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Jeff Dorris

Deliberations from Dorris

Jeff Dorris is the Editor of the Delta Dunklin Democrat

Editorial

Let's talk about Missouri

Saturday, May 29, 2021

As we continue to celebrate Missouri’s bicentennial here a few fun facts about our state.

Eight different states border Missouri. Can you name them?

Missouri was named after a tribe of Sioux Indians called the Missouris. It’s often mistranslated as “muddy water”, however the word actually means “town of the large canoes.”

Missouri is known as the Cave State. It it home to more than 6,000 caves.

Harry Truman was the only U.S. President to hail from Missouri.

The 1904 World’s Fair in St. Louis introduced the masses to a number of new treats, including the waffle cone, cotton candy, iced tea, and Dr. Pepper.

St. Louis hosted the 1904 Summer Olympics, the Olympic Games ever held in the U.S., at the same time as the World’s Fair. It was complete chaos.

Athletes competed for four and a half months with one event each day of the fair. But only 42 of the 91 events actually included competitors from other countries. The craziest part, though, was the marathon.

Almost half of the runners got heat stroke (imagine that, can you say...humidity?) and the first place winner cheated by hitching a car ride from mile nine to mile 19.

Another event that year was climbing a greased pole.

The first successful parachute jump from a moving plane was made above the Jefferson Barracks military post, near St. Louis, on March 1, 1912.

Army Captain Albert Berry climbed to 1,500 feet in a Benoist aircraft before positioning himself on a trapeze bar attached to the front of the plane, his parachute stored in a conical pack attached to his harness, and jumped.

Air and Space magazine reports Berry saying, upon landing, “Never again! I believe I turned five somersaults on the way down.

Berry completed his second jump on March 10.

I wonder if he was pushed?

By the way the eight states that border Missouri are, Iowa, Illinois, Kentucky, Tennessee, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Kansas and Nebraska.

Have a safe and happy Memorial Day Weekend.

See you out there.

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