<Tr> <Td_colspan="2"> Released in 2003 </Td> </Tr> <Tr> <Td_colspan="2"> Lists of United States state symbols </Td> </Tr> <P> Missouri is a state in the Midwestern United States . With over six million residents, it is the 18th most populous state . The largest urban areas are St. Louis, Kansas City, Springfield, and Columbia . The capitol is in Jefferson City on the Missouri River . The state is the 21st most extensive in area . In the South are the Ozarks, a forested highland, providing timber, minerals, and recreation . The Mississippi River forms the eastern border of the state . </P> <P> Humans have inhabited the land now known as Missouri for at least 12,000 years . The Mississippian culture built cities and mounds, before declining in the 1300s . When European explorers arrived in the 1600s they encountered the Osage and Missouria nations . The French established Louisiana, a part of New France, and founded Ste . Genevieve in 1735 and St. Louis in 1764 . After a brief period of Spanish rule, the United States acquired the Louisiana Purchase in 1803 . Americans from the Upland South, including enslaved African Americans, rushed into the new Missouri Territory . Many from Virginia, Kentucky, and Tennessee settled in the Boonslick area of Mid-Missouri . Soon after, heavy German immigration formed the Missouri Rhineland . </P>

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