Seligman, MO

Seligman is a city in Barry County, Missouri, on a ridge along Missouri Route 37 in the Ozarks. The 2020 census counted 813 residents. Rain falling west of town drains toward Grand Lake o’ the Cherokees through Big Sugar Creek, while water east of the ridge runs toward Table Rock Lake. Southwest R-5 School District serves Seligman students, who attend primary and secondary schools in nearby Washburn. The ridge and the two watersheds give the town a clear place in the southern Missouri landscape.

Seligman’s older road history runs deeper than the highway sign. A trace used by Cherokee people during the forced removal of 1838 became a telegraph route and then the Old Wire Road, a corridor later followed by stage travel. The town is named for businessman Joseph Seligman, and the Bottorff Memorial Museum keeps local artifacts and stories close to the center. Seligman remains a small Barry County city where Ozark ridges, two lake watersheds, an old road, and a school district meet.