Customer Reviews

Missouri Roadsides: The Traveler's Companion

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Missouri Roadsides is a thorough compilation of almost every town in the state, from the small (Halltown, pop. 161) to the large (St. Louis, pop. 396,685). Based on courthouse records and eyeball observation, you'll find the history of each town, along with recreational areas, attractions, and fascinating tidbits. Armchair historians will like the emphasis on town origins. A special appendix on recreational areas is ideal for travellers, and includes wildlife areas, state parks, even navigable waterways. While the book would have been more complete with more maps and illustrations, Missouri Roadsides is a wealth of information -- and well worth the price!

It took me a couple of years to read the book because I spread out the reading to enjoy my armchair travels. My compliments on the work. I can't imagine how all the information was gathered and checked. The author had to travel to each town. I looked up a couple of facts I consider to be little-known facts. They were included in the book, and were correct. I enjoyed reading about places near my weekend cabin. I checked out several of the features. The one I found most amazing was the grave of Comfort Ruggles -- a member of the Boston Tea Party buried in a Missouri country cemetery.

The book is great for the native Missourian and for those travelers who dream of discovering the Show Me State.

A rather dry read, but interesting to have in hand as one explores the backroads of Missouri or races across the state via Interstate.

The Mountain Press "Roadside Geology of ..." and "Roadside History of ..." series are exclusively geared to major highways. This book is refreshing in that it gets off the main highways and tells you a bit about many of the larger more rural towns. The small hamlets are omitted, even though one might want to know where some of the more interesting town names come from.

Since so many towns and roads are included, the book is organized alphabetically instead of the geographic appraoch of the "Roadside ..." series. This means that one is constantly flipping back and forth, instead of following a route down one road, but the extra effort is probably worth it.

Somewhat annoyingly, topics like the Civil War in Missouri are mixed in alphabetically with the town names. It might have been better to alphabetize the towns and list the non-geographic topics in a separate section or multiple sections.

All in all, a very comprehensive volume that i would recommend to introduce some of the complexity of the history and geography og Missouri to yourself or the younger members of the family if they have an interest in history and geography.

Bought it for a gift for Mom. Whole family has enjoyed this. Fun to browse through.