The 2021 Missouri State Women On Wheels® Annual Touring Contest has ended. The theme to visit Missouri places with the same name as cities in another state took us to cities big and small. These are the tiniest towns as determined by their 2020 population per missouri-demographics.com or a Google search if the city was not listed there.
Foley (Lincoln County), population 89. Foley is located on Highway 79, approximately 20 miles north of Interstate 70 near St. Peters. Scenic 79 is also known as the Little Dixie Highway of the Great River Road. Travel north for another 70 miles and spend a few hours exploring Hannibal, the hometown of Mark Twain. McKittrick ( Montgomery County), population 77. McKittrick was platted in 1895 when the railroad was extended west. The tracks are gone and trains no longer bring visitors to town, but bicycles do via the McKittrick Trailhead on the Katy Trail. Visitors to historic Hermann can find McKittrick just 3 miles north on Highway 19.Country Life Acres, Village of (St. Louis County), population 72. Kudos to Alice for finding this one–somewhere around the crossroads of Clayton and Des Peres Roads. Perhaps Country Life Acres, Maryland, is a bit easier to find.Ionia (Benton/Pettis Counties), population 71. For a while, the post office established in 1867 served the citizens of Ionia City. The city’s name was shortened to Ionia in 1895 and the post office serves patrons in this city that lies in two counties. Vandiver, Village of (Audrain County), population 63. There isn’t much information to be found about this tiny village, but we were glad to find this sign as we passed through on Highway 54 between Mexico and Martinsburg. Paynesville (Pike County) population 60. Established in 1821, Paynesville was named after William Payne, a St. Louis-based tradesman. The Meloan, Cummins & Co., General Store, seen in the background, stands at the intersection of Highways H and W north of Elsberry and was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1993.Truxton (Lincoln County), population 59. In its heyday, Truxton had a livery, carpenter shop, wagon maker, milliner and dressmaker, grist and sawmills, two churches, a high school, newspaper publisher, hotel, more than a dozen stores/shops1, and an estimated population of 250. The city is named in honor of Commodore Thomas Truxton, a Revolutionary War naval officer.Whiteside (Lincoln County), population 52. William Whiteside was the original owner of the site located on Highway Z off Highway 61 about 14 miles north of Troy. This post office has been in operation since 1883. When Dayton Moxley served as its first Postmaster, first-class stamps cost four cents.Chesapeake (Lawrence County), population 48. Established in 1850, the city was named to commemorate the capture of the USS Chesapeake at the Battle of Boston Harbor on June 1, 1813, during the War of 1812. Two hundred-twenty six men were killed or wounded in the 15-minute battle against the Royal Navy’s HMS Shannon. St. Cloud (Crawford County), population 43. St. Cloud has a total land area of 1.24 square miles. Without this sign posted between Bourbon and Sullivan off Interstate 44, one might enter and exit St. Cloud without the realization of ever having visited. Pendleton (Warren County), population 34. Pendleton, five miles west of Warrenton, was built for the Wabash railroad in 1858. Today Pendleton has a general store, about a dozen residences, and the Methodist Episcopal Church, erected in 1872 at a cost of $1,000, or roughly $22,670 in today’s money. Danville (Montgomery County), population 28. At 24, there are almost as many American cities named Danville as there are residents in this town located at the intersection of Interstate 70 and Highway 161 roughly midway between Warrenton and Kingdom City. Founded in 1834, Danville, Missouri, was named after Danville, Virginia.Champ (St. Louis County), population 13. We’ve written about Champ in a prior blog post. Established in 1959, Champ currently contains six households, a church, and a landfill that opened in 1974.Mount Sterling (Gasconade County), population 8. One can feel confident knowing there are 14 cities named Mount Sterling in America. Questionable is its population. Depending on source material, the population varies from 8 to 55. This blogger believes the discrepancy is based on the actual number of people who reside in Mount Sterling and those in the 65062 ZIP code serviced by the tiny Post Office inside the Schaeperkoetter Store at 2718 Highway A off Highway 50 between Linn and Drake. In either case, Mount Sterling qualifies as an itty bitty city.
Heartland Chapter of Women On Wheels® 
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