Jefferson City is located on the northern edge of the Ozark Plateau on the southern side of the Missouri River in a region known as Mid-Missouri, that is roughly mid-way between the state's two large urban areas of Kansas City to the west and St. Louis in the east (along the west bank of the Mississippi River).

The city is dominated by the monumental domed Missouri State Capitol, which rises from a bluff overlooking the nearby Missouri River to the north; Lewis and Clark with their Corps of Discovery passed the bluff here on their historic expedition upriver in 1804, eventually journeying westward to the Pacific Northwest region and the Pacific Ocean, before Europeans or Americans established any settlement there.

Jefferson City is also home to Lincoln University, a public historically black and federal land-grant university founded the year after the American Civil War in 1866, by the Union Army black veterans of the First Missouri Regiment of Colored Infantry & 62nd Regiment of U.S.

In pre-Columbian times, this region was home of an ancient people known only as the "Mound Builders", being replaced by Osage Native Americans.

In the late 17th century, frontiersmen started to inhabit the area, including Antoine de la Mothe Cadillac, Louis Jolliet, Jacques Marquette, Robert de LaSalle, and Daniel Boone, with the latter having the greatest influence on the region.

The village on the southern banks of the Missouri River, first was called "Lohman's Landing", and when the new state legislature decided to relocate there, they proposed the name "Missouriopolis" before settling on the city of "Jefferson" to honor former third President Thomas Jefferson (who was still living at his Virginia home estate of Monticello for the next five years).

For years, this village was little more than a trading post located in the wilderness about midway between St. Louis and Kansas City.

This prison was the unfortunate home to multiple infamous Americans, including former heavyweight boxing champion Sonny Liston, Martin Luther King Jr. assassin James Earl Ray, and infamous 1930s bank robber Pretty Boy Floyd.

During the American Civil War (1861-1865), Jefferson City was occupied by Union / Federal troops and the elected state legislature of the General Assembly were driven from Jefferson City by Union Army General Nathaniel Lyon (1818-1861).

Some of the rebelling legislators later reconvened in nearby Neosho and passed an ordinance of secession from the Federal Union.

German immigrants created vineyards in small towns on either side of the Missouri River, especially on the north from the city east to Marthasville, located outside of St. Louis.

[17] Jefferson City has a humid continental climate (Dfa) with hot, rainy summers and cold winters.

The city borders on having a humid subtropical climate but falls just short due to January having a mean temperature of 30 °F (−1 °C) which is below the 32 °F (0 °C) isotherm.

[18] The 2020 United States census[21] counted 43,228 people, 16,882 households, and 9,327 families in Jefferson City.

Jefferson City's economy relies on government, health care, manufacturing, retail, education, and tourism.

Central Bancompany, Hawthorn Bancshares, Capital Region Medical Center, and Arris Pizza all have their headquarters in Jefferson City.

[26][27] JCCC replaced the Missouri State Penitentiary on September 15, 2004, which until its closure was the oldest operating penal facility west of the Mississippi River.

It served as the State of Missouri's primary maximum security institution,[28] and it housed male death row prisoners until April 1989, when they were moved to the Potosi Correctional Center.

The courthouse, which is occupied by the Central Division of the United States District Court for the Western District of Missouri and under the appellate jurisdiction of the United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit, was designed to achieve the U.S. Green Building Council's LEED Gold rating.

KRCG, the region's CBS affiliate, and KFDR, a station owned by the Christian Television Network (CTN), are both licensed to the city.

Jefferson City is one of the four state capitals that is not served by an Interstate highway (the others are Dover, Delaware; Juneau, Alaska; and Pierre, South Dakota).

[36] The Jefferson City station, located in the former Union Hotel at Jefferson Landing State Historic Site, is one of the Missouri River Runner train stops between Kansas City and St. Louis, provided by Amtrak, the sole intercity passenger railroad service in the United States.

A Greyhound bus stop near the Eastland Drive Convenient Food Mart[37] also provides intercity transit.

Capital Region Medical Center, an affiliate of University of Missouri Health Care, is also located in the city.

[38] Around 200 years ago, settlers from Münchberg founded a neighborhood south of downtown Jefferson City, which is still known as "Old Munichburg".