Where did Missouri get the slogan “The Show Me State”?
Technically, that’s not the official slogan. Anyway, there’s no real answer, but a few theories: The Joplin miners were unfamiliar with Colorado mining methods when Leadvill, CO miners came into town, and required frequent instructions. Pit bosses began saying, “That man is from Missouri. You’ll have to show him.” But, “The most widely known legend attributes the phrase to Missouri’s U.S. Congressman Willard Duncan Vandiver, who served in the United States House of Representatives from 1897 to 1903. While a member of the U.S. House Committee on Naval Affairs, Vandiver attended an 1899 naval banquet in Philadelphia. In a speech there, he declared, “I come from a state that raises corn and cotton and cockleburs and Democrats, and frothy eloquence neither convinces nor satisfies me. I am from Missouri. You have got to show me.” Regardless of whether Vandiver coined the phrase, it is certain that his speech helped to popularize the saying.” (Source:
