Things to do / Travel Guide
St. Louis, Missouri and Westward Expansion
After close to 150 years of French and Spanish exploration and ownership, Napoleon sold the territory, including Missouri and Arkansas, to President Thomas Jefferson in 1803 as part of the vast Louisiana Purchase. The strategic location of St. Louis put it at the epicenter of Westward expansion and commerce up and down the Mississippi River System. Produce arrives in St. Louis from as far away as New York, via the Erie Canal, the Great Lakes and the Ohio River. Hundreds of steamboats plied their trade up and down the river. Much of this trade was to supply Americans heading west, including those headed to Gold Rush California. Later, the Pony Express began a regular run from St. Joseph, Missouri.
Missouri and Arkansas during the Civil War
The Missouri compromise marked the new state of Missouri as a slave state, yet Missourians rejected the idea of seceding from the Union. Missouri was also home to a significant population of freed slaves. The result was great suffering as a divided state in a divided country, with a strategic location to boot. Arkansas, however, managed to avoid much of the violence of the Civil War years
Historical Attractions in Kansas City, St. Louis, Branson and the Ozarks of Missouri and Arkansas
History
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