Leadwood, MO

Leadwood is a St. Francois County city in Missouri's Old Lead Belt, founded in January 1906 as a company town by St. Joe Lead. The company first called the site Owl Creek, and the name Leadwood tied it to the lead industry and the timbered surroundings. A post office opened in 1905, and the St. Louis, Iron Mountain and Southern Railway ran alongside the new settlement. The 2020 census counted 1,178 residents.

Mining, rail, and river branches shaped Leadwood's early map: a railroad branch crossed the town, Big River ran northeast, and the Eaton Branch marked the northwest. Today West County School District and city services serve a community spread between former mining sites and rural roads. Leadwood's present streets still carry the outline of a company town, while the surrounding Lead Belt connects it to Bonne Terre, Desloge, and Farmington. The city keeps a working-town scale with a history written in lead, rail, and the wooded creek country around it.