Four State Area
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The Four State Area is an unofficial term used to describe a loosely defined region of southwestern Missouri, southeastern Kansas, northeastern Oklahoma, and northwestern Arkansas. It is so called because it is a small region including the extreme corners of four U.S. states. Unlike the Four Corners region, it has no common point where all four states meet.
Its metropolitan center is Joplin, Missouri. Joplin is 7 miles from Kansas, 10 miles from Oklahoma and roughly 55 miles from Arkansas.
The official Joplin Metropolitan Area is made up of Jasper and Newton Counties. To people in the area the Four State Area is more important. This designation is widely used across the area. Businesses, government and the media focus on the wider area almost exclusively.
The cultural and economic focus of the whole area centers on Joplin. The Metropolitan area increases rapidly in population each day, Joplin roughly tripling in size, from the large amount of workers commuting into town.
Joplin shopping centers are used by people across the area with the area mall advertising having a trade area population of over 450,000 [link].
Other noteworthy cities and towns of the area are Pittsburg, Kansas, home of Pittsburg State University; Miami, Oklahoma; and Carthage, Missouri.
The area sits at the intersection of U.S. Route 71 and Interstate 44. It is 20 miles from U.S. Route 60 and 15 miles from U.S. Route 69. Historical U.S. Route 66 ran through the area.
It has been proposed to convert Route 71 into Interstate 49. Just east of the Joplin city limits MO 249 is being upgraded, through 2008, to a 2-lane limited access highway between Interstate 44 and US 171/Business Route 71 to the north. It is expected to be part of the Interstate 49 route as a bypass of Interstate 44.
Interstate 66 is in long-term plans to extend from the current ending in Virginia through to southern Kansas. Tenatitive plans have it following Interstate 44 or Route 60 from Springfield and then continuing along US 400 through Kansas. Current plans do not extend west past Kentucky.
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