MISSOURI IS THE FULCRUM OF THE NATION

Geographically, Historically, and Culturally the Centerpiece and Counterbalance

What is the most important State of the so-called “United” ones?

By the way, Mexico (also a part of North America) calls itself “The United States” too, namely “The United Mexican States” (Estados Unidos Mexicanos) to be precise about it.

Anyway, I’m talking about the United States of northern North America (not Mexico) here. Or should I say that these 50 States are actually located in central North America, as Canada – and even Greenland – are also part of North America?

Whatever. You know what I mean (I suppose). My subject here is those United States which stretch from Hawaii in the southwest to Maine in the northeast, and from Alaska in the northwest to Florida at the opposite corner. Or, if you want to leave out the outliers, from California to Maine and from Washington State to Florida. Of these States, you could be forgiven for thinking that the most important one is New York, or California, or Texas (based on population and size) or even Virginia, Massachusetts, or Ohio (based on historical significance). In reality, though, Missouri is the answer to the question posed at the outset.

Missouri is the heart and soul, and the fulcrum, of the United States of America. This conclusion is arrived at after taking into account the relevant geographical, historical, and cultural factors.

Let’s examine those three great factors briefly, one at a time.

MISSOURI IS THE GEOGRAPHICAL CENTER OF THE U.S.

Take a look at a map of the United States of America:

It’s true that the literal geographical center of the contiguous U.S. is not in Missouri. The precise midpoint of the nation has been pinpointed as being in Potwin, Kansas. Kansas is Missouri’s neighbor to the west – a State with which Missouri shares Kansas City. It can still be said, though, that Missouri is the center in a stylistic kind of way. This is because Missouri is not itself really a part of any cardinal quadrant of the U.S.

To illustrate that, we can ask ourselves, Is Missouri part of the South? Not really. After all, would a southern State border Iowa, Illinois, Kansas, and Nebraska?

So then, is Missouri a northern State? No again, as it also borders Arkansas and strips of Kentucky and Tennessee, as well as what was once considered a barren desert and called Indian Territory (today known as the State of Oklahoma).

The northern border of Missouri is closer to Canada than it is to the Gulf of Mexico, but the opposite is true at the southern edge of the State, a piece of which (“the Bootheel”) dips down into and is surrounded by Arkansas to the west and south, and Tennessee to the East.

So all would agree that Missouri’s neighbor to the north, Iowa, is definitely a northern State, and that Missouri’s neighbor to the south, Arkansas, is definitely a southern State, but Missouri itself is both and neither – Missouri is partly Northern, and partly Southern, but not really either.

How about East and West? Nobody would say Missouri is “back east,” even though it is closer to the Atlantic ocean than it is to the Pacific, and is also east of the literal geographic center of the Lower 48 in Lebanon, Kansas. The eastern Missouri frontier (at St. Joseph) is approximately 200 miles due east of that bullseye in the Sunflower State. As to being in the West, Missouri is on the west side of the Mississippi River, so it’s more west than it is east based on that natural boundary. But still, few people nowadays would consider Missouri to be a part of the West.

The famous Gateway Arch of St. Louis is commonly called “The Gateway to the West,” in celebration of America’s expansion in that direction. So if St. Louis is the gateway to the West, is it itself in the West, or is St. Louis rather the line of demarcation separating east from west – putting Missouri in no-quadrant land?

The point is that it is nebulous as to which region of the country Missouri is a part of. In a way it’s part of none of them, but also in a way it’s part of all of them. Which cannot be said of Lebanon, Kansas (the “geographically correct” center of the Country).

If one were to determine the center of the United States to be based on significant geographical features, rather than just mileage counts and longitude/latitude points, it could be said that the spot at which the nation’s too largest rivers, the Mississippi and the Missouri, converge, is the heart of the nation. That point is in Missouri, about ten miles north of St. Louis, and is circled in white on the map below:

Map made available by Peter Fitzgerald, CC BY 3.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0>, via Wikimedia Commons

Missouri and Tennessee are tied with the lead in how many other States each one borders, with eight. They share a border with each other, and have two others in common: Arkansas and Kentucky. Except for Missouri, every other State that Tennessee borders could be considered as being, as is Tennessee, part of the South. Only half of the States that Missouri shares borders with are considered part of the South: Arkansas, Kentucky, Tennessee, and Oklahoma.

MISSOURI IS THE LINCHPIN OF U.S. HISTORY

What about Missouri’s place in the history of the Nation? The uninitiated could be forgiven for thinking any of Massachusetts, Virginia, New York, Ohio, or even North Carolina was the key State, from a historical perspective. But consider some events which, taken together, prove that it’s actually Missouri which is the linchpin of U.S. history, its center of gravity, and the fulcrum of the nation:

THE LOUISIANA PURCHASE; 1803

On April 3rd, 1803, the biggest land sale in history took place in Paris, France. Thomas Jefferson had sent envoys to Paris to inquire about acquiring New Orleans and western Florida from France (who had recently acquired it from Spain, who had in turn taken it from the Indians).

Desperate for money and busy waging wars against Britain and a rebelling colonial populace in a place Napoleon Bonaparte called Saint-Domingue (and which had been called Hispaniola by Columbus, and which we now know as Haiti), the United States doubled in size when France unexpectedly agreed to sell, not just The Big Easy and western Florida, but all of what was then called “Louisiana” – a humongous tract of land stretching from the Mississippi River west to The Rockies. The price? Fifteen million dollars, or approximately 3 cents per acre (see the map in the next section below).

The first State to be formed from the “Louisiana Purchase” was Missouri. So a better name for that real estate transaction would have been “The Missouri Purchase.”

To get the details on the real estate bargain, read “A Wilderness So Immense: The Louisiana Purchase and the Destiny of America” by Jon Kukla

LEWIS & CLARK EXPEDITION; 1804-1806

Following closely on the heels of the acquisition of that enormous tract of land, in 1804 President Thomas Jefferson sent his secretary Meriwether Lewis, along with William Clark, as co-captains on an expedition to explore the property newly acquired in the Louisiana Purchase. Lewis & Clark were to explore the region generally, and endeavor to find a “Northwest Passage” – a route from the Pacific to the Mississippi River via waterways.

That intrepid pair, along with 40-odd-or-even others (including Sacajawea and her husband Toussaint Charbonneau) began their trip in Missouri, at the geographical and psychological center of gravity of the United States, ten miles north of St. Louis, at the confluence of the Missouri and Mississippi rivers.

For an account of the trip, read “Undaunted Courage: Meriwether Lewis, Thomas Jefferson, and the Opening of the American West” by Stephen Ambrose.

THE NEW MADRID EARTHQUAKE; 1811-1812

The monstrous series of earthquakes which began in late 1811 and carried over into early 1812, which were so massive in strength that they caused the Mississippi River to run backwards, swallowed steamboats, formed Reelfoot Lake in Tennessee, rang church bells one thousand miles distant in Boston, and were felt as far away as Montreal, Canada, was epicentered in New Madrid (pronounced MAD-rid, not Ma-DRID, like the capital city of Spain), Missouri. These were the greatest earthquakes in U.S. history. Not occurring in California, nor in Alaska, as one might expect, but in Missouri.

It is estimated that three in the series of quakes registered over 8.0 on the Richter scale. It is worth noting that each full number on the scale represents a force tenfold greater than the preceding full number—in other words, an 8.0 earthquake is ten times as strong as a 7.0 earthquake (such as the cataclysmic one that struck San Francisco in 1906).

For more information about the great quake, see “When the Mississippi Ran Backwards: Empire, Intrigue, Murder, and the New Madrid Earthquakes of 1811-12” by Jay Feldman

CALIFORNIA & OREGON TRAILS; 1811-1850, but especially the mid-1840s

From 1811 (prior to Missouri statehood) up until around 1850, thousands left for what was then considered “The Far West” of California and Oregon, starting out on the trails that led from Missouri in that direction. Specifically, the travelers left from near St. Louis or Independence or St. Joseph, for the most part – spots along the Missouri River. Thus Missouri played a major role in the westward expansion of the restless and ambitious.

For some first-hand accounts of what it was like on the trail in 1846, see the collection compiled by Dale L. Morgan, “Overland in 1846, Volume 1: Diaries and Letters of the California-Oregon Trail”

THE MISSOURI COMPROMISE; 1820

Wanting to keep a numerical balance between the number of free and slave States, the Missouri Compromise of 1820 simultaneously admitted Missouri as a slave State and Maine as free. While the land of lobster, moose, and Mainiacs had formerly been part of Massachusetts, Missouri was the first State formed from the land purchased from France in the so-called “Louisiana Purchase.”

If you are curious to know more about the ins and outs and repercussions of that, see “The Missouri Compromise and Its Aftermath: Slavery and the Meaning of America New edition” by Robert Pierce Forbes

GOTTFRIED DUDEN AND THE INFUSION OF GERMAN IMMIGRANTS; from the 1820s

From 1824 to 1827, Gottfried Duden sojourned from his native Germany to Missouri. His aim was to explore Missouri and experience life therein, and write about it, so as to encourage his fellow countrymen that Missouri was a prime location for them to emigrate to. He wrote a book entitled Bericht über eine Reise nach den westlichen Staaten Nordamerikas und einen mehrjährigen Aufenthalt am Missouri in den Jahren 1824 bis 1827 (translated into English as “Report of a journey to the western states of North America and a multi-year sojourn in the years 1824 through 1827”).

Note that the English title does not mention Missouri specifically, but the original German title did. A more accurate English translation of the German title would actually be, “Report of a journey to the western states of North America and a multi-year stay on the Missouri [River] in the years 1824 through 1827.”

The impact of Duden’s book was great, resulting in many Germans coming to America, and to Missouri in particular. Many of these German immigrants ended up in St. Louis (Duden had advertised St. Louis as a prime location for breweries to operate, and had noted the pressing need for such enterprises). Many other Germans scattered throughout the State, establishing themselves as farmers and tanners and such.

BORDER WARS & BUSHWHACKERS; 1854-1865

Kansas was not the only State bleeding in the years leading up to the Civil War. Outlaws and pro-confederate “Bushwhackers” such as Jesse and Frank James, William Quantrill, “Bloody Bill” Anderson and others robbed, killed, and terrorized abolitionists in western Missouri during the years leading up to the Civil War. In turn, radical abolitionist John Brown invaded Missouri from Kansas in 1858, attacking pro-slavery settlers there.

Missouri was a border State, situated between the pro-Union States of Illinois and Iowa, and the pro-Rebel States of Arkansas and Kentucky. The residents themselves were divided as to which side they supported; divided often times within households, and sometimes even within themselves. Samuel Clemens, for example, better known later as Mark Twain, personified this duality, as he at first temporarily joined an irregular pro-Confederacy outfit, but later renounced slavery and any support of the “peculiar institution.”

Ultimately, Missouri was slightly more Union than Rebel, and officially remained part of the Union, although a slave State. As mentioned earlier, the large numbers of German immigrants provided significant support to the Union cause. The influx of Germans not only influenced the culture and character of the State, it also had a profound impact on Missouri’s stance during the Civil War, in that the so-called “Lop-eared Dutch” (as ignoramuses called German immigrants) were usually loyal to the Union, and in many cases directly supported the Union side during that conflict. For a first-hand account of this, see the book “A History of Southern Missouri and Northern Arkansas” by William Monks. Captain Monks was from West Plains, Missouri (as were Dick Van Dyke and Porter Wagoner after him). Monks did battle with the Rebels all over his section of Missouri and even down into Arkansas at times.

PONY EXPRESS, 1860-1861

Although only in existence for a year-and-a-half (until telegraphs came into common usage, and obviated the need for it), the Pony Express played a role in westward expansion by providing a fast method of communication and conveyance of business matter.

Beginning on the western edge of Missouri, at St. Joseph, the pony riders (young, slight, brave lads were sought, preferably orphans) relayed their material to Sacramento, the capital of California, and in the other direction too, of course.

You can find out more about these stalwart youth by reading Jim DeFelice’s “West Like Lightning: The Brief, Legendary Ride of the Pony Express”

HARRY TRUMAN, PRESIDENT from 1945 to 1953; 1884-1972

Harry S. Truman of Lamar, Missouri, became President of the United States in 1945 after Franklin D. Roosevelt died shortly after being elected to an unprecedented third term. As this was during World War II, it was a stressful time for all, and especially trying for Truman. In fact, he expressed himself to some members of the press in this way shortly after his inauguration: “Boys, if you ever pray, pray for me now. I don't know if you fellas ever had a load of hay fall on you, but when they told me what happened yesterday, I felt like the moon, the stars, and all the planets had fallen on me.”

The man known to Missourians as “Uncle Harry” was in office at the time that the final decision had to be made on whether to drop the atomic bombs on Japan. In accord with the sign on his desk, “The Buck Stops Here,” Truman gave the order which led to the deaths of thousands in Japan and the eventual end of the second World War.

You might find “The Accidental President: Harry S. Truman and the Four Months That Changed the World” by A. J. Baime interesting.

MISSOURI IS THE CULTURAL STANDARD BEARER OF THE U.S.

MARK TWAIN; 1835-1910

You cannot separate Missouri from Mark Twain or Mark Twain from Missouri. If you search for books on “Missouri” at gutenberg.org, the first three “hits”--and five of the first six results--are books by Twain (the other one being the Journals of Lewis & Clark).

Twain, born Samuel Langhorne Clemens in the tiny hamlet of Florida, and raised a few dozen miles northeast of there in Hannibal on the Mississippi River, is the quintessential Missourian. Although he lived for many years in other States and countries, including Nevada, California, Connecticut, New York, and Italy, he never forgot his roots and always considered himself a Missourian. In a speech, he said of himself, “I am a border-ruffian from the State of Missouri. I am a Connecticut Yankee by adoption. In me, you have Missouri morals, Connecticut culture; this, gentlemen, is the combination which makes the perfect man.”

During his lifetime, Twain had nicknames such as “The King” (long before Elvis Presley) and “The Belle of New York.” He was considered the most recognizable person on earth during the last decades of his life. Thomas Edison said the only thing that people loved more than Mark Twain was their own family. William Dean Howells called his friend Mark Twain “The Lincoln of Our Literature.”

Twain’s most famous works are the novels The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, both set in Missouri, but possibly his best non-fiction work, Life on the Mississippi, is also about Missouri, most particularly his years as a steamboatman on that great River.

DICK VAN DYKE; Born 1925

Dick Van Dyke was born in West Plains, Missouri, in 1925. Van Dyke is a comedian, actor, dancer, writer, and singer who makes the Energizer Bunny look like a sloth on tranquilizers. He is still going strong at 94.

Among many other things, Van Dyke starred in the eponymous Dick Van Dyke Show from 1961-1966. The “marriage” of Rob (Van Dyke) and Laura (Mary Tyler Moore) Petrie in that show was a union made, so to speak, in Hollywood heaven. In the middle of that run, Van Dyke starred as a singing, dancing chimney sweep in the Walt Disney movie Mary Poppins.

Dick Van Dyke is quite simply the greatest and most multi-talented entertainer of at least the last century. This, of course, is an opinion and cannot be scientifically proven – the same as my opinion that Missouri is the State of States cannot be indisputably proven using facts and figures. Yes, it is just my opinion that Van Dyke is the cream of the crop; others, with less experience, less refined taste, and duller perception may differ with me in that humble opinion.

By the way, author, educator, diplomat, and clergyman Henry Van Dyke officiated at Mark Twain’s funeral. It is unknown how closely Henry and Dick are related (we are all related, of course – we are all cousins at some degree of remove – but Henry and Dick are probably more closely related than any of us are to either of them).

DANIEL BOONE; 1734-1820

Daniel Boone didn’t live quite long enough to see his beloved Missouri become a State in 1821. As Boone’s life neared its close, he made it known that he wanted to be buried in Missouri, the place he chose as his home, and considered it would be a terrible plight to spend eternity in Kentucky dirt, a State he loathed because he thought it had cheated him out of land.

WALT DISNEY; 1901-1966

Walt Disney was born in Chicago, but grew up in Marceline and later Kansas City, Missouri.

Disney’s impact on U.S. culture probably cannot be overstated by any rational person.

Walt Disney did not shy away from emphasizing, albeit indirectly, his Missouri connections. For instance, consider the Mark Twain Riverboat at Disneyland; a 1964 television series on Daniel Boone; Disney’s use of Dick Van Dyke in Mary Poppins, as mentioned above; and even Micky Mouse’s adventures as “Steamboat Willie.” After all, when you think of steamboats, what body of water comes to your mind? The Mississippi River, of course. And when you think of steamboat pilots, who comes to mind? Mark Twain, naturally.

GEORGE WASHINGTON CARVER; 1860s to 1943

The most prominent black scientist and environmentalist of the last century, George Washington Carver, of Diamond, Missouri (in the southwest portion of the State), promoted agricultural practices that preserved the soil. He urged crop diversification. As an example, he advocated for the cultivation of peanuts and sweet potatoes rather than just cotton everywhere and all the time.

See “George Washington Carver: In His Own Words”

SHEPHERD OF THE HILLS; 1907

Regardless of what critics may say about it, or even what you might think of it, Harold Bell Wright’s novel The Shepherd of the Hills was and is immensely popular.

It is the tale of a man who moves to the Ozarks from the city and forms attachments with the residents of that region. Their relationship to one another and the land is depicted, and how they cope with tragedies.

Branson, Missouri, is a popular tourist area in the Ozarks which capitalizes on the enduring popularity of the book. Branson and the area around it is also home to many other attractions, such as Silver Dollar City and Dolly Parton’s theme parks.

OZARK MOUNTAIN DAREDEVILS; 1972-Present

The Ozark Mountain Daredevils are a hillbilly-rock band from the Springfield, Missouri area. They are criminally underappreciated and are quite possibly the best relatively unknown band extant.

Their album, Time Warp: The Very Best of The Ozark Mountain Daredevils includes such gems as Jackie Blue, It Probably Always Will, Country Girl, You Made it Right, If You Wanna Get to Heaven, and It’ll Shine When it Shines.

Here is a gallery of a (baker’s) dozen of the top figures of Missouri:

From top to bottom, left to right: TOP ROW: Mark Twain; Dick Van Dyke; a couple of Missouri Mules; Tom Sawyer & Huckleberry Finn; MIDDLE ROW: The Mississippi River at St. Louis with Gateway Arch; George Washington Carver; Daniel Boone; Gottfried Duden’s book encouraging Germans to relocate to Missouri; BOTTOM ROW: Walt Disney; a map of The Ozarks; Albert Lee Benjamin Kollenborn; William Monks.

NOTE: The penultimate person pictured, Albert Lee Benjamin Kollenborn, was my maternal grandfather. He was born in Brunswick, Missouri, just north of the Missouri River, in 1907. Hey, this is my newsletter and I can choose who I want to induct into “The Missouri Dozen.”

THE WRAPUP

It is true that I could have written about many other people and events. Just to name a handful, included among those left out are the kidnapped man (“slave”) Dred Scott; authors Laura Ingalls Wilder (who spent the last six decades of her life in Mansfield), Homer Croy (author of “West of the Water Tower” and “They Had to See Paris”), E.W. Howe (author of “The Story of a Country Town”), and William Least Heat-Moon (author of “Blue Highways”); the “Unsinkable” Molly Brown; the poets T.S. Eliot and Sara Teasdale; sharpshooter and rabble-rouser Martha Canary (“Calamity Jane”); the 1904 St. Louis World’s Fair, and the movie about it in which Judy Garland starred, namely Meet Me in St. Louis.

Among the most noteworthy of Missouri musicians not mentioned above are The Dillards (who appeared several times on The Andy Griffith Show), John Hartford, Sheryl Crow, and a person whom I would mention as a very influential rock ‘n’ roll guitarist of the 1950s, but would rather not, due to the fact that he was a convicted sex felon and for that reason does not merit positive recognition. But then again, I did mention Jesse James and his ilk above, so I guess it’s only “fair” to divulge this person’s name, too, for historical reasons if nothing else: Chuck Berry, of Wentzville.

And all of that is without even mentioning (except here, in passing) the many professional sports teams that have meant so much to Missourians over the years, such as the St. Louis Cardinals (the baseball team) and the Kansas City Chiefs, in particular. Had we gone down that road, the first Super Bowl would have been briefly covered, in which the Chiefs represented the erstwhile American Football League. Also worthy of being recounted are the many World Series championships won by Cardinals teams featuring Stan Musial, Lou Brock, Bob Gibson, Ozzie “The Wizard of Oz” Smith, Albert Pujols, et al. Lawrence Peter “Yogi” Berra was also from Missouri (St. Louis).

Thus ends the slew of evidence and proofs that Missouri is the most important State in the Nation. If you think you’ve got a better argument for some other State bearing that title or wearing that crown: Show Me!

Clay Shannon is the author of the book “Rebel With A Cause: Mark Twain’s Hidden Memoirs”