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Missouri Bootheel
The Missouri Bootheel is a salient (protrusion) located in the southeasternmost part of the U.S. state of Missouri, extending south of 36°30′ north latitude, so called because its shape in relation to the rest of the state resembles the heel of a boot. Strictly speaking, it is composed of some or all of the counties of Dunklin, New Madrid, and Pemiscot. However, the term is locally used to refer to the entire southeastern lowlands of Missouri located within the Mississippi Embayment, which includes parts of Butler, Mississippi, Ripley, Scott, Stoddard and extreme southern portions of Cape Girardeau and Bollinger counties. The largest city in the region is Kennett.
Until the 1920s, the district was a wheat-growing area of family farms.[citation needed] Following the invasion of the boll weevil, which ruined the cotton crop in Arkansas, planters moved in. They bought up the land for conversion to cotton commodity crops, bringing along thousands of sharecroppers. After mechanization of agriculture and other changes in the 1930s, many black families left the area to go north in the Great Migration. These counties have predominantly white populations in the 21st century, although some have a significant number of black residents.
When Missouri was admitted to the Union as part of the Missouri Compromise, its original border was proposed as an extension of the 36°30′ parallel north that formed the border between Kentucky and Tennessee. That would have excluded the Bootheel. John Hardeman Walker, a pioneer planter in what is now Pemiscot County, argued that the area had more in common with the Mississippi River towns of Cape Girardeau, Ste. Genevieve and St. Louis in Missouri than with its proposed incorporation in the Arkansas Territory. The border was dropped about 50 miles to the 36th parallel north. It follows that parallel west about 30 miles until intersecting the St. Francis River, then follows that river north to about the 36°30′ parallel just west of Campbell, Missouri.
According to an apocryphal story in various versions, the Bootheel was added to the state because of the request of John Hardeman Walker to remain in the state "as he had heard it was so sickly in Arkansas", "...full of bears and panthers and copperhead snakes, so it ain't safe for civilized people to stay there over night even." Another legend has the adaptation made by a lovestruck surveyor to spare the feelings of a widow living 50 miles south of the Missouri border, but unaware of it. At one time, the area was known locally as "Lapland, because it's the place where Missouri laps over into Arkansas".
During the American Civil War, a number of battles took place in this area, most notably the Battle of Island No. 10.
Until the early 20th century, the district was largely covered by wetlands and swamps, but otherwise was a wheat-growing area of family farms. Lumbering was important in the 1890s until the most valuable trees were taken.
In 1905, the Little River Drainage District built an elaborate network of ditches, canals, and levees to drain the swamps, as people believed, not understanding about the important function of wetlands in modifying river flooding, that the highest use was for agriculture.
From 1880 to 1930, the population in the area more than tripled as many workers were brought in. Cotton became the chief commodity crop. Meanwhile, the boll weevil ruined the cotton crop in Arkansas, and planters moved into the Bootheel, bought up the new lands or leased them from insurance companies that had invested in the area, and recruited thousands of black sharecroppers as workers.
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Missouri Bootheel AI simulator
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Missouri Bootheel
The Missouri Bootheel is a salient (protrusion) located in the southeasternmost part of the U.S. state of Missouri, extending south of 36°30′ north latitude, so called because its shape in relation to the rest of the state resembles the heel of a boot. Strictly speaking, it is composed of some or all of the counties of Dunklin, New Madrid, and Pemiscot. However, the term is locally used to refer to the entire southeastern lowlands of Missouri located within the Mississippi Embayment, which includes parts of Butler, Mississippi, Ripley, Scott, Stoddard and extreme southern portions of Cape Girardeau and Bollinger counties. The largest city in the region is Kennett.
Until the 1920s, the district was a wheat-growing area of family farms.[citation needed] Following the invasion of the boll weevil, which ruined the cotton crop in Arkansas, planters moved in. They bought up the land for conversion to cotton commodity crops, bringing along thousands of sharecroppers. After mechanization of agriculture and other changes in the 1930s, many black families left the area to go north in the Great Migration. These counties have predominantly white populations in the 21st century, although some have a significant number of black residents.
When Missouri was admitted to the Union as part of the Missouri Compromise, its original border was proposed as an extension of the 36°30′ parallel north that formed the border between Kentucky and Tennessee. That would have excluded the Bootheel. John Hardeman Walker, a pioneer planter in what is now Pemiscot County, argued that the area had more in common with the Mississippi River towns of Cape Girardeau, Ste. Genevieve and St. Louis in Missouri than with its proposed incorporation in the Arkansas Territory. The border was dropped about 50 miles to the 36th parallel north. It follows that parallel west about 30 miles until intersecting the St. Francis River, then follows that river north to about the 36°30′ parallel just west of Campbell, Missouri.
According to an apocryphal story in various versions, the Bootheel was added to the state because of the request of John Hardeman Walker to remain in the state "as he had heard it was so sickly in Arkansas", "...full of bears and panthers and copperhead snakes, so it ain't safe for civilized people to stay there over night even." Another legend has the adaptation made by a lovestruck surveyor to spare the feelings of a widow living 50 miles south of the Missouri border, but unaware of it. At one time, the area was known locally as "Lapland, because it's the place where Missouri laps over into Arkansas".
During the American Civil War, a number of battles took place in this area, most notably the Battle of Island No. 10.
Until the early 20th century, the district was largely covered by wetlands and swamps, but otherwise was a wheat-growing area of family farms. Lumbering was important in the 1890s until the most valuable trees were taken.
In 1905, the Little River Drainage District built an elaborate network of ditches, canals, and levees to drain the swamps, as people believed, not understanding about the important function of wetlands in modifying river flooding, that the highest use was for agriculture.
From 1880 to 1930, the population in the area more than tripled as many workers were brought in. Cotton became the chief commodity crop. Meanwhile, the boll weevil ruined the cotton crop in Arkansas, and planters moved into the Bootheel, bought up the new lands or leased them from insurance companies that had invested in the area, and recruited thousands of black sharecroppers as workers.