Page Contents for Lamar, Missouri

Statistics & Facts

History & History-related items

City Attractions

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Statistics & Facts

The Missouri state capital is Jefferson City.
The population of Lamar is approximately 4,168 (1990), 4532 (2010).
The approximate number of families is 1,887 (1990), 1866 (2010).
The amount of land area in Lamar is 8.817 sq. kilometers.
The amount of surface water is 0.786 sq kilometers.
The distance from Lamar to Washington DC is 983 miles.
The distance to the Missouri state capital is 139 miles. (as the crow flies)
Lamar is positioned 37.49 degrees north of the equator and 94.27 degrees west of the prime meridian.

History & History Related Items

Colonel George Ward is named as the founder of Lamar in 1859. The town was named for Mirabeau Buonaparte Lamar, the second president of the Republic of Texas. It is the county seat of Barton County.
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Attractions

NOTED NOTABLES
Harry S. Truman
Lamar is the birth place of Harry S. Truman (May 8, 1884). John Anderson Truman, his father, ran a livery stable, briefly, in Lamar.

Harlow Shapley
Barton County is also the birthplace of Harlow Shapley (1885-1972), a Harvard emeritus astronomer. He was born in Nashville, Missouri, a small town west and south of Lamar just off State Hwy 43. Among other accomplishments, he determined the size of the Milky Way and the position of its center. He also researched the fields of Cepheid variable and globular clusters. He was also a published scientific author.
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