Springfield, Missouri: The Birthplace of Route 66

If you’ve spent even a few hours in Springfield, you’re bound to see a sign declaring it “The Birthplace of Route 66”.  This may sound like a bold claim, considering that the route begins and ends in Chicago and Los Angeles.  While our city is not the start of the physical highway, it is where…

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The Sarah Gorham Graham Case

Springfield, Missouri has a history of sensational true crime cases, but one of the oldest is the tale of Sarah Gorham Graham.  Sarah was born in December of 1851, and little is known about her until her marriage to George Graham in Fort Wayne, Indiana in 1871.  George spent most of the first years of…

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Betty Love, Photojournalist

Betty Love graduated from Drury University in the early 1930’s and almost immediately began her teaching career.  She taught art to elementary and junior high school students for almost a decade before finding work at the Springfield Daily News and Leader-Press in 1941.  She was meant to be a temporary replacement for their cartoonist, but…

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New Springfield, Missouri Flag

March 1st, 2022, at 2 pm, the new Springfield flag will be raised on the flagpole on the Square for the first time. While the new city flag has been a hot topic of conversation in the last few months, the new design was actually first proposed back in 2017. After multiple presentations before City…

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Andy Payne, Winner of the Transcontinental Footrace

The Transcontinental Footrace of 1928 was a daring event, putting hundreds of men to the test of endurance, speed, and determination.  This race was organized by the nation’s first sports agent, Charles C. Pyle.  It was set to begin on March 4th, 1928 in Los Angeles and finish some time in May in New York…

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