as opposed to possession), and state law protects persons from arrest or criminal penalty for public intoxication.
 The study notes that Missouri's "alcohol regime is one of the least restrictive in the United States, with no blue laws and taxes well below average," and that "Missouri ranks best in the nation on tobacco freedom."

References: V. 
 § 290
 § 67
 § 311
 § 311
 § 311
 § 407
 § 191