Neosho (Missouri)

Neosho is a sizeable town in Southwest Missouri and has several monikers, among them "Gateway To The Ozarks," "City of Springs," and "Flower Box City". The latter two pertain to characteristics of the town, namely the source of numerous springs as well as a citywide initiative involving flower boxes. The name Neosho is derived from a Native American word meaning "clear, cold water".

Understand
Neosho is in ways a typical Missouri town, founded by European American settlers in 1829, but it has some distinctions, one being that it was the fleeting Confederate capital of Missouri in 1861, though it changed hands a couple of times during the war and also most of the state was largely controlled by the Union. It was also home (at least temporarily to) figures like ragtime composer James Scott, entertainer Will Rogers, and innovator George Washington Carver. Moreover, it was also the tragic site of a train collision that killed 43 passengers in 1914 as the motor carriage caught fire.

Get in
Neosho is just east of I-49 between Joplin and the Fayetteville, Arkansas metro area.