Mine La Motte, MO

Mine La Motte is an unincorporated community and census-designated place in Madison County, Missouri, United States. The 2020 census counted 364 residents. Europeans discovered lead here and had also hoped to find silver. Mine La Motte was eventually settled by about 200 French settlers along with their slaves from Santo Domingo, under the leadership of Philip François Renault, to develop mines in 1717, making it one of the oldest settlements west of the Mississippi River. A newcomer can read Mine La Motte through the overlap of its older landmarks, surrounding geography, and current places.

For a newcomer, Mine La Motte comes into focus through those concrete links among its past, landscape, and current routines. Mine La Motte is in northern Madison County, 4 miles north of Fredericktown, the county seat. Sweetwater Branch flows westward through the center of the community to the Little St. Francis River, which bends through the west side of the community on its way to join the St. Francis River. Mine La Motte includes the habitants shipped tons of grain to New Orleans.