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Missouri
The Show-Me State, meeting of the great rivers
Missouri sits where the two greatest rivers of the continent come together — the Missouri River crossing the state from west to east to join the Mississippi just above St. Louis. That confluence made the state a gateway: the jumping-off point for westward expansion and a hub of river and rail. North of the Missouri lies flat-to-rolling glaciated plain — south of it rise the Ozark Mountains, a rugged, spring-fed highland of forest, caves, and clear float streams that covers much of the southern half.
The Ozarks give Missouri its wild interior — thousands of caves earn it the label "The Cave State," and limestone springs feed rivers prized by paddlers. Taum Sauk Mountain, the high point at 1,772 feet (540 m), rises among the ancient St. Francois Mountains, some of the oldest exposed rock in the country. The bootheel in the far southeast dips into flat Mississippi Delta farmland. Kansas City and St. Louis bracket the state at its river crossings, anchoring a place long defined as the meeting point of North, South, and West.
Economy
Missouri has a diversified economy split between its two big metros: aerospace and defense manufacturing, brewing, and biosciences around St. Louis, and financial services, logistics, and agribusiness around Kansas City. Between them, the state is a major producer of soybeans, corn, cattle, and hogs, and a national transportation crossroads on the Mississippi and Missouri rivers.
Politics
Missouri carries 10 electoral votes and was for a century one of the most accurate bellwethers in the country, voting for the winner of nearly every presidential election from 1904 to 2004. It has since become reliably Republican, with St. Louis and Kansas City as Democratic islands in a Republican state.