Franklin, MO

Franklin is a city in Howard County, Missouri, United States. The 2020 census counted 70 residents. Franklin is located along the Missouri River in the central part of the state. Franklin is part of the Columbia, Missouri Metropolitan Statistical Area. The short version is that Franklin carries an earlier story into the places people know and use now. That is the local read on Franklin: its past remains attached to the places people use now. As the eastern terminus of the Santa Fe Trail, the community played a major role in the westward expansion of the United States. William Becknell, who is now known as the "Father of the Santa Fe Trail," lived on a farm a few miles northwest of Franklin. They came so often that they created a trail, calling it Boone's Lick Road.