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Missouri River and Cooper County

Pictured above is views of the river near Boonville and the Boonville Cobblestone Landing
        The history of the Missouri river and how it contributed to Cooper County is a rich and eventful one. The river was formed as a product of huge ice sheets that once blanketed northern America. The Indians of Cooper County mainly Osage were using canoes to paddle the Missouri centuries before the white man came. The Osage depended on the river for a way to trade between tribes and food. The river at this time was a wide, bending, unpredictable river filled with snags and sandbars. That changed in 1838 when the government began to clear the river of its snags. Then it changed again in the early 1900’s when the core of engineers started to dam and channel the river. Before this however the Big Muddy as it is also known was an essential lifeline for early Cooper County residents. Some of the earliest residents were the Cole family. In 1810 Hannah Cole a widow and her nine children along with her brother in law’s family settled in the now city of Boonville. Across the river in what is now Howard County is where the Cooper family actually settled. The Cooper family led the Cole family to the area and the County is named after the two brothers Benjamin and Sarshall Cooper.
        The river over the years was navigated by many non-powered boats largest being the keelboats at nearly 70 feet they could transport people and trade up and down the river. This was no easy task as the boats sometimes had to be propelled by means of cordelle. This means that the large barge would be attached to a nearly 1,000 ft rope and pulled by the crew on bank up river. Codelling was an extremely backbreaking task. In the 1850’s Boonville’s landing in Cooper County was a common hotspot and at any time you could find boats in port doing trade. Residents of Cooper County continued to prosper with the introduction of the steamboat. The steamboat provided increased expansion westward and Boonville prospered as a port on the Missouri River. Residents also took up jobs as pilots, builders, owners, and captains of the steamboats. Many residents made their wealth from the river during the years of 1850-1868 because of westward expansion. With the introduction of the railroads the steamboats took a back seat. However the railroads caused Cooper County to expand even more creating more communities like Pilot Grove, Otterville, Blackwater, and many more. These communities were vital stops for the trains as they headed westward. Today the river is still used to transport huge barges of cargo from St. Louis to Kansas City however since the late 1970’s the traffic has decreased. The river is still an excellent source for public fishing and entertainment for Cooper County.