Jefferson City, Missouri

We left Fort Smith on Thursday, April 30 and traveled to Chanute, Kansas for a scheduled appointment with the Nu Wa factory to have our 5th wheel evaluated for repairs and maintenance. We found out what needs to be done, and how much it will cost (gasp!), and will probably swing back by in October to get the actual work done. We drove from Chanute to Jefferson City, Missouri on May 1st, and we were in rain, sometimes torrential, the entire day, along with much thunder and lightening. It was a beautiful drive none-the-less, off the interstate, through miles and miles of green rural countryside. We saw a lot of roadside flooding, but luckily nothing that threatened our progress. Getting settled in at the RV Park in the rain and mud was quite an adventure, but we managed, and much to our delight, today the rain was gone, and the sun was even out for part of the day for our tour of the capitol. (Most of you probably know by now that one of our goals is to visit all the state capitols.)

Jefferson City is on the northern edge of theOzark Plateau on the southern side of Missouri River near the geographic center of the state. The city is dominated by the domed Capitol, rising from a bluff overlooking the Missouri River to the north. Lewis and Clark passed beneath that bluff on their historic expedition upriver before Europeans established any settlement there. As of 2006, the population was 39,274. Jefferson City was named after Thomas Jefferson, the third president of the United States of America.

The capitol building is very grand, with the exterior walls and all the indoor floors and corridors, constructed of white crystalline limestone marble from Carthage, MO. It is a symmetrical building of the Roman renaissance style and is situated high atop a bluff overlooking the Missouri River. The Capitol dome towers 262 feet above ground level (and 400 feet above the river), and is topped with a bronze statue of Ceres. (Ceres is the Roman goddess of grain and agricultural and was selected as the patron goddess of Missouri, a strong agricultural state.) The exterior construction boasts towering columns, grand staircases, and bronze front doors – each 13 by 18 feet, the largest cast since the Roman era. A 13-foot statue of Thomas Jefferson is the centerpiece of the southern steps. Inside there are beautiful murals, stain glass, paintings, friezes, and bronze statues of prominent Missourians. High within the dome is a small viewing platform on the dome’s roof beneath the statue of Ceres, and a whispering gallery (a gallery beneath the dome enclosed in a circular area in which whispers can be hear clearly in other parts of the building).

We have visited twelve state capitols so far, and I would put Jefferson City’s capitol building high on the list of the most beautiful we’ve seen so far.