Springfield

Springfield is a city in southwestern Missouri, United States, on the Ozark Plateau. It calls itself the birthplace of Route 66, because the number of the highway was proposed in a telegram sent from the city in 1926.

John Polk Campbell, a settler from Tennessee, claimed land beside a spring in the 1830s and gave the site for the town and its county courthouse. Springfield grew as a market for the Ozark farms and became a rail center after the St. Louis–San Francisco Railway set up its shops there. The Assemblies of God, a Pentecostal church, moved its headquarters to the city in the early 20th century and runs a publishing house and a university there. Brad Pitt grew up in Springfield.

Bass Pro Shops, founded by Johnny Morris in the back of his father's liquor store, keeps its head office and its first Outdoor World store in the city. O'Reilly Auto Parts, also based in Springfield, sells car parts through its stores across the country. Paul Mueller Company makes stainless steel tanks for dairy farms and breweries at its plant in the city. Cashew chicken, fried chicken in oyster sauce with cashews, was first served here by the restaurant owner David Leong.

Wonders of Wildlife, a museum and aquarium beside the Bass Pro store, shows fish and animals of North America in large tanks and dioramas. Park Central Square, the old town square, is where the city began. Fantastic Caverns, on the north edge of the city, is a cave toured from end to end in jeep-drawn trams. Missouri State University grew from a teachers' college founded in the city in 1905.