re: Missouri is the Reason You are Free. We've Saved the World 3 Times in 100 Years

St. Louis, MO was founded in 1762 but explorers routinely camped here long before that date due to it's location at the confluence of the Mississippi and Missouri Rivers.

Here is a brief summary of the Battle of St. Louis which occurred in 1780 during the Revolutionary War. Once again, thank us. We defeated British attempts to control the Mississippi River:

Battle of St. Louis

Following the entry of Spain into the American Revolutionary War in 1779, British military planners in London wanted to secure the corridor of the Mississippi River against both Spanish and Patriot activity. Their plans included expeditions from West Florida to take New Orleans and other Spanish targets, and several expeditions to gain control of targets in the upper Mississippi, including the small town of St. Louis. The West Florida/New Orleans expedition never occurred.

The Battle of St. Louis (also known as the Battle of Fort San Carlos) was an unsuccessful British-led attack on St. Louis (a French settlement in Spanish Louisiana that had been ceded by France to Spain in 1763) on May 26, 1780, during the American Revolutionary War. A force composed primarily of Indians and led by a former British militia commander attacked the settlement. The settlement's defenders, mostly local militia under the command of Lieutenant Governor of Spanish Louisiana Fernando de Leyba, had fortified the town as best they could, and successfully withstood the attack.

A second simultaneous attack on the American outpost at Cahokia, Illinois was also repulsed. The retreating Indians destroyed crops and took captive civilians outside the protected area. The British failure effectively ended their attempts to gain control of the Mississippi River during the American Revolutionary War.

You bastard child of a thieving whore

After his defeat of the British at New Orleans during the War of 1812, Andrew Jackson told a fellow officer the following:

"Men play at war. We kill each other and do our best to survive, a neverending cycle of barbarism masked in glory and heroism. A game that, I for one, love. What's the secret of survival in war, you ask? Never cross a Missourian..."

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America distilled.

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Would be a great name for an upstart distillery. I've added that to my "great ideas" file.

Branson now has a very successful moonshine and rum distillery called Copper Run Distillery located in the back country between Branson and Springfield. It's a very cool place to visit, eat lunch or dinner, and sample their shine. I highly suggest you visit this place when you're back in the area.

Copper Run Distillery

The war officially started on our soil - yes.

On a slightly less violent, but no less important note (to some, anyway), Missouri is responsible for saving the wine industry of France. In the 1800s, a fungus attacked the Cabernet Sauvingon grape vines in France, all but wiping them out. Missouri's fledgling (at that time) wine business was nestled along the Missouri River, an area that was similar to the wine producing regions of France and Germany in geography and climate. The Norton grape, also known as Cynthiana, was very similar to the Cabernet.

Missouri growers sent Norton vines to their French brethren, who spliced the fungus-resistant vines with their sickly Cabernet plants, which rebounded and became healthy again. Thus, we saved the day and ensured the world could continue to enjoy the gift that is a good Cabernet Sauvingon. Praise was heaped on us, including the now semi-famous proverb "one barrel of wine can work more miracles than a church full of saints."

Well, I don't know if that last part is true - that's a quote from my Wine Lovers Cookbook - but the rest is!

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I'm not sure Missouri was even a thought when the colonies signed the declaration of independence

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But you've gotta admit, Missouri was a hell of an add to the footprint then, too.

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So you guys started a war?

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We don't start wars. We finish 'em...




Lawerence, Kansas (circa 1863)

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So you guys started a war?

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Also, some have argued that Missouri's involvement in Bleeding Kansas set the wheels in motion for the beginning of "The War of Southerners Gettin' all Uppity" aka the Civil War, but I don't buy the argument.

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But you've gotta admit, Missouri was a hell of an add to the footprint then, too

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Won't argue that, the limestone caves will be where I'm headed to set up fort and survive the zombie apocalypse.