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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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