Missouri history

The eight-state highway's origins started in Springfield, Missouri a century ago on April 30, 1926. The route helped keep some Missouri and Kansas towns afloat during the Great Depression and after World War II.

"The Ghost of the Colonial Hotel" was unveiled this week at the exact moment a telegraph was sent officially naming Route 66, 100 years ago.

Bluffs up to 120 feet tall once hugged the Missouri River by Kansas City, making it difficult to traverse the landscape and expand the growing town. So in the mid-1800s, a Catholic priest named Father Bernard Donnelly recruited hundreds of Irish immigrants for a dangerous but critical task: digging streets for the city from rocks and mud.

As the United States’ first federal highway system, Route 66 connected people and places across the country. It was a symbol of adventure but also independence, especially for Black travelers through Missouri.

Kansas City, Missouri, became the first major city in the U.S. to repeal its anti-jaywalking ordinance, after research found that tickets were being disproportionately issued to Black men. It’s a full-circle moment, because Kansas City was also the first city to criminalize jaywalking more than a century earlier.

Desde su departamento en St. Louis, a principios del siglo 20, el reformista y activista mexicano Ricardo Flores Magón denunció el creciente aumento de la desigualdad económica, la explotación laboral y la corrupción política en México y Estados Unidos.

In 1912, Kansas City, Missouri, became the first city in the U.S. to arrest people for jaywalking. Fueled by auto industry propaganda, this decision set off a nationwide trend to redesign our roads for the car — at the expense of everyone else.

Four Notre Dame High School students will unveil a plaque next week marking the site of a notorious slave prison near Busch Stadium in downtown St. Louis.

Since 1956, Leila Cohoon had amassed the world’s largest collection of hair art and jewelry — intricate works made of human hair. Her museum in Independence, Missouri, was the only one of its kind. But when Cohoon died last year, the future of this Kansas City institution — and the unusual tradition it preserved — was suddenly an open question. Suzanne Hogan speaks to KCUR’s Julie Denesha to find the answer.

Leila's Hair Museum, the most unusual attraction in Independence, Missouri, closed in September. Thanks to the founder’s granddaughter, the massive collection of wreaths made out of human hair is finding new homes at museums across the country.

The bronze historical plaque will be installed at the site of a St. Louis slave prison once owned by Bernard M. Lynch, a nationally known trader of enslaved men, women and children.

“Faith, Family, and Flag” by Washington University professor Joanna Dee Das explores how Branson, Missouri, became America’s capital for conservative entertainment.