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is a city located about south of the Missouri River in Pettis County, Missouri. U.S. Highway 50 and U.S. Highway 65 intersect in the city. As of 2006, the city had a total population of 20,669. It is the county seat of Pettis County. The Sedalia Micropolitan Statistical Area consists of Pettis County. Sedalia is the location of the Missouri State Fair and the Scott Joplin Ragtime Festival.
Although there were bands of Shawnee in the vicinity of Sedalia when the land was first settled by Americans, historians believe the entire area was first occupied by the Osage (of historical American Indian tribes).
The area that became Sedalia was founded by General George Rappeen Smith (1804–1879), who went on to found nearby Smithton, Missouri. He filed plans for the official record on 30 November 1857, and gave the area the name
The original plat included the land from today's Missouri Pacific Railroad south to Third Street. In addition, the version filed jointly by General Smith and David W. Bouldin (?-1893) on 16 October 1860, displayed the city spreading from Clay Street to the north and to Smith Street (i.e., today's Third Street) in the south, and from Missouri Street in the west to Washington Street in the east. Smith and Bouldin anticipated that the city would grow North; however, it grew South. During the Great Depression, Sedalia was judged second most damaged economically, behind Gary, Indiana.