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The state of MISSOURI , where the forest meets the prairie and
the Missouri River meets the Missouri River, has just two significant
cities. Dominant St Louis sits midway down its eastern fringe; Kansas
City is almost directly across on the western border. The pair are
linked by I-70, but there's not much in between to warrant stopping
off. In contrast, the south features the beautiful hillsides, streams
and ragged lakes of the Ozark Mountains , as well as the booming
country-and-western town of Branson ; while in the east , small
river towns such as Hannibal and serene Ste Genevieve brighten the
course of the Missouri. The northwest , home of the Pony Express
and outlaw Jesse James, still strikes up images of frontier times.
Although the first French colonists honored the claims of local
Native Americans, such as the original Missouri, when the area was
sold to the US in 1803 as part of the Louisiana Purchase, the Indians
were driven west by a great rush of settlers. In the 1840s and 1850s
immigrants from Germany and Ireland flooded into eastern Missouri.
Outnumbering their pro-slavery predecessors, they swung the balance
in favor of staying in the Union during the Civil War. However,
Confederate guerrilla forces attracted considerable support among
slave-owners in the west of the state. Meanwhile Missouri, and St
Louis in particular, was establishing itself as an important gateway
to the West. Today, the " Show Me State " (so called because
of the supposed skepticism of the typical Missourian) retains a
conservative air, particularly in the rural areas.
The central corridor between St Louis and Kansas City is well served
by Greyhound ; the journey takes around six hours. Chicago and Memphis
are both five hours from St Louis. Infrequent Greyhound buses run
through the southeast, to Springfield and a few Ozark towns, but
you'll need a car to see the mountains and the river towns in the
north. St Louis (TWA's main hub) and Kansas City have major airports
. Daily Amtrak trains from Chicago run to St Louis, from where direct
connections can be made to Kansas City, San Antonio, Fort Worth
and Little Rock. For keen cyclists, there's the popular Katy Trail
, which stretches 230 miles from St Charles to Clinton.
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