密苏里州小档案：
人口：约560万
面积：约180，486平方公里，排名第31位
州府：杰佛逊城Jefferson City
密苏里州，名称来自印第安语，其意义为“大独木舟人”people of the big canoes。
1735年开始殖民。1821年8月10日成为美国第24州。以山栌（山查）Hawthorn花为州花。本州别名叫做“引导之州”Show－Me State。本州箴言：“让人民的幸福作为最高的法律”Let The Welfare Of The People Be The Supreme Law。
州府是杰佛逊城Jefferson City，位于本州中部，跨密苏里河南北两岸。对路易是本州第一大都市，列为美国第10大都市。本州西境是堪萨斯城Kansas City，城东有劳动致富鲁门总统的故居。其地叫做独立市Independence。
本州大专院校70多所。其中最著名的是密苏里大学。有4个分校。（A）在哥伦比亚之分校，创于1839年。（B）在洛拉Rolla之分校，创于1870年，学生有5千。（C）在对路易之分校，创于1963年。（D）在堪萨斯城之分校，也创于1963年。
本州特征有三：第三，殖民时期之内，它是西进的大门Gateway to the West。本州位于美国大陆中部，密西西比河与西岸大支流密苏里河在本州境内汇流。前者是美内陆水运大运脉；后者是向西北方伸展之在动脉。两河汇流之地是交通枢纽，大都市对路顽抗StLouis因此兴起。现今的对路易不仅是内河航运中心，且是美国中部铁路网、公路网及航空网之中心。第二，本州为美国第一产铅之州，已有200年之久。重晶石产量也列第一位（重晶石含钡，可作颜料或油漆。晶石也可作为钻探油井的泥浆）。第三，本州汽车装配工业，仅次于密执安州，列第二位。
本州是美国内陆工业最盛之州。工业方面，太空器材、运输器材、汽车装配、火箭引擎、飞机引擎、及农业机械等制造业、非常发达。农业方面，有大豆、玉蜀黍、小麦、桃、李、苹果、猪、肉牛、乳牛、炎鸡、肉鸡，产量均多。旅游方面，非常发达。旅游业入，仅次于工业与农牧业，列第3位。
Introduction简介
全套书共50册，分为美国各州的小知识，七彩缤纷的音符，优美好看的小散文，开心时分的短文，经典流传的寓言，超级高效的短句，实际有用的词汇等等在这些书中，备有单词解释，相关简介，或中文翻译，便于同学们更好的阅读和理解，真正进入文字的内涵当中，准确地和文字进行交流。主要介绍密苏里州、蒙大拿州、内布拉斯加州和内华达州的概况、州长、州鸟、州花、州旗、州歌以及相关资料，附有话里话外部分，主要介绍美国文学家（按出生年代从l873—1917）。
Throughout the pre－civil War period and during the war，Missourians were sharply divided in their opinions about slavery and in their allegiances（忠贞，效忠），supplying both Union and Confederate forces with troops．However，the state itself remained in the Union．
Historically，Missouri played a leading role as a gateway to the West，St．Joseph being the eastern starting point of the Pony Express，while the much－traveled Santa Fe eastern terminus（终点）was Franklin in 1921，Missouri；by 1832，Independence，Missouri；and by 1845，Kansas City，Missouri．Independence，Missouri was the most popular “jumping off”point on the Oregon Trail．
Missouri’s recorded history begins in the latter half of the 17th century when the French explorers Jacques Marquette and Louis Jolliet were the first white people to see the Missouri River in 1673，followed by Robert Cavelier，sieur de La Salle，who in 1682claimed the whole area drained by the Mississippi River for France，calling the territory Louisiana［路易斯安那，（美国南部的州名）］，after King Louis XIV．
When the French explorers arrived the area was inhabited by Native Americans of the Osage and the Missouri groups，and by the end of the 17th century French trade with the Native Americans flourished．
In the early 18th century the French worked the area’s lead mines and made numerous trips through Missouri in search of furs．Missionaries（传教士）established St．Francis Xavier，the first white settlement of Missouri．It was located near present－day St．Louis，but was deserted in 1703．Trade down the Mississippi prompted the settlement of Ste．Genevie about 1735and the founding of St．Louis in 1764by Pierre Laclede and Ren Auguste Chouteau，who were both in the fur－trading business．
Although not involved in the last conflict of the French and Indian Wars，Missouri was affected by the French defeat when，in 1762，France secretly ceded the territory west of the Mississippi to Spain．Although few Spaniards（西班牙人）settled Missouri，many U．S．miners and farmers entered from Mississippi．
In 1800，France reclaimed the Louisiana Territory and in 1803，sold it to the United States as part of the Louisiana Purchase．French influence remained dominant，even though by this time Americans had filtered（渗入，（消息等）走漏）into the territory，particularly to the lead mines at Ste Genevie and Potosi．By the time of the Lewis and Clark expedition，St．Louis was already known as the gateway to the Far West．
The Missouri Territory was organized in 1812．，but settlement was slow even after the War of 1812．The coming of the steamboat（汽船，轮船）increased traffic and trade on the Mississippi，and settlement progressed．Planters from the South had introduced slavery into the territory，but their plantations were restricted to a small area．
As people flooded into Missouri，Native Americans grew angry and began raiding（袭击，搜捕）settlements．During the War of 1812，Britain supplied the Indians with weapons and encouraged them to attack Missouri settlements．Not until 1815did the attacks end with a peace treaty at Portage des Sioux．By 1825，few Native Americans lived in Missouri．
However，the question of admitting the Missouri Territory as a state became a burning national issue because it involved the question of extending slavery into the territories．Attempts for statehood started in 1818，but questions concerning slavery in the state were not settled until 1820．The dispute was resolved by the Missouri Compromise，which admitted（1821）Missouri to the Union as a slave state and allowed Maine become a free state．This kept the number of slave and free states equal．Missouri became the 24th state on Aug．10，1821．
Slaveholding（蓄奴的，拥有奴隶的）interests became politically powerful，but the state remained principally a fur－trading center．The American Fur Company organized in St．Louis in 1822and soon developed a monopoly（垄断）on all fur trade west of the Mississippi River．Trade with Mexico was very successful．The Santa Fe Trail connected Independence with the Southwest．Independence also marked the beginning of the Oregon Trail that led thousands to the Pacific Northwest．
In 1854the problem of slavery was made acute with the passage of the Kansas－Nebraska Act，leaving the question of slavery in the Kansas and Nebraska（内布拉斯加州）territories to the settlers themselves．The proslavery（〈美〉支持奴隶制度）forces in Missouri became very active in trying to win Kansas for the slave cause and contributed to the violence and disorder that tore the territory apart in the years just prior to the Civil War．Nevertheless（然而，不过）Missouri also had leaders opposed to slavery，including one of its Senators，Thomas Hart Benton．