The Show Me State

• by George Bailey • Published: May 31, 2007

Some visitors to Branson may find themselves perplexed by the slogan on Missouri license plates, which reads: Show-Me State. The purported origins of this slogan are perhaps as numerous as its interpretations. Many ascribe the motto’s coinage to a speech delivered by US Congressman Willard Duncan Vandiver at a naval banquet in Philadelphia in 1899. “I come from a state that raises corn and cotton and cockleburs and Democrats,” said Congressman Vandiver, “and frothy eloquence neither convinces nor satisfies me. I am from Missouri. You have got to show me.” Others believe the slogan was inherited from a culture-clash that arose between miners in Leadville, Colorado, once more in the 1890's. A strike had necessitated replacements for native miners and a team was imported from southwest Missouri. The Missouri miners, being naturally unfamiliar with Colorado mining colloquialisms, frequently required non-verbal instruction. This led to a pejorative use of the phrase, as Pit bosses were known to say derisively: ‘He is from Missouri; you must show him.’ Regardless of the true source of Missouri’s state motto, as long as you’re in Branson you should feel welcome to adopt it as your own. Every account, whether written or spoken, of the splendour of The Ozark Mountains, or of a soothing swim in Bull Shoals, Table Rock or Taneycomo Lakes, will pale compared to the actual experience of them. The only words you need to say on your Branson vacation are: show me, and Branson will.