John Cletheroe's
USA and Canada Holiday Hints

Missouri - Introduction

Area

69,709 square miles. 21st largest state of the USA.

Furthest North to Furthest South

285 miles.

Furthest East to Furthest West

305 miles.

Population Density

73 per square mile.

Licence Plate

Background: Rust red.

Image: None.

Text: "Missouri - Show-me State".

The expression "Show-me State" comes from the idea that people from Missouri want to see visible proof of anything before they will believe it.

Jan McDaniel of Miller County, Missouri (east of Lake of the Ozarks and south of the capital, Jefferson City) kindly emailed me the following update in May 2000:

Missouri licence plates are different now. I understand some federal mandate requires all licence plates to have some graphic on them. Don't know if that's true. Missouri plates are white on the top half with a green all-caps "Missouri" in the top centre, underlined by a navy blue wavy line which denotes the Missouri River, and other rivers in the state, as well, I hear. This wavy line caused quite an uproar when the new plates came out. Folks didn't think it looked like a river. The bottom half of the plate is perhaps two-thirds light blue turning to an almost kelly green on the last one-third of the bottom half. Characters on non-personalised plates are three letters followed by three numbers and coloured navy blue.