USA > Missouri

North Region

Denizens of Missouri's northwest corner played memorable parts in the drama that was the West. Native Americans, explorers, vagabonds, cowpokes, prospectors, card players and outlaws as well as combinations of the above left their imprint on the area. The 19th Century is alive and kicking in St. Joseph, home of the legendary, short-lived Pony Express. Red-brick Pike's Peak Stables, now a museum, enshrines the Express days. The Patee House Museum, original headquarters, now exhibits 1800s lifeways. Next door is the house where bank and train bandit Jesse James Home lived out his latter days until being shot by Bob Ford in 1882.

Chariton Valley in northcentral Missouri is a place of scenery, history and recreation. Kirksville enjoys these attributes with nearby Hazel Creek Lake and Thousand Hills State Park. Kirksville College of Osteopathic Medicine, the world's first, maintains the Still Osteopathic Museum on its campus. Novinger is home to the Coal Miners Museum, and sprawling Rothwell Park at Moberly celebrates the life of World War II general Omar Bradley Birthplace, who grew up near here.

Missouri's northeastern area is Mark Twain country. The tiny cabin which was his birthplace in 1835 lies within Mark Twain State Park. Hannibal, the Mississippi River town that prompted many of Twain's great stories, contains a faithfully restored historic district, which includes the author's boyhood home and a museum.

Kansas City, on the western border with Kansas, is famous for jazz, steaks and barbecue. City Market, in downtown, is home to the Arabia Steamboat Museum, housing many artifacts of an 1856 wreck.

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