Vandalia, MO

Vandalia sits on U.S. 54 in northeastern Audrain County, with the city stretching into Ralls County and the Mississippi River about 27 miles away. It was laid out by Aaron McPike and Judge Harmen Caldwell in 1870 and platted the next year, when the Louisiana and Missouri Railroad reached the prairie. The town took its name from Vandalia, Illinois, and its oldest surviving building is the 1875 German Lutheran church, now preserved in Railroad Park. The park also hosts Prairie Days, a fall event that keeps the railroad-era center of town in the mix. For a small place, Vandalia has an unusually split geography: one community, two counties, and a railroad layout that still shapes the town’s form.