Thomas Allen portrait

Thomas Allen was among the most prominent and powerful individuals who led St. Louis in its transition from…

A 1911 State Highway Department map of the Boone’s Lick Road and Santa Fe Trail. [State Historical Society of Missouri Map Collection, 850 M691h 1911]

The Boone’s Lick Road was the first major conduit to the trans-Mississippi West after the 

James Eads. [Missouri Historical Society, St. Louis, Photographs and Prints Collection, P0004-1016]

Born in Lawrenceburg, Indiana, on May 23, 1820, James Buchanan Eads became an engineer of…

A muddy road in Lafayette County, Missouri, circa 1910s. At the dawn of the automobile era, the predicament of drivers in Missouri and elsewhere sparked a nationwide Good Roads Movement. [State Historical Society of Missouri, Leonard D. and Marie H. Rehkop Collection of Algert T. Peterson Photographs, C3888-G0043]

Two convoys of army trucks left St. Louis and Kansas City on September 27, 1920. Their mission was to travel…

The Figure 8 roller coaster at Lakeside Park, added in 1907, was a “huge reversing spiral” in which cars rushed down a half-mile curving track with “three figure eights in a descent of 50 feet.” [Courtesy of the Joplin Historical & Mineral Museum]

 “Once the most important and popular play place of the Tri-State district,” Lakeside Park in Jasper…

Albert Bond Lambert with Orville Wright in St. Louis, circa 1910. [Missouri Historical Society, St. Louis, Photographs and Prints Collection, P0059-00002]

Important in the history of business in Missouri, Albert Bond Lambert made even larger…

Alexander Majors. [State Historical Society of Missouri, Kansas City Research Center]

Those familiar with the Pony Express recognize Russell, Majors, and Waddell as the…

John Malang. [Floyd Calvin Shoemaker, Missouri and Missourians: Land of Contrasts and People of Achievements, 1943]

John Malang, “The Father of Missouri Roads,” was born on September 9, 1866 or 1867. Sources provide…

Red’s Giant Hamburg sometime after it closed in December 1984. [State Historical Society of Missouri, David Eslick Photograph Collection, SP0088, 1976-2001]

The original Red’s Giant Hamburg on Route 66 in Springfield, Missouri, was a legendary roadside spot for…

Hugh Robinson. [Courtesy of DeGolyer Library, Southern Methodist University]

Hugh Armstrong Robinson, a member of the distinguished Early Birds…