Doe Run, MO

Doe Run is an unincorporated community and census-designated place in St. Francois County, about three miles southwest of Farmington. Routes 221 and B pass through the area, tying the community to the county seat and to the broader mining country of southeastern Missouri. Doe Run began in 1880 as a lead-mining town, and a post office bearing the name has operated since 1887. The 2020 census counted 737 residents.

Lead mining gives Doe Run a place in the long industrial story of the St. Francois County hills. Mining in the immediate area continued into the early twentieth century, while roads, homes, and the post office carried the community forward after the first rush of extraction. Today the CDP is a small residential place with Farmington close by and the old mining landscape spread through the surrounding county. Doe Run’s name still sounds like a creek on a map, but its civic history began with ore, a post office, and workers building a settlement around the demands of the mine.