Rich Hill, MO

Rich Hill is a city in southern Bates County, with 1,232 residents in the 2020 census, inside the Kansas City metropolitan area. Missouri Route A runs along the city’s west side beside U.S. 71, and the upper reaches of Truman Reservoir lie about two miles east on the Marais des Cygnes River. Rich Hill Memorial Library and the Rich Hill R-IV School District serve the local center, while Swopes Drive-In remains the town’s most recognizable roadside institution.

Rich Hill was platted in 1880 after the town took its name in 1871, and its old slogan, “The Town That Coal Built,” still describes the mining economy that drove its early growth. Coal production declined and ended around 1906, then returned with Peabody Energy in the 1950s. Swopes Drive-In has operated continuously since 1959, when it opened as Fischer’s Drive-In; the Swopes family gave it its current name after buying it in 1978. Rich Hill is a Missouri city where coal history, a long-running drive-in, school and library services, and the Marais des Cygnes remain part of one map.