6 things Missouri wants to show you

1. "The Show-Me State" isn't the state's official nickname. Missouri doesn't have an official nickname.

2. The mean center of U.S. population in 2010 was in Plato, Missouri. In 2009, the state's population density 86.9 people/mile) almost matched the average U.S. population density (86.8 people/mile)

3. Though it was officially a Union state during the Civil War, Confederate sympathy was high during the entire war. Jesse and Frank James, Missouri natives, were Confederate insurgents before they were legendary robbers.

4. The starting points for the Pony Express, Santa Fe Trail, and Oregon Trail were all in Missouri. There's  a park near Kansas City where the wagon wheel track going into a river bed is still visible (It was dark when we drove by, so we didn't get to see this. But we were told by a reliable witness).

5. Did you know there was such a thing as a Missouri Mule? There is, and it's the state mammal. The state fish is the channel catfish; the state dance is the square dance.

6. The United States' three greatest rivers -- the Mississippi, the Missouri, and the Ohio -- meet along the eastern border of the state. The Mississippi and the Missouri meet near St. Louis, and the Ohio joins them north of the "bootheel" area in the southeastern corner of the state.