Describe about the city you live in?

I live in a small town called Neosho, Missouri, long known as "The Flowerbox City". Neosho lies in the extreme southwest corner of the state of Missouri, the Show-Me State, about fifteen miles south of Joplin, Missouri. Neosho is just a little north of Arkansas and just east of Oklahoma. Kansas is also close, just on the far side of Joplin so the entire area is known as "The Four States" or "The Four State Region."

Neosho gains its' name from a Native American word that means clear, abudant water. Even before Neosho was known as The Flower Box City, it was known as The City of Springs because a large number of springs flow inside the city limits.

Most famous of these is the Big Spring, rumored to have once been visited by Native Americans - most likely of the Osage Nation. The town of Neosho was laid out from a point adjacent to the Big Spring, now the crown jewel of the town's prettiest park, Big Spring Park.

In Neosho's earliest days, the spring was where women and servants went to do the family laundry. Old stories about wash day still trickle down through the generations but around the turn of the 20th century, the area around the Big Spring officially became a city park.

Just two blocks east of the park, the city's original business district lies around what is now known as the historic Downtown Square. Since Neosho is the county seat for Newton County, the courthouse is in the center of the Square. This courthouse was built in the late 1930's and replaced a large brick older building.

Like most small towns today, Neosho's original business district has lost most of the stores that once anchored it. When I first moved to Neosho as a child in the early 1970's, there were restaurants, three banks, hardware stores, two five and dime stores, ladies ready to wear stores, several shoe stores, and two drug stores. There was an ice cream parlor, furniture stores, and an appliance store.

Today, there are still two banks but most of the major businesses have either gone out of business or moved. Antique stores, used clothing shops, and speciality shops have moved in making it a quiet place to while away the hours.

Neosho Boulevard has long been one of the city's major thoroughfares. This is where visitors to our fair city will find some of the city's fast food establishments, several of the locally owned restaurants, and some of the shopping district.

Farther south, at the intersection of Highways 60 and the new four lane highway 71, a new commercial district has sprung up around the Wal-Mart Super Center. Today, there are more fast food restaurants, a movie rental store, two shopping centers, a variety of shops (including Dollar Tree and Aaron's), and several motels.

Neosho was first named "The Flowerbox City" when it was named as an All-American City back in 1957 and was featured in LIFE Magazine.

Neosho is also where the real Camp Swampy from the Beetle Bailey comic strip was located. Camp Crowder, later Fort Crowder, and now the Crowder Industrial Park, was built by the Army just before World War II began. Thousands of soldiers trained at the facility including Beetle Bailey's creator Mort Walker and Carl Reiner. Although Fort Crowder closed in the early 1960's, the Crowder area is now home to a junior college, aptly named Crowder College, that uses some of the old buildings from the Army days, La-Z-Boy Midwest and other industries, and Neosho's new Family Y.

Neosho is a city of churches; there are many scattered throughout the city limits of many denominations although there are a majority of Baptists, common in the entire region.

Neosho is built on a series of hills and the downtown region, home of both the Square and the Big Spring, is one of the few areas that are mostly flat.

Neosho has one high school, one middle school, and four elementary schools. Population is just over 10,000.

Although much of the population remains white, Anglo-Saxon, and Protestant, in recent years, an influx of Hispanic residents has brought more color to Neosho. There is also a growing community of area residents who come from Micronesia and are known as "Islanders". A tragic shooting at a recent Micronesian church service in Neosho made national headlines.

Neosho is the kind of town where residents see people they know when they're out and about. There is some division between the "Old Guard", folks who have generations of family rooted in Neosho and "Newcomers" who are not born here and therefore lack the roots. Although I've lived in Neosho since the age of ten, I still am classed as a newcomer!!

Neosho is also home to the Neosho National Fish Hatchery, a local historical museum, and much more.

Come visit the Flowerbox City and meet Neosho!