How Did Missouri Choose its Capitol? From Humble Beginnings

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Apr 212019
 

As Cole County, home of our state capitol, and the state of Missouri approach their 200th year, the Jefferson City News Tribune (April 21) has posted an interesting article about the origins of our state capitol and Cole County.

Steel engraving of Missouri’s second capitol from an 1852 Meyers’ Universum, published in Germany. (and page 292, Damming the Osage)

As part of the congressional legislation to establish Missouri as a state, a commission was created to find a suitable site for the State Capital. Jesse Boone of Montgomery County, John White of Pike County, Robert Watson of New Madrid, and John Thornton of Howard County were appointed commissioners to locate this site. With the Missouri River running across the center of the state, this was the most logical choice, and the commission was directed to choose a site within 40 miles of the mouth of the Osage River. Since rivers were the maritime highways to get across Missouri, this made the most sense.

In Damming the Osage, we delved briefly into the role that river played in the establishment of the newly carved out state of Missouri and the creation of its capitol. See our earlier blog post on the subject as well.

COMING THIS FALL: JAMES FORK OF THE WHITE

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Jun 102017
 

In 2012 we published a 304-page book about the transformation of a big, muddy river that rises in the tall grass Kansas prairie then cuts into the northern flank of the Ozark uplift before emptying into the even muddier Missouri River. Damming the Osage is a history of engineering interventions justified by questionable hydrologic theories. Human cupidity orchestrated many of these unharmonious projects.

This October, we will publish our second “river book”: James Fork of the White: Transformation of an Ozark River. In this we look at the watershed of the river that rises in Webster County near Marshfield, wends its way to Springfield, running along its eastern edge and then drains south to Table Rock. The James – unlike the Osage – feels the effects of a major metropolitan area on its watershed. The James was a storied Ozark float stream; the Osage, a prairie-born, rich but unspectacular stream, home to a prehistoric fish.

The James is definitely a different river and this is a different book. More pages (352), more illustrations (because we have more pages!) to examine, discuss and showcase that different river and the people who live and recreate along its course.

Look for it this fall!

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