Missouri History

Two groups with distinct cultures emerged from our region’s first residents to dominate this land. Worshipful and warlike on an untouched landscape, the Osage and the Missouria did more than live here. For centuries, they ruled.

Each year there’s something new to see, and yet some components of the Fair date back from before Missouri actually had a designated State Fair. Let’s take a walk through time and look at some of the State Fair’s most proud traditions.

The Jeff”erson National Expansion Memorial has been renamed Gateway Arch National Park, opening a new chapter for the stainless steel monument and for the city of St. Louis.

Ste. Genevieve was established in 1735 by French-Canadian colonists. It was the first ever settlement by Europeans in Missouri.

The National Historic Landmark Village of Arrow Rock Embraces its Diverse Past.

There’s no other way to describe the Vaile Mansion during the holiday season. Each year, the Victorian Society—a volunteer group dedicated to the mansion’s preservation—selects a Christmas theme and begins to deck the halls of this historic Second Empire-style home.

What happens when a county tries to secede from the state?

This is the tale of a still-working stagecoach—now fondly named The Journey—that has operated in three different centuries—probably the only stagecoach in this country to do that—and how it is coming home to Missouri.

The residents of Lawrence, Kansas, would never forget what happened on August 21, 1863, if indeed they were lucky enough to survive. The reason for the bloody raid that left nearly two hundred men dead and caused between $1 million and $1.5 million in damage (in 1863 dollars) is still the subject of speculation.

It all began  with the bargain of the century. A savvy deal negotiated between France and the United States more than two hundred years ago would set the stage for the first major challenge of this young nation in the New World.