Jefferson City
Missouri
capital of the U.S. state of Missouri
Jefferson City is the capital of the U.S. state of Missouri and the county seat of Cole County. A small portion of the city extends into Callaway County. It is the principal city of the Jefferson City metropolitan area, which encompasses the entirety of both counties. As of the 2010 census, the population was 43,079 making it the 15th largest city in Missouri. Jefferson City was named after Thomas Jefferson, the third president of the United States.
Jefferson City is on the northern edge of the Ozark Plateau on the southern side
of the Missouri River near the geographic center of the state, in a region known
as Mid-Missouri. It is at the western edge of the Missouri Rhineland, one of the
major wine-producing regions of the Midwest. The city is dominated by the domed
Capitol, rising from a bluff overlooking the Missouri River to the north. Lewis
and Clark passed beneath that bluff on their historic expedition upriver before
Europeans established any settlement there.
In pre-Columbian times, this region was home of an ancient people known only as
the Mound Builders. By the time European settlers began arriving, the Mound
Builders had vanished into history. The contemporary indigenous peoples were
called the Osage Indians. When the Missouri Territory was organized in 1812, St.
Louis was the seat of government. St. Charles next served as the capital.
In the middle of the state, Jefferson City was chosen as the new capital in 1821
while Thomas Jefferson was actually still alive. The village was first called
Lohman's Landing. When the legislature decided to relocate there, they proposed
the name "Missouriopolis" but later settled on Jefferson City. For years, the
village was little more than a trading post located in the wilderness about
midway between St. Louis and Kansas City. In 1826, the Missouri legislature
first met here and in 1839 the settlement was incorporated as a city.
Jefferson City was selected as the site for a state prison and, in 1836, the
Missouri State Penitentiary was opened. The prison was home to a number of
infamous Americans, including: former heavyweight champion Sonny Liston,
assassin James Earl Ray, and bank robber Charles "Pretty Boy" Floyd. During the
American Civil War, Jefferson City was occupied by Union troops. Many of the
people in the state supported the Union, although Missouri's Little Dixie
section was strongly pro-Confederate along the Missouri river between Jefferson
City and Kansas City.
Sketch of Jefferson City, Missouri from the 1860s
German immigrants created vineyards in small towns on either side of the
Missouri River, especially on the north from Jefferson City east to
Marthasville, outside St. Louis. Known as the Missouri Rhineland for its
vineyards, first established by German immigrants in the mid-19th century, this
area has become a part of the agricultural and tourist economy.
Text from Wikipedia
bridge across the Missouri River
Music in the Osarks
