Missouri's Boot?

Missouri has one feature that most find interesting, but they don't seem to understand where it came from, and although this is a brief explanation, you might win awards in the trivia circuit for this one. Where did Missouri get its bootheel from?

The answer goes back a long time to when Missouri was becoming a state. When you look at territory maps, there is no bootheel, but then it becomes a state, and there it is. In 1821, Missouri became a state as part of the Missouri Compromise (which allowed Maine to become the 20th state and a free state, and Missouri to become the 21st state as a slave state). No state above the lattitude line 36°30′ could become a slave state, and Missouri would have been the last above this line. This lattitude line is the southern border of Missouri, and if you follow it east, the border between Kentucky and Tennessee. So, as defined, there should be no bootheel.

Enter a pioneer planter named John Hardeman Walker. He lived in this region, and his land area would become part of the Arkansas Territory. He claimed that the area had more in common with areas to the north: places such as Cape Girardeau, Ste. Genevieve, and St. Louis. (There are theories that there was an exchange of cash for the favor of being part of Missouri.) So a small exception was made for the area, which includes the counties of Dunklin, New Madrid, and Pemiscot.

There are other stories about why this land was included with Missouri, most of which are quite humorous. One claimed that Missourians didn't want to be associated with those from Arkansas because it was sickly in Arkansas, or that Arkansas was "full of bears and copperhead snakes, so no civilized person could spend even a night there".

One more piece of trivia: the Missouri Bootheel was once referred to as Lapland, because it was where Missouri lapped over into Arkansas. Most people don't say this anymore, and even the region has changed. Some people refer to the Bootheel as the area that encompasses the entire southeastern lowlands, which includes parts of the following counties: Butler, Mississippi, Ripley, Scott, Stoddard, and the extreme southern portion of Cape Girardeau county. This area is known as the northern edge of the Mississippi Embayment.

Bet you didn't know that!