Winfield, MO

Winfield is a Lincoln County city on the Mississippi River, with the 2020 census counting 1,518 residents. The town was laid out in 1879 and named for Winfield Scott Killam, who owned the original town site; its post office dates to 1880. The older town sits where the river bottoms meet bluffs, giving Winfield a split-level geography: business streets and some homes below, higher ground rising behind them, and Illinois hills across the river. That river setting is the main local fact, both as a view and as a force.

Winfield has dealt with major floods, including the 2008 breach in a Mississippi River levee, while the town's schools, city offices, and everyday errands stay tied to the same lowland-and-bluff arrangement. The larger St. Louis region is close enough to shape the map without erasing the town's river identity. Winfield's local scoop is a Missouri city where a post-office town grew between the Mississippi bottoms and the bluffs above them.