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Site Selection: Hannibal & Kirksville, America’s Hometown & the Smartest City in Rural America

  • February 01, 2019

They don’t call Kirksville the “Smartest City in Rural America” without reason. Where else in the country can you find a town of 17,519 people where you can receive a high-quality education from preschool through doctoral degree? The other principal city in this region of Missouri is Hannibal, a community of 17,808 people along the Mississippi River about 100 miles northwest of St. Louis. Nicknamed “America’s Hometown” and incorporated in 1845, Hannibal is famous for being the boyhood home of renowned American author Samuel Langhorne Clemens (aka Mark Twain), according to a recent article from the Site Selection team.

Kirksville, in Upstate Missouri, offers best-in-class educational resources and more. From award-winning grade schools to Truman University, the premier liberal arts and sciences university in Missouri, Kirksville is known nationwide as the place where talented students go to get even smarter.

“We have a dental school and medical school here,” says Carolyn Chrisman, executive director of Kirksville Regional Economic Development Inc. “We focus on identifying where our workers are at and if they are underemployed and need more training.”

The greater Hannibal/Kirksville region will soon see the addition of a 400-megawatt wind farm, which will create a need for more wind energy technicians in the northern part of Adair County, says Chrisman. “They will start construction later this year.”

Check out the full article from the Site Selection team here.

For more information on why Missouri could be a prime location to launch or grow your business, contact Steve Johnson, CEO of Missouri Partnership, at 314.725.2688 or via our contact form, with any questions you might have, and learn how Missouri Partnership can help with your business expansion and investment needs.

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