Founded around 1740 by Canadien settlers and migrants from settlements in the Illinois Country just east of the Mississippi River, Ste. Geneviève is the oldest permanent European settlement in Missouri. It was named for Saint Genevieve (who lived in the 5th century AD), the patron saint of Paris, the capital of France. While most residents were of French-Canadian descent, many of the founding families had been in the Illinois Country for two or three generations. It is one of the oldest colonial settlements west of the Mississippi River. This area was known as New France, Illinois Country, or the Upper Louisiana territory. Traditional accounts suggested a founding of 1735 or so, but the historian Carl Ekberg has documented a more likely founding about 1750. The population to the east of the river needed more land, as the soils in the older villages had become exhausted. Improved relations with hostile Native Americans, such as the Osage, made settlement possible.
The University of Missouri (also, Mizzou, or MU) is a public, land-grant research university located in Columbia, Missouri, U.S. It was founded in 1839 as the first public institution of higher education west of the Mississippi River. As the largest university in the state, it enrolled 30,870 students in 2017, offering over 300 degree programs in 20 academic colleges. It is the flagship campus of the University of Missouri System, which also maintains campuses in Kansas City, Rolla, and St. Louis. The campus of the University of Missouri is 1,262-acre (2.0 sq mi; 510.7 ha) just south of Downtown Columbia and is maintained as a botanical garden. The historical campus is centered on Francis Quadrangle, a historic district that is listed on the National Register of Historic Places, and contains a number of buildings on the National Register of Historic Places.
St. Louis Lambert International Airport is an international airport serving Greater St. Louis, Missouri, United States. It is 14 miles (23 km) northwest of downtown St. Louis in unincorporated St. Louis County between Berkeley and Bridgeton. Commonly named Lambert Field, it is the largest and busiest airport in Missouri with 270 daily departures to over 80 domestic and international locations. In 2016, 13.9 million passengers traveled through the airport. Lambert-St. Louis serves as a hub for Air Choice One, and Cape Air. The largest US airport classified as medium-sized, it is a focus city for Southwest Airlines, and was a former hub for Trans World Airlines and later for American Airlines.