Today is a day, 150 years in the making, in Joplin. The city celebrates its 150th birthday this afternoon at city hall. KRPS’s Fred Fletcher-Fierro has more.
Joplin was incorporated as a city on Sunday, March 23, 1873, and to mark the big day, the city is hosting two events organized by the Joplin Celebrates Commission. This afternoon at 2:30 on the 5th floor of city hall, historian Brad Belk will give a presentation about Missouri’s greatest 20th-century painter, Thomas Hart Benton.
He began his career as a professional artist in Joplin. Nearly seven decades later, he returned to present his mural Joplin at the Turn of Century – 1896-1906. Patrick Tuttle, Director of the Joplin Convention & Visitors Bureau, appearing on KGCS’s Newsmakers, says years of planning went into this celebration.
“The celebration’s commission is formed for four specific milestones, and we started in 2021 with the bicentennial; Missouri’s bicentennial is that year, then the sesquicentennial is this year, and then in '26 is USA 250, as well as Route 66 turning 100.”
Tonight at 6:30 at Central Christian Church, they’ll be a presentation by the Joplin Ministerial Alliance about the Reverend Harris G. Joplin, a Methodist missionary who was also an early settler who the city was named after. All events are open to the public.
For a complete schedule, visit celebratejoplin.com.
