Geography and Landforms:

Missouri is bordered by Iowa on the north and by Arkansas and Tennessee on the south. Illinois, Kentucky and Tennessee border the state on the east, and Nebraska, Kansas and Oklahoma form the western border. The highest point in Missouri is Taum Sauk Mountain at 1772 feet.

Major rivers in the state include the Mississippi River, the Missouri River, the Current River and the Osage River. The land north of the Missouri River is covered with rich soil that is particularly good for growing corn. Western Missouri includes the Osage Plains, which are mostly flat, and the soil is not as good as that north of the Missouri River. However, corn and other grains are grown in the Osage Plains region. The Ozark Plateau region of Missouri is the largest land area in the state. There are forested hills and low mountains covering a large number of caves. The southern part of Missouri is part of the Mississippi Alluvial Plain. Although this area was once swampy, it has been drained and provides rich farmland suitable for growing cotton and rice.

History:

Father Jacques Marquette and Louis Joliet of France were the first white people to see the Missouri River in 1673. In 1682, René-Robert Cavelier traveled down the Mississippi River and claimed the entire Mississippi Valley for France. This land, that included Missouri, was named Louisiana after King Louis XIV.

French fur traders built trading posts along the Missouri River. Missionaries established St. Francis Xavier, the first white settlement of Missouri. It was located near present-day St. Louis, but was abandoned in 1703. In 1724, Fort Orleans was built on the north bank of the Missouri River by Etienne de Bourgmont, but this settlement was abandoned within six years. Missouri’s first permanent settlement, Ste. Genevieve, was established in 1735.

In 1762, the Louisiana Territory came under Spanish control. Although few Spaniards settled Missouri, many U.S. miners and farmers entered from Mississippi. In 1798, Lieutenant Governor Zenon Trudeau of the Spanish government offered Daniel Boone a large sum of money to settle in the new Territory. However, in 1800, France reclaimed the Louisiana Territory and in 1803, sold it to the United States. In 1804, the Lewis and Clark Expedition set out from St. Louis to explore the Louisiana Purchase. The expedition would proceed westward until the expedition finally reached the Pacific Ocean.

The Missouri Territory was formally organized in 1812 from a portion of the Louisiana Purchase.

As settlers flooded into Missouri, Native Americans grew angry and began raiding white homesteads. During the War of 1812, Britain supplied the Indians with weapons and encouraged them to attack Missouri settlements. Not until 1815 did the attacks end with a peace treaty at Portage des Sioux. In 1818, the first petition to Congress for Missouri statehood was filed, and by 1825, few Native Americans lived in Missouri.

Attempts for statehood started in 1818, but questions concerning slavery in the state were not settled until 1820 with the “Missouri Compromise.” Missouri Territory was split between those who supported slavery and those who opposed it. Because the number of slave states and states prohibiting slavery were fairly equal, proponents on both sides did not want the balance in Congress to be upset. The Missouri Compromise sought to solve this issue by permitting Missouri to enter the Union as a “slave state” as long as Maine entered the Union as a “free state” maintaining the balance of power in Congress. In addition, the Compromise determined that the remaining portions of the Louisiana Purchase north of the 36º30’ line of latitude would be free of slavery. It was decisions such as the Missouri Compromise that drew the United States closer and closer to the Constitutional crisis that became the Civil War. Missouri became the 24th state on Aug. 10, 1821.

Unfortunately, the Missouri Compromise did not settle the issue of slavery in the area. In 1854, President Franklin Pierce signed the Kansas-Nebraska Act which ruled that states might have “popular sovereignty” in deciding whether to allow or outlaw slavery. This was in direct contradiction of the Missouri Compromise, and led to violent border wars between those living along the Missouri Kansas border. In 1857, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in the Dred Scott Decision that slaves were considered property, despite the fact that Missouri statutes permitted Scott, a slave, to sue for his freedom based upon the fact that he had lived in a free territory (Wisconsin) prior to being returned to the slave state of Missouri. This historic decision increased tension between the North and the South. Kansas, located on Missouri’s western border, became a free state in 1861. Fighting between Kansas and Missouri began and continued into the Civil War.

In 1861, a convention was called to determine whether Missouri would secede from the Union. Although the majority voted to support the Union, Governor Claiborne Jackson refused to send troops at the request of President Lincoln. Jackson led the state militia against Union troops at the Battle of Boonville. Jackson’s militia was forced to southern Missouri where they defeated Union troops at Wilson’ Creek. Shortly after, the state convention met again to remove all pro-Confederate state leaders from office. In 1865, slavery was abolished in Missouri, making the state the first to emancipate its slaves before the adoption of the 13th Amendment.

First Inhabitants:

Nomadic hunters were present in the area we now call Missouri perhaps as early as 12,000 years ago. Divided into small bands, they ranged widely over the land, hunting many now-extinct animals. The next period, called Archaic, lasted from about 10,000 to 3,000 years ago. In this period, these hunters used woven baskets and highly specialized stone tools. Later on, the Woodland culture saw the introduction of pottery and agriculture. Southeastern Missouri contains many artifacts and relics of the culture called Mississippians or Mound Builders, a village society that started about AD 800.

The peoples who inhabited the area during the era of exploration and settlement were semi-nomads who were attracted by the forests and prairies in the lower part of the Missouri River valley, which abounded with game. They lived about half the year in villages, growing crops. Most powerful and numerous were the Osage, who lived along the Osage River. North of the Missouri lived the Oto, and a village of the Missouria people was located at the confluence of the Grand and Missouri rivers. The name of the village was applied to the people, the river, and finally the state. The Iowa and, later, the united Sac (Sauk) and Fox drove out the other groups by the early 19th century. The Spanish moved some Shawnee and Delaware to Missouri temporarily, but all of the Native Americans had been forced out of the state by 1837.