Sometimes a community’s ability to survive and grow is based on its capacity to move into the future. Other communities are luckier. The future itself keeps coming back to Macon. Settled in the 1820s by pioneers traveling the Great Trail, a Native American trade route, Macon County experienced rapid growth when two railroad lines—the Northwest Railroad and the Hannibal and
Read more
When you’re looking at a map of Missouri, the town of Marshall is fairly easy to spot. You’ll find it conveniently located at the crossroads of yesterday, today, and tomorrow. “We’ve worked on several expansions here in Saline County,” says Bill Riggins, executive director of the Marshall-Saline Economic Development Corporation. “We’re seeing people get excited about things moving for- ward,
Read more
Tourism in Bonne Terre is looking down. Way, way down. That’s not really a bad thing. Bonne Terre’s biggest tourist attraction lies 80 feet underground and under a billion gallons of water. Bonne Terre got its name in 1720 from French settlers who discovered the ground contained the richest lead ore in the world. They called their settlement “La Terre
Read more
When Warsaw was first settled, the Osage River played a big role in the area’s success as a pipeline for immigration and commerce. In modern times, the river and lake are still the most important resources for the area, but in a different way. Tourism is king in Warsaw, and the economy depends on the Osage River and Truman Lake
Read more
Strolling through the streets of Ste. Genevieve, you are bound to see someone in period costume. The quaint and lively streets in this small town of a little less than 4,500 are full of artisans and tributes to its French Colonial heritage. It’s not a surprise that tourism is one of the biggest money makers for the area. But, industrial
Read more
Fulton’s business community is steadily growing. The city of 13,000 has plenty to look forward to in the coming years, with a potential business boom on the horizon. If you take into account The Callaway County Nuclear Energy Center, which has an annual payroll of $100 million and generates $3 billion a year; the planned Fulton State Hospital renovation; entrepreneurial
Read more
Kirksville is one part rural community, one part regional center, and one part college town. In this city of more than 17,000 people, agriculture, medicine, and education converge to create what you could call the education capital of rural northeastern Missouri. “It’s one of the very few communities anywhere that someone can start out in preschool and end up having
Read more
You don’t need to travel to Disneyland for a taste of Disney. You’ll just have to make the drive up to the North Missouri town of Marceline—located at the edge of sparsely populated Linn County. In 1906, Elias Disney moved his family from Chicago to Marceline. Elias’s youngest son, Walt, spent his formative years there, drawing, painting, and dreaming. In
Read more
The economic impact from the Lake of the Ozarks ripples throughout the surrounding communities. Historically, the communities within Benton, Camden, Miller, and Morgan Counties have been tied to the ebb and flow of tourism and its related industries at the lake. But more than 83 years ago, the Lake of the Ozarks didn’t exist. Union Electric Company, the company that
Read more
Health care is the Springfield metropolitan area’s number one sector of employment, employing about 30,000 people with an economic impact of $4.5 billion. However, the city has grown its economic output by 50 percent over the past decade in no small part due to its other key industries and businesses. “I think it’s important to note that Springfield has a
Read more
Missouri Business 