While a number of sources in the Local History and Genealogy Department make reference to this particular nickname of Springfield, there is no definite single origin to the term.

George Escott's "History and Directory of Springfield and North Springfield", page 117, quotes a letter from 1876, " Will you come to our beautiful Queen City of the Ozarks?"

"American Nicknames" by George E. Shankle quotes from "Seeing the Middle West," by John T. Faris "Springfield, standing in all of the splendor of a queen amidst its spacious orchards of stately fruit trees, has been fittingly designated the Queen City."

"Springfield the Beautiful", published in 1906, uses the nickname on the cover page.

The Springfield Patriot-Advertiser, 28 December 1876, Page 2 "Springfield Sits Quietly, peacefully, and prosperously on the summit of the Ozarks, as a royal diadem on the brow of a queen.