Norborne, MO

Norborne is a Carroll County city of 634 people at the 2020 census, about 10 miles west-southwest of Carrollton and 15 miles east of Richmond, Missouri. Missouri Route 10 runs through town, the Missouri River is five miles south, and both the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe and Wabash railroads pass through the community. Norborne was laid out in 1868 and named for Norborne B. Coates, a civil engineer for the railroad; its post office dates to 1869.

Soybeans provide the local nickname and the annual calendar. Norborne calls itself the Soybean Capital of the World and holds its Soybean Festival each August. The Farmers Bank Building, a two-story Romanesque Revival structure built around 1892, was listed on the National Register in 1994. Norborne R-VIII administers the schools, and the city has a public library. The combination of rail lines, a historic bank, soybean fields, and a festival gives this small Carroll County city a surprisingly legible map. That title sticks.