Ironton, MO

Ironton is Iron County's seat in Missouri's Arcadia Valley, laid out in 1857 at the base of Shepherd Mountain. The county's name came from the iron ore deposits nearby, and the town competed with Arcadia, Pilot Knob, and Middlebrook before winning the county-seat election with a courthouse offer: founders H.N. Tong and David Carson donated alternating lot proceeds toward construction. That decision left Ironton with the historic Iron County Courthouse at the center of its map. The town sits among the valley's old mining places, Civil War landmarks, and the St. Francois Mountains. Ironton feels like a courthouse town built from geology and a very specific county-seat bargain.