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The first explorers, traders, and settlers in Missouri were the French. They came from French settlements in Illinois, from Canada, and from Louisiana. By 1803 settlers from other parts of the United States made up a large share of the population. They followed the Ohio, Tennessee, and Cumberland rivers to the Mississippi. Then they spread out along the Mississippi and the Missouri rivers. After 1830 European immigrants-notably German, Irish, English, and Polish-came in large numbers to St. Louis and surrounding areas. But up to the time of the Civil War, most of the settlers continued to come from Virginia, North Carolina, Kentucky, and Tennessee. Slaves were brought to present-day Missouri during early French and Spanish times. But the Negro population first began to grow when settlers from the South brought Negroes to work in the tobacco and hemp fields. By 1840 the total population of Missouri had reached almost 400,000, and the state was settled except for the rougher parts of the Ozarks and the southeast lowlands.

Before 1930 most Missourians lived in rural places. Today more than two thirds of the people live in urban areas. Some farm to city movement continues. But the greatest movement of people in Missouri recently has been from inner cities to urban areas outside the city limits.

Once Missouri depended on agriculture for most of its income. Farming is still important, but the value of manufactured products is now greater than the value of crops and livestock. Recent discoveries of iron and lead promise an increase in mining.

Northern Missouri extends into the Corn Belt. The Wheat Belt is to the west of Missouri, and the Cotton Belt to the south. Corn, wheat, and cotton are all grown in the state. The prairie region in the north is known for corn. Wheat is grown chiefly in the western and central parts of Missouri, and cotton in the southeast lowlands. But every county in the state produces some corn, which was the leading crop for many years. Today soybeans bring more cash income than corn. The largest area of agricultural land is in the north. More than half the Ozarks region is in timber, but agriculture is important. The larger valleys and the uplands produce a variety of crops. The drier southwestern part of the state grows more rye, barley, and sorghum than do other areas. The croplands of southeastern Missouri are used for cotton, soybeans, and corn. Livestock, especially cattle, bring far more income than crops. Both beef and dairy cattle are raised almost everywhere in the state, as are hogs. Dairy farming is of major importance in the Ozarks, especially in the western parts. Production 6f eggs and broilers has become a large-scale business. Workhorses-and the mules for which Missouri once was famous-have been displaced largely by the use of tractors on the farms. But horses for riding, including Shetland ponies for children, are raised in various parts of the state. Mexico, Missouri, is widely known for fine saddle horses.

Gristmills, flour mills, and meat-packing plants were among Missouri's earliest manufacturing industries. By 1850 St. Louis had many large flour mills, and gristmills were operating almost everywhere in the state. Other major industries of the 1840's and 1850's were distilleries and breweries, tobacco factories, tanneries, rope factories and lumber mills. By the time of the Civil War, iron foundries and the manufacture of farm machinery had become important. Most of the major industries of earlier days still exist, although in modern form, and many new types of manufacturing have been added. The two largest industrial centers are St. Louis and Kansas City. St. Louis is known especially for chemical products, shoes, beverages, airplanes, and equipment for the nation's space projects. Kansas City's chief industries include meat-packing, automobile assembling, and the making of flour, chemicals and drugs, and steel. Factories of various kinds are located in every part of the state. Most of them are small. But some are quite large, such as the firebrick plants at Mexico and the milk processing plants at Springfield and Monett. The Ozarks region, with most of the forests, has many lumber mills, furniture factories, and toy and novelty factories.

The chief lead-mining communities once were located between Bonne Terre and Fredericktown in the eastern Ozarks and at Joplin in the southwest. Recently, important new deposits of lead have been found near the old deposits in the eastern Ozarks. A new lead-mining community has grown up at Viburnum. Deposits of iron ore recently discovered in the area are being mined at Pea Ridge near Sullivan and at Bourbon. Formerly iron was mined from deposits at Ironton, Potosi, and elsewhere in the area. Missouri is famous for lead, but the mineral product that ranks first in value is stone. Limestone, the most important, is produced in about two thirds of the counties. It is used in making portland cement, in road construction, as a fertilizer, and in many other ways. Carthage in Southwestern Missouri is one of the nation's largest producers of marble. Red granite from the quarries around Graniteville is in demand for monuments and building stone. St. Louis, St. Charles, and Jefferson counties produce a special kind of sand called silica sand. It is used in making glass, enamelware, and cleaning compounds. More than half the counties in the state produce sand and gravel for building and highway construction. Fireclay is the most important of the various clays. It is used to make bricks that will withstand great heat. Coal is mined in numerous counties, especially Randolph and Macon counties, north of the Missouri River, and Bates, Barton, and Henry counties, south of the river. Most of the mining is done by the strip method. The first oil wells were drilled in Jackson County in the 1860's, but only small quantities of oil and gas have been produced in Missouri.

Missouri's first highways were its rivers, especially the Mississippi and the Missouri. Boone's Lick Trail was the first east-west road across the state. It extended from St. Charles westward to Franklin in the Boone's Lick area, where Daniel Boone's sons and others made salt during the early 1800's. In 1821 a small party of traders led by William Becknell marked out a trail between Franklin and Santa Fe, New Mexico. This was the beginning of the famous Santa Fe Trail. Later the eastern end of the trail was moved to other towns along the Missouri-Independence and then Westport (now Kansas City). Gradually roads were built throughout the state. The period of modem highway, construction began around 1920, after automobiles came into fairly common use. Today Missouri has excellent highways and roads, and travel is easy in all directions. The first railroad construction in Missouri began at St. Louis in 1851. The following year there was passenger service over 5 miles of track. The Hannibal and St. Joseph Railroad was the first to be built across the state. It was completed in 1859. The railroads were placed where it was easiest to build them and where freight and passenger business was most promising. The Missouri Valley, with its level lands, was a natural route to follow. St. Louis and Kansas City developed rapidly as two of the great railway centers of the nation. Today all parts of the state except the Ozarks are well served by railroads. But in the Ozarks, as elsewhere, trucks and buses now furnish swift and easy transportation.

Missouri has an honored place in the history and development of air transportation. The first international balloon races were held in St. Louis in 1907. Three years later an international aviation meet was held in the vicinity. Much of St. Louis' early interest in aviation was due to Major Albert Bond Lambert. Major Lambert, who was born in St. Louis in 1875, was an expert balloon pilot and a friend of Orville Wright and other noted air pioneers. In 1920 he opened an airport, known as Lambert Field. Soon after that time regular airmail service began between St. Louis and Chicago. Soon also a young pilot named Charles A. Lindbergh came to St. Louis. He gave flying lessons and carried mail on the Chicago run. In 1927 he gained fame for making the first nonstop solo flight across the Atlantic Ocean. Lindbergh's flight in the Spirit of St. Louis was financed by Major Lambert and other St. Louis businessmen.

Lambert Field in St. Louis later became an international airport. The other important air center of Missouri is Kansas City. The state as a whole has about 100 commercial and municipal airports. The first newspaper in Missouri was the Missouri Gazette, established in St. Louis in 1808. Part of the paper was published in French. It continued under various names until 1919, when it was bought by the St. Louis Globe-Democrat. The Globe-Democrat, founded in 1852, is one of Missouri's three largest daily newspapers. Another is the St. Louis Post Dispatch, which was founded in 1878 by Joseph Pulitzer. The other is the Kansas City Star, founded by William Rockhill Nelson in 1880. In all, Missouri has approximately 400 newspapers, of which about 50 are dailies. There are more than 100 radio stations in the state and about 20 television stations.