14 Reasons The Entire Country Should Be Thankful For Missouri

In 2004, Missouri had 106,000 farms (second in the United States) covering 30.1 million acres and with about 12.4 million acres harvested that year. Missouri's agricultural income reached $5.57 billion in 2005, 15th among the 50 states. Missouri is fourth in the country in grain sorghum production, fifth in soybeans and sixth in rice. Other major crops include corn, wheat, hay, cotton, tobacco, oats, rye, apples, peaches, grapes, watermelons, and various seed crops.

Besides ice cream cones, other foods attributed to be introduced at the 1904 World's Fair in St. Louis include hot dogs, hamburgers, banana splits, iced tea, Dr Pepper, cotton candy and peanut butter.

In spite of its proximity to Kansas City and the presence of a small university, Parkville is just one town in Missouri that has managed to maintain its small town image and feel. It is among the best day-trip destinations from Kansas City.

Pictured is Kansas City's Country Club Plaza, a well known hub for food, history and downtown Missouri culture.

Missouri's most popular author by far is Mark Twain (Samuel Langhorne Clemens, 1835–1910), well-known for his classics including the Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1876) and Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1884), written based on his boyhood in Hannibal.

The first bread-slicing machine was invented in Chillicothe, paving the way for sandwich-makers everywhere!

Hall brothers, Joyce, Rollie, and William, took their growing book and postcard business to Kansas City in 1910 and there they founded the Hallmark Cards gift card company, soon dominating the market nationally.

Centrally located, Missouri is the leading US transportation center. Both St. Louis and Kansas City are hubs of rail, truck, and airline transportation.

Missouri is the top lead-producing state in the United States, accounting for over 50% of the nation's output. The state was also ranked (by value) in 2003 as first in the production of lime and in fire clay, third in zinc and fuller's earth, fifth in crushed stone and portland cement, and sixth in silver.

Missouri has well over 162 museums and historic sites.

At 630 feet, it is the tallest man-made national monument in the United States. Designed by Eero Saarinen in 1948 but not constructed until three years after his death in 1964, the arch and the Museum of Westward Expansion form part of the Jefferson National Expansion Memorial on the western shore of the Mississippi River.

With 1,375 miles of shoreline, the Lake of the Ozarks is one of the most popular vacation spots in mid-America.