Columbia is a city of 116,906 people in the state of Missouri. Founded in 1820
as the county seat of Boone County and home to the University of Missouri, it
is the principal municipality of the Columbia Metropolitan Area, the fourth
most populous urban area in Missouri. As a midwestern college town, the city has
a reputation for progressive politics, public art, and powerful journalism. The
tripartite establishment of Stephens College, "University of Missouri", and
Columbia College has long made the city a center of education, culture, and
athletic competition. These three schools surround Downtown Columbia on
the east, south, and north; at the center is the Avenue of the Columns,
which connects Francis Quadrangle and Jesse Hall to the Boone County
Courthouse and the City Hall. Originally an agricultural town, today the
cultivation of the mind is Columbia's chief economic concern. Never a major
center of manufacturing, the city also depends on healthcare, insurance, and
technology businesses. Several companies—Shelter Insurance, Carfax, and
Slackers CDs and Games among them—were founded in the city. Cultural
institutions include the State Historical Society of Missouri, the
Museum of Art and Archaeology, and the annual True/False Film Festival. The
Missouri Tigers, the state's only major athletic program, play football at
Faurot Field and basketball at Mizzou Arena as members of the Southeastern
Conference. The city is built upon the forested
hills and rolling prairies of Mid-Missouri, near the Missouri River
valley, where the Ozark Mountains begin to transform into plains and savanna;
limestone forms bluffs and glades while rain carves caves and springs which
water the Hinkson, Roche Perche, and Petite Bonne Femme creeks. Surrounding
the city, Rock Bridge State Park, Mark Twain National Forest, and Big Muddy
National Fish and Wildlife Refuge form a greenbelt preserving sensitive and rare
environments. The first humans were nomadic hunters who entered the area at
least twelve-thousand years ago. Later, woodland tribes lived in villages along
waterways and built mounds in high places. The Osage and Missouria nations
were expelled by the exploration of French traders and the rapid settlement
of American pioneers. The latter arrived by the Boone's Lick Trail and hailed
from the slave-owning culture of the Upland South, especially Virginia,
Kentucky, and Tennessee, giving Boonslick the name Little Dixie during
American Civil War. German, Irish, and other European immigrants soon joined.
The modern populace is unusually diverse, over eight percent
foreign-born. While White and Black remain the largest ethnicities, Asians
are now the third-largest group. Today's Columbians are remarkably highly
educated and culturally midwestern, though traces of their Southern past
remain. The city has been called the "Athens of Missouri" or a reference to
its classic beauty and educational emphasis, but is more commonly called
"CoMo." History
The Columbia area was once part of the Mississippian culture and home to the
Mound Builders. When European explorers arrived, the area was populated by the
Osage and Missouri Indians. In 1678, La Salle claimed all of Missouri for
France. The Lewis and Clark Expedition passed by the area on the Missouri River
in early June 1804. In 1806, two sons of Daniel Boone established a salt lick 40
miles northwest of Columbia. giving the area its early name: Boonslick. The
Boone's Lick Trail wound from St. Charles to the lick in present day
Howard County. In 1818, a group of settlers, incorporated under the
Smithton Land Company, purchased over 2,000 acres and established the village
of Smithton less than a mile from current day downtown Columbia. In 1821,
the settlers moved, because of lack of water, across the Flat Branch to the
plateau between the Flat Branch and Hinkson creeks in what is now the
downtown district. They renamed the settlement Columbia—a poetic
personification of the United States. The roots of Columbia's three economic
foundations—education, medicine, and insurance—can be traced back to
incorporation in 1821. Original plans for the town set aside land for a state
university. In 1833, Columbia Baptist Female College opened, which later
became Stephens College. Columbia College, later to become the University
of Missouri, was founded in 1839. When the state legislature decided to
establish a state university, Columbia raised three times as much money as any
other competing city and James S. Rollins donated the land that is today
the Francis Quadrangle. Soon other educational institutions were founded in
Columbia such as Christian Female College, the first college for women
west of the Mississippi, which later became the current Columbia College. The
city benefited from being a stagecoach stop of the Santa Fe and Oregon trails,
and later from the Missouri-Kansas-Texas Railroad. In 1822 the first hospital was
set up by William Jewell. In 1830, the first newspaper began; in 1832, the
first theater in the state was opened; and in 1835, the state's first
agricultural fair was held. By 1839, the population and wealth of Boone County
was exceeded in Missouri only by that of St. Louis County, which at that time
included the City of St. Louis. Columbia's infrastructure was relatively
untouched by the Civil War. Missouri, as a slave state, had Southern sympathies,
but remained in the union. The majority of the city was pro-union, however, the
surrounding agricultural areas of Boone County and the rest of central Missouri
were decidedly pro-secession. Because of this, the University of Missouri became
a base from which union troops operated. No battles were fought within the city
because the presence of union troop dissuaded the confederate guerrillas
from attacking, though several major battles occurred nearby at Boonville and
Centralia. After the Civil War, race relations in Columbia followed the
Southern pattern. In 1889, the city witnessed the lynching of an African
American man, George Burke. In 1963, Columbia become home to the
headquarters of both the University of Missouri System, which today serves over
71,000 students, and the Columbia College system, which today serves about
25,000 students. The insurance industry also became important to the local
economy as several companies established headquarters in Columbia, including
Shelter Insurance, Missouri Employers Mutual, and Columbia Insurance Group.
State Farm Insurance has a regional office in Columbia. In addition, the now
defunct Silvey Insurance was once a large local employer. Columbia became a
transportation crossroads when U.S. Route 63 and U.S. Route 40 were routed
through the city. Soon after the city opened the Columbia Regional Airport.
The latter 20th century saw tremendous growth, and by 2000 the population was
nearly 85,000 in the city proper. In early 2006, Columbia embarked on a
plan to manage the continued growth as the city passed 100,000 population. The
city continues to grow, especially east around the newly opened Battle High
School. The downtown district has maintained its status as a cultural
center and is undergoing significant development in both residential and
commercial sectors. The University of Missouri, which has tremendous economic
impact on the city, experienced record enrollment in 2006 and is undertaking
significant construction. Geography
Columbia, located in northern mid-Missouri, is 120 miles away from
both St. Louis and Kansas City, and 29 miles north of the state capital
Jefferson City. The city is near the Missouri River between the Ozark Plateau
and the Northern Plains. Trees are mainly oak, maple, and hickory; common
understory trees include eastern redbud, serviceberry, and flowering dogwood.
Riparian areas are forested with mainly American sycamore. Much of the
residential area of the city is planted with large native shade trees. In
Autumn, the changing color of the trees is notable. Most species here are
typical of the Eastern Woodland. According to the United States Census
Bureau, the city has a total area of 63.5 square miles, of which, 63.08
square miles is land and 0.42 square miles is water.
= Topography = The city generally slopes from the
highest point in the Northeast to the lowest point in the Southwest towards
the Missouri River. Prominent tributaries of the river are Perche
Creek, Hinkson Creek, and Flat Branch Creek. Along these and other creeks in
the area can be found large valleys, cliffs, and cave systems such as that in
Rock Bridge State Park just south of the city. These creeks are largely
responsible for numerous stream valleys giving Columbia hilly terrain similar to
the Ozarks while also having prairie flatland typical of northern Missouri.
Columbia also operates several greenbelts with trails and parks
throughout town. = Animal life =
Large mammals found in the city includes urbanized coyotes and numerous whitetail
deer. Eastern gray squirrel, and other rodents are abundant, as well as
cottontail rabbits and the nocturnal opossum and raccoon. Large bird species
are abundant in parks and include the Canada goose, mallard duck, as well as
shorebirds, including the great egret and great blue heron. Turkeys are also
common in wooded areas and can occasionally be seen on the MKT
recreation trail. Populations of bald eagles are found by the Missouri River.
The city is on the Mississippi Flyway, used by migrating birds, and has a large
variety of small bird species, common to the eastern U.S. The Eurasian tree
sparrow, an introduced species, is limited in North America to the counties
surrounding St. Louis. Columbia has large areas of forested and open land
and many of these areas are home to wildlife.
Frogs are commonly found in the springtime, especially after extensive
wet periods. Common species include the American toad and species of chorus
frogs, commonly called "spring peepers" that are found in nearly every pond.
Some years have outbreaks of cicadas or ladybugs. Mosquitos and houseflies are
common insect nuisances; because of this, windows are nearly universally
fitted with screens, and "screened-in" porches are common in homes of the area.
= Climate = Columbia has a climate marked by sharp
seasonal contrasts in temperature, falling between a humid continental and
humid subtropical climate, and is located in USDA Plant Hardiness Zone 6a.
The monthly daily average temperature ranges from 29.7 °F in January to 77.3
°F in July, while the high reaches or exceeds 90 °F on an average 32 days per
year, 100 °F on 2.0 days, while 4.0 nights of sub-0 °F lows can be expected.
Precipitation tends to be greatest and most frequent in the latter half of
spring, when severe weather is also most common. Snow averages 18.0 inches per
season, mostly from December to March, with occasional November accumulation
and falls in April being rarer; historically seasonal snow accumulation
has ranged from 3.4 in in 2005–06 to 54.9 in in 1977–78. Extreme temperatures
have ranged from −26 °F on February 12, 1899 to 113 °F on July 12 and 14, 1954.
Readings of −10 °F or 105 °F are uncommon, the last occurrences being
January 7, 2014 and July 31, 2012. Cityscape
Columbia's most commonly recognizable architectural attributes reside downtown
and within the university campuses. Widely used icons of the city are the
University of Missouri's Jesse Hall and the neo-gothic Memorial Union. The David
R. Francis Quadrangle is an example of Thomas Jefferson's academic village
concept. There are four historic districts listed on the National
Register of Historic Places within the city: Downtown Columbia, East Campus
Neighborhood, Francis Quadrangle, and North Ninth Street Historic District.
The downtown skyline is relatively low and is dominated by the 10-story Tiger
Hotel, and the 15-story Paquin Tower. Downtown Columbia is an area of
approximately one square mile surrounded by the University of Missouri on the
south, Stephens College to the east and Columbia College on the north. The area
serves as Columbia's financial and business district and is the topic of a
large initiative to draw tourism, which includes plans to capitalize on the
area's historic architecture, and Bohemian characteristics.
The city's historic residential core lies in a ring around downtown,
extending especially to the west along Broadway, and south into the East Campus
neighborhoods. Columbia can be divided into roughly 36 neighborhoods and
subdivisions. The city's most dense commercial areas are primarily located
along Interstate 70, U.S. Route 63, Stadium Boulevard, Grindstone Parkway,
and the downtown area. Demographics
= 2010 census = As of the census of 2010, there were
108,500 people, 43,065 households, and 21,418 families residing in the city.
The population density was 1,720.0 inhabitants per square mile. There were
46,758 housing units at an average density of 741.2 per square mile. The
racial makeup of the city was 79.0% White, 11.3% African American, 0.3%
Native American, 5.2% Asian, 0.1% Pacific Islander, 1.1% from other races,
and 3.1% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 3.4%
of the population. There were 43,065 households of which
26.1% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 35.6% were married
couples living together, 10.6% had a female householder with no husband
present, 3.5% had a male householder with no wife present, and 50.3% were
non-families. 32.0% of all households were made up of individuals and 6.6% had
someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size
was 2.32 and the average family size was 2.94.
In the city the population was spread out with 18.8% of residents under the
age of 18; 27.3% between the ages of 18 and 24; 26.7% from 25 to 44; 18.6% from
45 to 64; and 8.5% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age in the city
was 26.8 years. The gender makeup of the city was 48.3% male and 51.7% female.
= 2000 census = In 2000, the city had a day time
population of 106,487. As of the census of 2000, there were 84,531 people,
33,689 households, and 17,282 families residing in the city. The population
density was 1,592.8 people per square mile. There were 35,916 housing units at
an average density of 676.8 per square mile. The racial makeup of the city was
81.5% White, 10.9% Black or African American, 0.4% Native American, 4.3%
Asian,