Geographical Center of Missouri is Probably Not Where You’d Think

If you had to point at a map and guess where the geographical center of Missouri is, could you get it right? No offense, but I'm betting you'd miss based on what I've found about where the middle of Missouri really is. It's probably not where you'd think.

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I know I've never been accused of being the sharpest knife in the drawer, but the geographical center of Missouri as shared by the website Net State does not look right. They say it's located here:

Longitude: 92° 37.9'W
Latitude: 32° 48.9'N

For the record, that places it in the middle of the woods near a small lake.

Once you zoom out, you'll see why I can't believe this is the geographical center of Missouri.

See what I mean? Let's define what a geographical center is. Wikipedia says this:

determining the centroid is often described as finding the point upon which the shape (cut from a uniform plane) would balance.

Put it this way. If Missouri was a cutting board (definitely possible), this is the point where it would balance. That being said, IT STILL DOESN'T LOOK RIGHT. That's ALL CAPS because IT DOESN'T LOOK RIGHT.

I will confess that I don't even remember taking geography in school, so perhaps I'm not the right person to cast the stone at Net State. But, if I had to bet, I'd estimate that they don't remember taking geography in school either.