What to see in Missouri, useful information including history, territory and climatic characteristics of the state located in the Midwest of the United States of America, with Jefferson City as its capital.
Tourist information
Missouri is a state belonging to the federation of the United States located in the Midwest, has Jefferson City as its capital even if the largest city is Kansas City and is crossed by the Mississippi and Missouri rivers, the latter tributary of the former.
Missouri was included in the union of the United States of America in 1821, after belonging to France as a colony.
In the past it has constituted a first point of settlement for all those intending to settle in the West of the USA and for this nicknamed Gateway to the West.
It is one of two states in the US that has eight neighboring states including Iowa, Illinois, Kentucky, Tennessee, Arkansas, Kansas, Oklahoma and Nebraska.
The Mississippi River traces the eastern border while Missouri, which crosses it transversely from west to east, connects the two cities of Kansas City and Saint Louis.
In the northern part of the Missouri River are the Northern Plains which merge with those of Iowa and Nebraska, creating an almost totally flat landscape.
The state of Missouri is usually considered to be a Midwestern state although it could largely be a Southern state.
The reason for this subtlety lies in the fact that the major urban areas are located in the Midwest while the southern part is mainly agricultural and located in a territory that would geographically belong to the Southern United States.
The local climate of the northern part of the territory is humid and continental, with therefore very cold winters and sultry summers.
Moving south, the climate is subtropical.
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What see
Another characteristic flat area is the Ozark plateau that occupies much of southern Missouri up to Arkansas and whose main inhabited center is Springfield.
To the southeast is Bootheel or boot heel which represents the part with the lowest altitude and largely covered by plains belonging to the Mississippi basin.
This area is typically affected by many rains and on various occasions it has been the epicenter of various destructive earthquakes including that which took place in new Madrid in 1812.
Since there are neither large mountains nor important masses of water, the summer and winter rainy phenomena are due to the large masses of cold air that come from the Arctic and to those of hot air that come from the Gulf of Mexico.
In winter it often snows and the major peaks of rain are concentrated between the months of March and June in which tornadoes also often occur.
Located at the confluence of the Kansas River in Missouri right on the border between the state of Missouri and Kansas, Kansas City includes the counties of Jackson, Clay, Cass and Platte.
