Mizzou -- University of Missouri at Columbia

Hello, readers! We finished our road trip across the USA last week, and I've been thinking about what to do next. I've decided to do some "snapshots" of short trips or trips to a single place. This week, we travel to Columbia, Missouri, where I attended a meeting at the University a couple of years ago. This is a truly beautiful campus. It's been designated a botanic garden, and you will soon see why. Wonderful plantings all throughout the 1,250-acre grounds make it a pleasure just to get from class to class.

Francis Quadrangle and Jesse Hall in the background

According to the University website, "the University of Missouri was founded in 1839 in Columbia, Mo., as the first public university west of the Mississippi River and the first state university in Thomas Jefferson's Louisiana Purchase territory."  Read more here. A fire destroyed the main building in 1892. Only the six ionic pillars seen in this picture survived.

The pillars up close

Click for slide show

Jesse Hall, named for the school president at the time of the fire

Beer Buddies

What a fun sculpture!

Approaching the tower of Memorial Union

We saw lots of these cute little guys

A tribute to the Mizzou Tigers. This is Tiger Plaza, far on the other side of Jesse Hall (seen in background).

Tiger Plaza -- celebrating the Mizzou Tigers

Me with Thomas Jefferson

Go Tigers!

This picture came out

sideways (??), but the

flower was so gorgeous

I left it in anyway!

It can be miserably hot in Missouri, as it was when I was there in June of 2010, but it's still well worth the stop for a tour of the campus if you are in the area.