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Missouri (/mɪˈzʊəri/ miz-OOR-ee) is a landlocked state in the Midwestern region of the United States. Ranking 21st in land area, it borders Iowa to the north, Illinois, Kentucky and Tennessee to the east, Arkansas to the south and Oklahoma, Kansas, and Nebraska to the west. In the south are the Ozarks, a forested highland, providing timber, minerals, and recreation. The Missouri River, after which the state is named, flows through the center and into the Mississippi River, which makes up the eastern border. With over six million residents, it is the 18th-most populous state of the country. The largest urban areas are St. Louis, Kansas City, Springfield, and Columbia; the capital is Jefferson City.

Humans have inhabited present-day Missouri for at least 12,000 years. The Mississippian culture, which emerged at least in the ninth century, built cities and mounds before declining in the 14th century. When European explorers arrived in the 17th century, they encountered the Osage and Missouria nations. The French incorporated the territory into Louisiana, founding Ste. Genevieve in 1735 and St. Louis in 1764. After a brief period of Spanish rule, the United States acquired Missouri as part of the Louisiana Purchase in 1803. Americans from the Upland South rushed into the new Missouri Territory; Missouri played a central role in the westward expansion of the United States. Missouri was admitted as a slave state as part of the Missouri Compromise of 1820. As a border state, Missouri's role in the American Civil War was complex, and it was subject to rival governments, raids, and guerilla warfare. After the war, both Greater St. Louis and the Kansas City metropolitan area became centers of industrialization and business.

Today the state is divided into 114 counties and the independent city of St. Louis. Missouri has been called the "Mother of the West", the "Cave State", and the "Show Me State". Its culture blends elements of the Midwestern and Southern United States. It is the birthplace of the musical genres ragtime, Kansas City jazz and St. Louis blues. The well-known Kansas City-style barbecue, and the lesser-known St. Louis-style barbecue, can be found across the state and beyond. (Full article...)

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A head and torso photograph of a United States general during the American Civil War. He is looking to the right, almost in profile. He has fairly short, dark hair and a short beard that is mostly grey.
Major General John C. Frémont

The Frémont Emancipation was part of a military proclamation issued by Major General John C. Frémont (1813–1890) on August 30, 1861, in St. Louis, Missouri during the early months of the American Civil War. The proclamation placed the state of Missouri under martial law and decreed that all property of those bearing arms in rebellion would be confiscated, including slaves, and that confiscated slaves would subsequently be declared free. It also imposed capital punishment for those in rebellion against the federal government.

Frémont, a career army officer, frontiersman and politician, was in command of the military Department of the West from July 1861 to October 1861. Although Frémont claimed his proclamation was intended only as a means of deterring secessionists in Missouri, his policy had national repercussions, potentially setting a highly controversial precedent that the Civil War would be a war of liberation. (Full article...)
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Mozarkite

Mozarkite is a form of chert (flint). It is the state rock of Missouri. The name is a portmanteau, formed from Mo (Missouri), zark (Ozarks), and ite (meaning rock).

Mozarkite consists essentially of silica (quartz - SiO2) with varying amounts of chalcedony. It has won distinction as a particular form or variety of chert because of its unique variation of colors and its ability to take a high polish. It has the hardness of 7-7.5 on the Mohs scale, which qualifies it as a suitable material for semi-precious gemstone, and has a density of about 2.65 g/cm3. Typically, the colors are different hues of red, pink, and purple with varying tints of green, gray and brown. It is collected and admired by lapidarists across the country. (Full article...)
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