It was Mark Twain who once said, “Missouri is at her best in October.” Who can argue? The first hard frost cleanses the air from summer’s humidity; clear skies are incredibly blue. All creatures great and small savor these sunlit days before the arrival of winter.
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It’s been an unusually wet year. Up until this past week greens were the dominant color, green even in the depths of August. Tree leaves have remained green until the weather flipped the foliage switch this week. Suddenly many of our sugar maples are dressed in orange and red, with promise of so much more to come.
Celebrating Missouri Day on the third Wednesday in October each year just makes sense. Although that official designation has already passed, there’s just so much to celebrate all the time.
Missouri’s location and our two great rivers made Missouri a center of transportation as our country developed. Historians sometimes called Missouri the “Mother of the West.” Pioneers flocked here to jump off into westward bound treks and many decided to settle Missouri’s rich and fertile land instead of continuing their journey.
Missouri has been a state for 198 years and has played a crucial role in many respects. During the Civil War more than 1,000 battles took place in Missouri, making it the third-most fought-over state of the war (after Virginia and Tennessee). Missouri was the nation’s primary mule producer for decades, which was especially important as our country fought World War I.
Let’s drop a few names: Thomas Hart Benton, Yogi Berra, George Caleb Bingham, Daniel Boone, Omar Bradley, Jack Buck and Harry Caray, Dale Carnegie, George Washington Carver, “Champ” Clark, William Clark, Walter Cronkite, Walt Disney, T.S. Eliot, Redd Foxx, Ulysses S. Grant, Frank & Jesse James, Scott Joplin, Charles Lindbergh, Jerry Litton, Stan Musial, Carrie Nation, Satchel Paige, John J. Pershing, J.C. Penney, Joseph Pulitzer, Casey Stengel, Harry S. Truman, Sam Walton, Laura Ingalls Wilder, Tennessee Williams … don’t you wish you could have personally known these Missourians?
Missouri has more caves, more free-flowing streams and more types of wildflowers than any other state. You can visit more than 90 state parks, nearly 6,400 caves, more than 500 lakes and more than 30 rivers and creeks. The legislature also took action this year to recognize the fact that Missouri is the birth place of sliced bread (at Chillicothe), and the home to some of the best bourbon in the world.
Some of the best deer hunting anywhere is found in the Show-Me State. Last year a grand total of 290,470 deer were harvested. But did you know the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Survey commissioned a study in 2011 which reports wildlife watchers spent more than $940 million on equipment and travel to see what nature provides here!
Missouri has an amazing variety of mineral resources, including zinc and silver. It is also one of the leading lead producers in the nation. Missouri is also an important industrial and farming state. It is incredible to consider its diversity, from corn fields and soybeans in the north to cotton and rice fields in the Bootheel south … and all types of livestock between.
Any inventory of what makes us proud to be from Missouri would be remiss without this closing thought. The “Show Me State” got its nickname because of the devotion of its people to simple common sense. In 1899, it was Rep. Willard D. Vandiver who said, “Frothy eloquence neither convinces nor satisfies me. I’m from Missouri. You’ve got to show me.”