STEELVILLE BECOMES U.S. POPULATION CENTER

WASHINGTON, D.C. - Based on 1990 census figures, the Census Bureau has determined that the "center of population" for the United States is near Steelville, in Crawford County.

Eighth District U.S. Rep. Bill Emerson, who represents Crawford County, made the announcement on Tuesday. The exact center is 9.7 miles southeast of Steelville, the county seat, on a spot of heavily wooded land.

"We have known for years that Missouri and the 8th District is a hub of activity," explained Emerson. "The Census Bureau helps us illustrate the point that our region is actually the fulcrum of our great nation's center of population. I am truly proud to represent the folks in this area who now are a party to this rewarding piece of history."

Emerson will be on hand to help dedicate a brass marker and "center-of-population" monument at the Steelville Community Park and Recreation Area at 3 p.m. Sunday.

The park is along State Highway 8E, eight miles south of Interstate 44 and one mile east of State Highway 19.

For Emerson, this is the second time that the population center has fallen within his congressional district.

In 1981, the Census Bureau located that spot in De Soto, in Jefferson County, when Emerson was representing the old 10th District.

Each decade the Census Bureau uses census date to calculate the population center, which is defined as the place where an imaginary, flat, weightless, and rigid map of the United States would balance perfectly if all 248,709,873 residents were of identical weight.

The Census Bureau says the nation's 1990 exact center of population is at latitude 37 degrees, 52 minutes, and 20 seconds north and longitude 91 degrees, 12 minutes, and 55 seconds west.

Officials say they have used the population center to track the southern and western movement of Americans since the first census was taken in 1790. At the time, the United States population center was near Chestertown, Md., approximately 23 miles east of Baltimore.

The 1990 center is 818.6 miles from that site.