Jefferson City likes to think of itself as the center of the state and it is certainly the POLITICAL center of the state.
But, really, it IS the center of the state according to the census bureau and the post office.
If we could cut Missouri out of the United States (and 161 years ago that was tried unsuccessfully) and balance it on the point of a large pin with all of our people living where they live now and weighing the same, the state would balance on a point just south of Jefferson City.
After the folks at the Census Bureau get done counting national noses they start having fun with the numbers. Missouri wins twice when they do.
A few weeks ago, the census geeks figured that the national population center is near Hartville, population 594, in southwest Missouri’s Wright County. Now they’ve figured the population center of each state and Missouri’s balance point is near a bend in the Osage River east of Brazito, an unincorporated community about 12 or 13 miles from Jefferson City.
Brazito is served by the post office in Jefferson City and its street addresses have the Jefferson City zip code of 65109.
So Jefferson City IS the center of the state! Wink, wink.
The designation as the state’s population center is one of two historical events connected with Brazito. The first is that it was named for a Christmas Day, 1846 battle in the Mexican War by members of the First Regiment Missouri Mounted Volunteers under Alexander Doniphan.
The map is from the book J. T. Hughes wrote about the exploits of the unit, Doniphan’s Expedition, published in 1847, shortly after the group returned from opening central Mexico to American military occupation after the later Battle of Chihuahua. It’s an epic story if you want to learn more about the march from Fort Leavenworth to Santa Fe, the Mexican capital taken without a shot being fired, and then south through the arid country side to the battle site near El Paso and then on to Chihuahua.
The other historical moment happened on August 9, 1974, about 39,000 feet over Brazito when Air Force One pilot, Col. Ralph Albertazzie, radioed Kansas City ground control from his blue and white Boeing 707, “This was Air Force One. Will you change our call sign to Sierra Alpha Mike 27-thousand?” (That’s military language to make sure the receiving person knows it refers to the letters SAM.)
“Roger, Sierra Alpha Mike 27-thousand. Good luck to the President.”
“Roger. 27-thousand.”
It was three minutes, 25 seconds past noon. Someone reached down and locked the box containing the secret military codes.
And the Boeing 707 was no longer Air Force One, the designation given to any Air Force plane carrying the President of the United States. It became another Air Force plane, tail number 27000.
The Airline Owners and Pilots Association says SAM27000 has the distinction of making 1,440 takeoffs as Air Force One, but it landed with that designation only 1,439 times. This was that odd flight—on which Richard Nixon, heading back to California after his resignation in disgrace, officially left the office of President—
—over Brazito, Missouri when word came that Gerald Ford had been inaugurated as Nixon’s successor.
SAM27000 carried more presidents to more countries for more meetings and on more missions than any Air Force One. Seven presidents beginning with John F. Kennedy, 445 missions. And, says the AOPA, “no luggage was ever lost.”
The airplane remains the property of the Air Force but it is on permanent loan to the Reagan Presidential Library. Should you find yourself there, you can go through the airplane where history was made over Missouri’s new population center 48 years ago.
(photo credit: AOPA)
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