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A statue of leading citizen John
Q. Hammons across the street from Hammons Tower surveys the city
from its downtown location. My, how Springfield has grown.
That’s the frequent refrain of visitors who recall Springfield
from thirty years ago. And indeed it has. The metropolitan area
population has nearly doubled, to three hundred thousand, since
1970. Having lived in the area for twenty-two years, I witnessed
that growth year by year. And I’m watching Springfield continue
to spread across the gently rolling tablelands of the Ozark
Mountain Plateau, at the crossroads of Interstate 44 and Highway
65. No wonder. Springfield residents are blessed with what many
describe as a nearly perfect four-season climate, except for the
muggy July-August period. The plateau climate gives us milder
seasons than the upland plains or prairie parts of Missouri. And
the town offers a special ambience, combining the influences of
gracious Southern charm and style, Midwestern practicality and
sensibility, and Western ambition, boldness, and fortitude. SITE
OF FIRST GUNFIGHT That Springfield has been influenced by the
West might surprise some, but the town helped give birth to the
Wild West era. In the wake of the Civil War, in July 1865, the
nation’s first recorded shoot-out took place on the town square
between Wild Bill Hickok and Dave Tutt. Following a poker game
in the Kelly Kerr Saloon on Park Central Square, Tutt claimed
Hickok owed him money and took his pocket watch as collateral.
He said he would wear it in public to show that Hickok didn’t
pay his debts. The next day, from seventy-five yards away, Tutt
fired a shot at Hickok but missed. Hickok fired back and killed
Tutt. Because of Hickok’s fame as a Pony Express rider, the
event made nationwide news. Long before that incident, the land
around Springfield was occupied by Osage, Kickapoo, Delaware,
and Shawnee Indians. Later, the Butterfield-Overland stagecoach
brought in settlers and visitors. The founder of the city was
John Polk Campbell, a Tennessee homesteader who announced his
claim in 1829. In 1833, the legislature designated most of the
southern portion of the region a single county, named Greene for
Revolutionary War General Nathanael Greene, largely through
Campbell’s campaign to honor him. The settlement became
Springfield the same year. Like many other Missouri communities,
the city was divided during the Civil War. One of the most
decisive battles of the Civil War’s western front was fought
nearby. On August 10, 1861, Union and Confederate armies clashed
near the city at Wilson’s Creek. This was the first battle west
of the Mississippi. More than eighteen hundred were wounded, and
535 men died. In 1863, Confederate forces reached Springfield
and shelled South Street and the town square in the Battle of
Springfield. They were unsuccessful, and the city remained under
Union control for the duration of the war. Springfield’s
importance as a western staging area in the Civil War probably
secured its growth from then on. By 1870, the Frisco Railroad
pulled into a new station at Commercial and Benton streets. In
another transportation coup in 1938, Route 66, the nation’s
first paved transcontinental highway, was |
