Warren County, Missouri
About 200 years ago, the Booneslick
Trail – “Boone’s Lick” in some texts – which crosses Warren
County, was traversed by Indians, trappers and fur traders. Then, it
was known as the Light Horse Trail. In 1805, the sons of pioneer Daniel Boone
were responsible for surveying and marking the trail. They discovered animal
salt licks along the trail, and the trail was named for them. Twenty years
later, an average of 20 wagons and
 carriages
were using the trail weekly, traveling due west from St. Louis and St. Charles.
In the mid-1800s, the Booneslick Trail was the most traveled road in Missouri,
connecting St. Louis to the great Santa Fe and Oregon trails that led to
California and Oregon.
That portion of the famed trail is the most significant historical site in
Warren County, which was organized in 1833 from Montgomery County, and named for
Joseph Warren, a Revolutionary War general. Today, there are about 27,000
residents in the entire county, which is located on the western edge of the St.
Louis Metropolitan Area.
About 5,000 residents live in Warrenton, the county seat. Twenty miles southeast
of Warrenton is Marthasville, the oldest town in the county. The town succeeded
the French village, La Charette, founded in 1766 at the mouth of Charette Creek.
Daniel Boone lived in Charette in the last years of his life, later moving to a
house near Marthasville. The people with Boone established the “Boone
Settlement,” the first major settlement of Americans of European descent, west
of the Mississippi. A large chunk of the settlement lies along the creeks and
rivers in southern Warren County. Germans, especially, were attracted to the
Boone Settlement, and by 1860 more than 38,000 Germans had settled in the area.
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