Show Me State - a midwestern state in central United States; a border state during the American Civil War, Missouri was admitted to the Confederacy without actually seceding from the UnionMiddle West, Midwest - the north central region of the United States (sometimes called the heartland or the breadbasket of America) Columbia - a university town in central Missouri Hannibal - a town in northeast Missouri on the Mississippi River; boyhood home of Mark Twain Independence - a city in western Missouri; the beginning of the Santa Fe Trail Kansas City - a city in western Missouri situated at the confluence of the Kansas River and the Missouri River; adjacent to Kansas City, Kansas St. Joseph, Saint Joseph - a town in northwest Missouri on the Missouri River; in the 19th century it became the eastern terminus of the pony express Gateway to the West, St. Louis, Saint Louis - the largest city in Missouri; a busy river port on the Mississippi River near its confluence with the Missouri River; was an important staging area for wagon trains westward in the 19th century Sedalia - a town in east central Missouri Osage River, Osage - a river in Missouri that is a tributary of the Missouri River White River, White - a tributary of the Mississippi River that flows southeastward through northern Arkansas and southern Missouri |