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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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