Missouri City, Texas

About Missouri City, Texas

Missouri City is a city located in the U.S. state of Texas within the Houston–Sugar Land–Baytown metropolitan area. The city is mostly in Fort Bend County with a small portion within Harris County. As of the 2000 U.S. Census, the city had a total population of 52,913 (though a 2005 estimate placed the population at 62,345).

The area in which Missouri City is now located holds a significant part in the history of Texas that dates back to its early days as part of the United States. In August of 1853, the Buffalo Bayou, Brazos, and Colorado Railway (BBB&C), began operating its first twenty miles (32 km) of rail line that stretched from Harrisburg (now Houston) to Stafford's Point (now Stafford). It was the first railroad to begin operating in Texas, and the first standard gauge railroad west of the Mississippi River.

The railway continued its extension westward until, in 1883, it linked with its eastward counterpart, completing the Sunset Route from Los Angeles to New Orleans. Today, the route of the BBB&C (now owned by the Union Pacific Railroad) is still an important and heavily operated railroad line.