Missouri

Article Outline

Introduction; Physical Geography; Economic Activities; The People of Missouri; Education and Cultural Institutions; Recreation and Places of Interest; Government; History

Mining

Missouri is first in the nation in production of lead. While lead ores are found in scattered locations in the Ozark Upland, the main concentrations and mining areas are in and around the Saint Francois Mountains, near the eastern end of the Ozark crest. The French began producing lead there in the early 1700s, and since the American Civil War (1861-1865) this region has been the foremost center of lead mining in the United States.

Due to its high production of lead, crushed stone, and lime, Missouri ranks among the top ten mining states for nonfuel minerals. Among the minerals quarried or mined in the state is limestone. Quarries in the Ozarks supply commercial lime plants in the southern part of the state as well as cement mills in various areas. In 1997 Missouri ranked first among the states in lime production. Ornamental granite, limestone (marketed under the trade name of marble), and sandstone are quarried in a number of Ozark counties.

Zinc was long mined in the western part of the Ozarks, around the city of Joplin in southwestern Missouri. This region was part of a tri-state mining area that extended into Kansas and Oklahoma. The Missouri section of the area was the first to be exploited on a large scale, and production there has now ceased. However, because zinc is contained in the lead ores mined in the eastern Ozarks, enough zinc is still produced to rank Missouri fourth among the states. Copper and silver are also produced as byproducts of lead smelting.

A number of other minerals also contribute to the Missouri economy. Bituminous coal underlies the Osage Plains and most of the Northern Plains. It is mined at scattered locations, chiefly in the Osage Plains, almost entirely by strip mining coal seams that lie close to the surface. Although reserves are large, thin seams and a high sulfur content have limited production, which has declined significantly since the mid-1980s. Barite, a mineral used in drilling oil and gas wells, is also produced in the state. Although the quantity extracted is relatively small, Missouri was the nation’s third leading barite producer in the late 1990s. Missouri ranks first in the production of refractory, or fire, clays that withstand extremely high temperatures. Small quantities of other minerals, such as common clays and petroleum, are extracted in various parts of the state. Iron-ore deposits are mined in the Ozark Upland. Crushed stone and construction sand and gravel account for the largest share of the value of the mining output.

Manufacturing

Missouri is one of the leading manufacturing states west of the Mississippi, with a value added by industry of $45 billion in 2006. Manufacturing is highly diversified. Leading industries are the manufacture of transportation equipment, especially motor vehicles, railroad cars, and aircraft and missiles; the processing of foods, especially malt beverages, soft drinks, meat, poultry and eggs, blended flour, and preserved fruits and vegetables; the production of chemicals, including soaps and detergents, agricultural chemicals, and pharmaceuticals; and printing and publishing. A wide variety of industrial machinery is manufactured in Missouri, including refrigeration and heating equipment, engines, farm machinery, tools and dies, construction machinery, and industrial furnaces. The fabrication of metal into basic parts, especially for construction, occupies many workers.

Manufacturing in Missouri is concentrated in the metropolitan areas centered on St. Louis and Kansas City, although a number of smaller cities have some industry. St. Louis marks the western end of the great manufacturing belt that extends through the Northeastern and North-Central states. St. Louis, together with the part of its metropolitan area that lies in Illinois, accounts for more than half of the total manufacturing employment in the state. This area has long been known for the wide variety of goods it produces. The St. Louis metropolitan area is one of the leading centers for brewing and baking in the country. It is also a leading automobile, aircraft, spacecraft, and missile producing area. Other manufactures are chemicals, primary metals, nonelectrical machinery, fabricated metals, petroleum and coal products, electrical equipment, and stone, clay, and glass products. St. Louis is also a center for the printing and publishing industries. St. Louis is the corporate headquarters of several of the nation’s largest companies.

The Kansas City metropolitan area accounts for more than one-fourth of the state’s industry. Like that of St. Louis, the Kansas City metropolitan area lies in two states. Its industrial structure, although much smaller than that of the St. Louis area, is as diverse. The industries that are important in St. Louis are also significant in Kansas City, with the exception of aircraft manufacturing and petroleum and coal processing. The city is a national center for meat-packing and grain milling, although meat-packing is done largely in the Kansas part of the metropolitan area. Kansas City is one of the national centers for agribusiness.

Electricity

Of the electricity generated in Missouri in 2006, 89 percent came from steam-driven power plants principally burning coal, 11 percent came from a nuclear power plant, and 1 percent came from hydroelectric power plants. The state’s only nuclear power plant, located near Fulton, began operation in 1984. Among the best known of the hydroelectric plants is Bagnell Dam, built on the Osage River in 1931. It supplies electricity to the St. Louis area. St. Louis also obtains hydroelectric power from the Keokuk, Iowa, and the Taum Sauk dams.

Transportation

Missouri’s two major cities, St. Louis and Kansas City, are its principal centers of transportation and trade. Both were commercial centers by the time of the Civil War, when the Mississippi River and its tributaries were the principal transportation routes of the central United States. Later the two cities became the major railroad and highway centers for the state.

Missouri has 207,802 km (129,122 mi) of public highways, which ranks it sixth among the states. These roads, which include 1,901 km (1,181 mi) of national interstate highways, enable Missouri and its principal cities to continue playing their historic role as links between the East, West, and Southwest.

St. Louis is the focal point for river transportation and is the nation’s largest inland riverport. The Missouri River has a channel 2.3 m (7.5 ft) deep throughout most of its length, while the Mississippi can be used by riverboats drawing 2.7 m (9 ft).

Many of the country’s largest railroads serve Missouri, and haul principally food products, farm products, and transportation equipment. Railroad track in the state totals 6,634 km (4,122 mi).

The chief airports in the state are in St. Louis in the east and Kansas City in the west. St. Louis was the country’s tenth busiest airport in the mid-1990s and acts as a transportation hub for much of the surrounding region. Missouri has 10 airports, most of them private airfields.

The People of Missouri

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Population Patterns

Missouri had a population of 5,595,211 in 2000, according to the national census. That was 9.3 percent more than in 1990, when the state had a population of 5,117,073. The average population density in 2006 was 33 persons per sq km (85 per sq mi). The density is lowest in the rugged central portion of the Ozark Upland and in the rolling farmlands of the north.