Minutes later, a destructive EF-3 tornado caused extensive damage on the southwest side of the city. 2019 tornado ДЄpproximately 15 minutes before midnight on May 22, 2019, a tornado emergency was issued for the Jefferson City area. The city won a 2013 essay contest sponsored by Rand McNally, and was named 'Most Beautiful Small Town'. Known as the ' Missouri Rhineland' for its vineyards and first established by German immigrants in the mid-1800s, this region has become part of Missouri's agricultural and tourist economy. German immigrants created vineyards in small towns on either side of the Missouri River, especially on the north from the city east to Marthasville, located outside of St. Louis-supported the Union, while other areas (such as Missouri's Little Dixie) were strongly pro- Confederate along the Missouri River between Jefferson City and Kansas City. Missourians were strongly divided and many people in the state-especially in St. Missouri was claimed by both the Confederacy and the Union, as was neighboring state Kentucky. Some of the legislators later reconvened in Neosho and passed an ordinance of secession. This prison was home to multiple infamous Americans, including former heavyweight champion Sonny Liston, assassin James Earl Ray, and bank robber Pretty Boy Floyd.Дuring the Civil War, Jefferson City was occupied by Union troops and the elected state legislature was driven from Jefferson City by Union General Nathaniel Lyon. This prison, named the Missouri State Penitentiary, opened in 1836.

Jefferson City was chosen as the site of a state prison. In 1825, the settlement was incorporated as a city and a year later, the Missouri legislature first met in Jefferson City. For years, this village was little more than a trading post located in the wilderness about midway between St. Over the years, the city was most often referred to as 'Jefferson City' and the name stuck. The village first was called 'Lohman's Landing', and when the legislature decided to relocate there, they proposed the name 'Missouriopolis' before settling on the city of 'Jefferson' to honor Thomas Jefferson. However Jefferson City was chosen as the new capital in 1821. Louis was Missouri's seat of government, and St. When the Missouri Territory was organized in 1812, St. Daniel Boone's son, Daniel Morgan Boone, would later lay out Jefferson City in the early 19th century. In the late 17th century, frontiersmen started to inhabit the area, including Antoine de la Mothe Cadillac, Louis Jolliet, Jacques Marquette, Robert de LaSalle, and Daniel Boone, with the latter having the greatest influence on the region. In pre-Columbian times, this region was home of an ancient people known only as the 'Mound Builders', having been replaced by Osage Native Americans. Photograph of Jefferson City and its geography from the International Space Station Colored Troops with support from the 65th Regiment of U.S. Jefferson City is also home to Lincoln University, a public historically black land-grant university founded in 1866 by the 62nd Regiment of U.S. Many of Jefferson City's primary employers are in service and manufacturing industries. The city is dominated by the domed Capitol, which rises from a bluff overlooking the Missouri River to the north Lewis and Clark passed the bluff on their historic expedition upriver before Europeans established any settlement there. It is 29 miles south of Columbia, Missouri, and sits at the western edge of the Missouri Rhineland, one of the major wine-producing regions of the Midwest. Jefferson City is located on the northern edge of the Ozark Plateau on the southern side of the Missouri River in a region known as Mid-Missouri, that is roughly mid-way between the state's two large urban areas of Kansas City and St. Jefferson City is named for Thomas Jefferson, the third President of the United States. Most of the city is in Cole County, with a small northern section extending into Callaway County.

It is also the county seat of Cole County and the principal city of the Jefferson City Metropolitan Statistical Area, the second-most-populous metropolitan area in Mid-Missouri and the fifth-largest in the state. It had a population of 43,228 at the 2020 census, ranking as the 15th most populous city in the state. Jefferson City, informally Jeff City, is the capital of the U.S.

1784 pcr 800, perryville, mo