[8] Columbia is among the most-educated cities in the United States with about half of citizens being college graduates and about a quarter holding advance degrees.

[9] The city is built on the oak-forested hills and rolling prairies of Mid-Missouri, near the Missouri River, where the Ozark Mountains transition into plains and savanna.

Originally an agricultural town, education and healthcare are now Columbia's primary economic concern, with secondary interests in the insurance, finance, and technology sectors.

The University of Missouri Health Care system operates six hospitals in Columbia, several clinics, and the Thompson Center for Autism and Neurodevelopment.

The Missouri Tigers, the state's only major college athletic program, play football at Faurot Field and basketball at Mizzou Arena as members of the Southeastern Conference (SEC).

In the historical period, the Osage and Missouria nations were expelled by the exploration of French traders and the rapid settlement of American pioneers.

When the war ended settlers came on foot, horseback, and wagon, often moving entire households along the Boone's Lick Road and often bringing enslaved African Americans.

The Missouri Legislature appointed John Gray, Jefferson Fulcher, Absalom Hicks, Lawrence Bass, and David Jackson as commissioners to select and establish a permanent county seat.

The majority of the city was pro-Union;[10] however, the surrounding agricultural areas of Boone County and the rest of central Missouri were decidedly pro-Confederate.

He was taken from the county jail and lynched on April 29 before a white mob of roughly two thousand people, hanged from the Old Stewart Road Bridge.

In 2011 a headstone was put at his grave at Columbia Cemetery; it includes his wife's and parents' names and dates, to provide a more full account of his life.

Along these and other creeks in the area can be found large valleys, cliffs, and cave systems such as that in Rock Bridge State Park just south of the city.

These creeks are largely responsible for numerous stream valleys giving Columbia hilly terrain similar to the Ozarks while also having prairie flatland typical of northern Missouri.

The Devil's Icebox Cave in Columbia's Rock Bridge State Park is the only natural home of the planarian Kenkia glandulosa, an eyeless and de-pigmented flatworm.

Columbia has a humid continental climate (Köppen Dfa) marked by sharp seasonal contrasts in temperature, and is in USDA Plant Hardiness Zone 6a.

Nine historic districts located within the city are listed on the National Register of Historic Places: Downtown Columbia, the East Campus neighborhood, the West Broadway neighborhood, the Francis Quadrangle, the south campus of Stephens College, the Pierce Pennant Motor Hotel, Maplewood, and the David Guitar House.

[38] The city's historic residential core lies in a ring around downtown, extending especially to the west along Broadway, and south into the East Campus Neighborhood.

Companies such as Socket, Datastorm Technologies, Inc. (no longer existent), Slackers CDs and Games, Carfax,[54] and MBS Textbook Exchange were all founded in Columbia.

[62] The University of Missouri School of Music attracts hundreds of musicians to Columbia, student performances are held in Whitmore Recital Hall.

[66] Columbia also hosts the Show-Me State Games, a non-profit program of the Missouri Governor's Council on Physical Fitness and Health.

This 10-foot wide trail built on the old railbed of the MKT railroad begins in downtown Columbia in Flat Branch Park at 4th and Cherry Streets.

Stephens Lake has reservable shelters, playgrounds, swimming beach and spraygrounds, art sculptures, waterfalls, and walking trails.

[74] Rock Bridge Memorial State Park is open year-round giving visitors the chance to scramble, hike, and bicycle through a scenic environment.

The Missourian is directed by professional editors and staffed by Missouri School of Journalism students who do reporting, design, copy editing, information graphics, photography, and multimedia.

The Public Service Joint Communications Center coordinates efforts between the two organizations as well as the Boone County Fire Protection District, which operates Urban Search and Rescue Missouri Task Force 1.

A $3.5 million project to renovate and expand the Wabash Station, a rail depot built in 1910 and converted into the city's transit center in the mid-1980s, was completed in summer of 2007.

[99] The five to 15-year plan intends to add service along the southwest, southeast and northeast sections of Columbia and develop alternative transportation models for Boone County.

Within the city, there are also three state highways: Routes 763 (Rangeline Street & College Avenue), 163 (Providence Road), and 740 (Stadium Boulevard).

Health care is a big part of Columbia's economy, with nearly one in six people working in a health-care related profession[101][102] and a physician density that is about three times the United States average.

[106] The center serves as the sole supplier of the active ingredients in two U.S. Food and Drug Administration-approved radiopharmaceuticals and produces Fluorine-18 used in PET imaging with its cyclotron.