New Franklin, MO

New Franklin is a Howard County city about twenty miles west of Columbia, set north of the Missouri River across from Boonville. The 2020 census counted 1,027 residents. U.S. Route 5 and local roads run through a community where the old Santa Fe Trail, the New Franklin R-I school campus, city hall, and the South Howard County Historical Society Museum all share the same small-town map. The school district covers over 100 square miles in southern Howard and northwestern Boone counties, making New Franklin a center for a broad rural area.

New Franklin grew after floods washed away the original town of Franklin in 1826 and 1828, and the new community was chartered in 1835. Downtown Broadway still has the 1909 Santa Fe Trail marker known as The Rock. The M-K-T Railroad arrived in 1867 and built a yard and roundhouse at nearby Franklin Junction. Today, the University of Missouri's Horticulture and Agroforestry Research Center holds its annual Chestnut Roast in the area, adding farm research to a place already shaped by trails, rail, school, and river history.