Personal Challenge 2018 - Week 24

This is the 24th week of my personal 50-week States of the Union Challenge. Each week I research one of the 50 United States (in the order they attained statehood). I share tidbits of information about the state here on my blog and I create a card that is inspired by something about that state.

This week's state (the 24th one to attain statehood) is...

Missouri

Date of Statehood: August 10, 1821

1. Missouri ties with Tennessee as the most neighborly state in the union, bordered by 8 states.


Stay in Missouri for long and you’ll notice that groups of natives pronounce the name of the state differently. While “Missour-ee” is common, so is “Missour-a.” Furthermore, some people pronounce the first syllable “mih” and others “muh,” and the medial consonant as either an s or a z. Some older people don’t pronounce the last syllable at all. Linguists insist that all these pronunciations can be found as far back as the late-1600s, and that each is found all over the state. While news broadcasters from the east and west coasts have attempted to standardize the pronunciation as “Missouri-ee,” linguists insist no pronunciation is any more or less correct than any other, making Missouri the only state in the union without a single “correct” pronunciation. To appeal to as many voters as possible, politicians sometimes pronounce "Missouri" in both of the more common ways in the same speech so as not to offend potential voters.


Kansas City has more miles of freeway per capita than any metro area with more than 1 million residents.


The most powerful earthquake to strike the United States occurred in 1811, centered in New Madrid, Missouri. The quake shook more than one million square miles, and was felt as far as 1,000 miles away.


The first Capitol in Jefferson City burned in 1837 and a second structure completed in 1840 burned when the dome was struck by lightning on February 5, 1911.

Despite the threat of having their licenses revoked by the Federal Aviation Administration, several small plane pilots have attempted to fly between the legs of the St. Louis Gateway Arch. At least 10 pilots have disobeyed the order—though few, before the age of cell phone cameras, were ever caught. Parachutists, too, have aimed for the Arch—either to land atop it, or glide through it. In one tragic case, a 33-year-old veteran parachutist attempted to guide his parachute beneath the Arch as a birthday tribute to his wife, but landed on top instead. When he tried to regain his balance by holding onto the airplane warning light, his deflated parachute caught the wind and he slid down the north leg to his death. Others parachutists been more successful, though it is important to note that both climbing a national monument and parachuting into a national park are misdemeanors.

With more than 6,000 known caves, Missouri's also known as The Cave State. Richland, Missouri, is the only city in the U.S. with a cave restaurant. (Don't worry: There aren't any bats.)

At the St. Louis World's Fair in 1904, Richard Blechyden served tea with ice and invented iced tea.

In 1928, the Chillicothe Baking Company, in Chillicothe, Missouri, purchased a bread slicing machine built by inventor Otto Rohwedder. The first loaf of sliced bread came off the line in July of that year and was an instant hit. Ironically, the local newspaper referred to sliced bread as the greatest step forward in the baking industry since wrapped bread…a saying which, not surprisingly, never caught on.

About 70 miles to the west of Chillicothe is the city of St. Joseph, Missouri—famous as the starting point for the Pony Express and the death place of Jesse James. But St. Joe has another claim to fame: The humble pancake. In 1889, a couple of St. Joseph entrepreneurs, Charles Underwood and Chris Russ, developed a ready-mixed, self-rising pancake flour, which they named after the minstrel tune “Old Aunt Jemima.” Sold to Quaker Oats in 1925, Aunt Jemima is still the best-loved and most recognizable pancake mix sold in the U.S.

The state animal is the Mule.

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2. Laura Elizabeth Ingalls, writer of Little House on the Prairie grew up in Missouri.
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4. In 1865 Missouri became the first state to free its slaves. It also has an official State Dinosaur, a duck-billed dinosaur (Hadrosaur) that lived in Missouri during the Late Cretaceous period.

1. The most destructive tornado on record occurred in Annapolis, Missouri. In three hours, it tore through the town on March 18, 1925, leaving a 980-foot wide train of demolished buildings, uprooted trees, and overturned cars. It left 823 people dead and almost 3,000 injured.

The first successful parachute jump from a moving plane was made above the Jefferson Barracks military post, near St. Louis, on March 1, 1912. U.S. Army Captain Albert Berry climbed to 1,500 feet in a Benoist aircraft before positioning himself on a trapeze bar attached to the front of the plane, his parachute stored in a conical pack attached to his harness, and jumped. Air & Space magazine reports Berry saying, upon landing, “Never again! I believe I turned five somersaults on my way down … My course downward … was like a crazy arrow.” Berry completed his second jump on March 10.

On Sucker Day (the fish, not the candy), in Nixa, Missouri, school closes officially and the little town swells to a throng of 15,000 hungry folks, all craving a taste of the much maligned but delicious bottom dweller fish loathed by almost everyone else.

The Missouri Department of Conservation says that they are only aware of two fatal snakebites in the state... ever. One was a 1933 timber rattlesnake bite and the other a 1965 copperhead bite.

Warsaw holds the state record for the lowest temperature of -40 degrees on February 13, 1905. It also holds the state record for the highest temperature recorded, 118 degrees on July 14, 1954.

 Here are some laws on the books in Missouri:

It is against the law to honk the horn of someone else's car.

Single men between the ages of twenty-one and fifty must pay an annual tax of one dollar (enacted 1820).

Though clotheslines are banned in Columbia Missouri, clothes may be draped over a fence.

Frightening a baby is in violation of the law in Mole, Missouri.

In Natchez, Missouri, it is unlawful to provide beer or other intoxicants to elephants.

In St. Louis it is against the law for a milkman to run while on duty.

It is also against the law to park your car in St. Louis with the engine on, on the bases that it might scare horses.

It is against the law to have yard sales in front yards in University City, Missouri.

In Jefferson City, you can not have a garage sale last longer than 3 days and you can’t have more than two sales per year. 

Dancing is not allowed in Springfield, Missouri.

I've decided to go with this bit of Missouri information for my card's inspiration... The ice cream cone was first introduced during the 1904 World's Fair in St. Louis. It became the official State Dessert of Missouri in 2008.

Thanks for stopping by my blog today!

Supplies Used

Stamp Set: Loralie Cone Girl stamped with Memento Tuxedo Black and colored with Copic Markers

Sentiment: Sizzix Ice Cream Framelits Set stamped with Memento Tuxedo Black Ink

Die: Gina Marie Designs In and Out Stud

Papers: Recollections Black and White and Frun Stampers Journey Watermelon Fusion CS and DP from my scrap file

Embellishments: Eyelet Outlet Jewel Pink Swirl Bling and Stickles Glitter Glue