Missouri State Symbols

 Missouri’s nickname is the “Show-Me State.”  Term coined by U.S. Congressman Willard Duncan Vandiver in 1899  "I come from a state that raises corn and cotton and cockleburs and Democrats, and frothy eloquence neither convinces nor satisfies me. I am from Missouri. You have got to show me."

 Jefferson City  Pop. 40,771 (Metro area is 140,000)  About 150 miles from Kansas City

 Bluebird  Symbol of happiness  6.5 to 7 in long  Common from early spring until late November

 Honeybee

 The Missouri Waltz  Adopted June 30 th, 1949  First written in 1914

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 Flowering Dogwood  Usually less than 40 feet tall  Greenish-yellow flower clusters

 White Hawthorn Blossom  Also called the “Red Haw” or “White Haw”  More than 75 different species grow in Missouri  Member of the Great Rose Family

 Missouri was named after a tribe called Missouri Indians; meaning "town of the large canoes”  In 1865 Missouri became the first slave state to free its slaves  The first ever parachute jump was in St. Louis in 1912  Ice Tea was first served at the 1904 Word’s Fair in St. Louis, along with the Ice Cream Cone  Kansas City has more miles of boulevards than Paris and more fountains than any city except Rome.  Kansas City has more miles of freeway per capita than any metro area with more than 1 million residents  The tallest man on record was from St. Louis, he was 8 feet 11 inches