Missouri - Fast Facts & Trivia

  1. Missouri is known as the "Show Me State".
     
  2. The 'Show Me State' expression may have began in 1899 when Congressman Willard Duncan Vandiver stated, "I'm from Missouri and you've got to show me."
     
  3. The first successful parachute jump to be made from a moving airplane was made by Captain Berry at St. Louis, in 1912.
     
  4. The most destructive tornado on record occurred in Annapolis. In 3 hours, it tore through the town on March 18, 1925 leaving a 980-foot wide trail of demolished buildings, uprooted trees, and overturned cars. It left 823 people dead and almost 3,000 injured.
     
  5. At the St. Louis World's Fair in 1904, Richard Blechyden, served tea with ice and invented iced tea.
     
  6. Also, at the St. Louis World's Fair in 1904, the ice cream cone was invented. An ice cream vendor ran out of cups and asked a waffle vendor to help by rolling up waffles to hold ice cream.
     
  7. Missouri ties with Tennessee as the most neighborly state in the union, bordered by 8 states.
     
  8. The state animal is the Mule.
     
  9. St. Louis; is also called, "The Gateway to the West" and "Home of the Blues".
     
  10. Warsaw holds the state record for the low temperature of -40 degrees on February 13, 1905.
     
  11. Warsaw holds the state record for the high temperature recorded, 118 degrees on July 14, 1954.
     
  12. State bird--native Bluebird March 30, 1927
     
  13. State insect--honey bee July 3, 1985
     
  14. Mozarkite was adopted as the official state rock on July 21, 1967, by the 74th General Assembly.
     
  15. On July 21, 1967, the mineral galena was adopted as the official mineral of Missouri.
     
  16. The crinoid became the state's official fossil on June 16, 1989, after a group of Lee's Summit school students worked through the legislative process to promote it as a state symbol.
     
  17. On June 20, 1955, the flowering dogwood (Cornus Florida L.) became Missouri's official tree.
     
  18. The "Missouri Waltz" became the state song under an act adopted by the General Assembly on June 30, 1949
     
  19. The present Capitol completed in 1917 and occupied the following year is the third Capitol in Jefferson City and the sixth in Missouri history. The first seat of state government was housed in the Mansion House, Third and Vine Streets, St. Louis; the second was in the Missouri Hotel, Maine and Morgan Streets, also in St. Louis. St. Charles was designated as temporary capital of the state in 1821 and remained the seat of government until 1826 when Jefferson City became the permanent capital city.
     
  20. The first Capitol in Jefferson City burned in 1837 and a second structure completed in 1840 burned when the dome was struck by lightning on February 5, 1911.
     
  21. Kansas City has more miles of boulevards than Paris and more fountains than any city except Rome.
     
  22. Kansas City has more miles of freeway per capita than any metro area with more than 1 million residents.
     
  23. Jefferson National Expansion Memorial consists of the Gateway Arch, the Museum of Westward Expansion, and St. Louis' Old Courthouse. During a nationwide competition in 1947-48, architect Eero Saarinen's inspired design for a 630-foot stainless steel arch was chosen as a perfect monument to the spirit of the western pioneers. Construction of the Arch began in 1963 and was completed on October 28, 1965.
    The Arch has foundations sunken 60 feet into the ground, and is built to withstand earthquakes and high winds. It sways up to one inch in a 20 mph wind, and is built to sway up to 18 inches.
     
  24. Saint Louis University received a formal charter from the state of Missouri in 1832, making it the oldest University west of the Mississippi.
     
  25. In 1889, Aunt Jemima pancake flour, invented at St. Joseph, Missouri, was the first self-rising flour for pancakes and the first ready-mix food ever to be introduced commercially.
     
  26. The tallest man in documented medical history was Robert Pershing Wadlow from St. Louis. He was 8 feet, 11.1 inches tall
     
  27. Creve Coeur's name means broken heart in French, comes from nearby Creve Coeur Lake. Legend has it that an Indian princess fell in love with a French fur trapper, but the love was not returned. According to the story, she then leapt from a ledge overlooking Creve Coeur Lake; the lake then formed itself into a broken heart.
     
  28. The most powerful earthquake to strike the United States occurred in 1811, centered in New Madrid, Missouri. The quake shook more than one million square miles, and was felt as far as 1,000 miles away.
     
  29. Anheuser-Busch brewery in St. Louis, Missouri is the largest beer producing plant in the nation.
     
  30. During Abraham Lincoln's campaign for the presidency, a dyed-in-the-wool Democrat named Valentine Tapley from Pike County, Missouri, swore that he would never shave again if Abe were elected. Tapley kept his word and his chin whiskers went unshorn from November 1860 until he died in 1910, attaining a length of twelve feet six inches.
     
  31. President Harry S. Truman was born in Lamar, May 8, 1884.
     
  32. The first train of the Atlantic-Pacific Railway, which became the St.Louis-San Francisco Railway, or "Frisco," arrived in 1870.
     
  33. Callaway County was organized on November 25, 1820 and named for Captain James Callaway who was killed in a fight with Indians near Loutre Creek.
     
  34. Missouri was named after a tribe called Missouri Indians; meaning "town of the large canoes"
     
  35. Situated within a day’s drive of 50% of the U.S. population, Branson and the Tri-Lakes area serves up to 65,000 visitors daily. Branson has been a "rubber tire" destination with the vast majority of tourists arriving by vehicles, RVs and tour buses. Branson has also become one of America’s top motor coach vacation destinations with an estimated 4,000 buses arriving each year.
     
  36. Charleston holds the Dogwood-Azalea Festival annually on the 3rd weekend of April. "Charleston becomes a blooming wonderland."
     
  37. Jefferson City, Missouri, the state's capital, was named for Thomas Jefferson, the third President of the United States.
     
  38. Missouri's oldest community, Saint Genevieve, was founded as early as 1735.
     
  39. In 1812 Missouri was organized as a territory and later admitted the 24th state of the Union on August 10, 1821.
     
  40. In 1865 Missouri became the first slave state to free its slaves.
     
  41. Hermann, Missouri is a storybook German village with a rich wine-making and riverboat history that is proudly displayed in area museums. Built in 1836 as the "New Fatherland" for German settlers, the town has achieved national recognition because of its quality wines and distinctive heritage.
     
  42. Auguste Chouteau founded Saint Louis in 1764.
     
  43. Laura Elizabeth Ingalls, writer of Little House on the Prairie grew up in Missouri.
     
  44. "Madonna of the Trail" monument in Lexington tells the story of the brave women who helped conquer the west and is one of 12 placed in every state crossed by the National Old Trails Road, the route of early settlers from Maryland to California.
     
  45. Soybeans bring in the most cash for Missourians as a crop.
     
  46. Missouri Day is the third Wednesday in October.
     
  47. On Sucker Day in Nixa, Missouri, school closes officially and the little town swells to a throng of 15,000 hungry folks. All craving a taste of the much maligned but delicious bottom dweller fish loathed by almost everyone else.
     
  48. Point of highest elevation: Taum Sauk Mountain, 540 meters (1,772 feet)
     
  49. State folk dance: square dance
     
  50. State musical instrument: fiddle
     
    Thanks to: Charles Andrew Humfeld, Gene Kerr, PMary25491, Scott Peterson, Seatac57
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