County of town: Callaway County
Location of town: South-Central in county on the Katy Trail and Missouri River & MO Hwy 94
County is Mid-central in the state
Location of post office: Fulton Ave. & 3rd St., Mokane
Elevation: 541 ft (165 m)
Population: Population: 187 (2013)
The Katy Trail State Park runs between the town and the Missouri River along side MO-94, this was once a division of the Katy Railroad, and the ground once occupied by the railroad is now the Lions Club Park</p
"Mokane had its beginning as St. Aubert, sometime in the period between 1870 to 1890, as a small group of houses and a store on the banks of the Missouri River, about a mile from its present location. Mr. Jim Dickenson was born in one of these houses at St. Aubert about 1870, and he made the comment to ancestors of local residents that he had no birthplace, because his house was washed into the Missouri River by the eroding of its banks. Because of the washing away of these homes, one house remaining was moved into the river bottom by Mr. Sam Moore. This house was known by local residents as the Johnnaber place; it was on the sand plant road going to the river. The Jonnabers moved to this farm prior to 1909 and lived there many years. This historic house was torn down in the early 1980's.
"The first house in the present location of Mokane was a brick, two story house with a basement, known as the Smith place. When it was built prior to the Civil War, it was the farm house of most of the land on which Mokane is now built. The Missouri, Kansas, and Texas Railroad took possession of the rail lines to St. Louis on July 1, 1893. After this date, a frame, two story school house was built and the Methodist and Christian Churches were also built. The Catholic Church bought the church building owned by the Presbyterians in 1908. The division of the "Katy" railroad was brought to Mokane in 1907 and many people came here to live. Many homes were built on River Street and other locations in town by the local banker, Mr. W. R. Wilkerson. A newspaper was established in 1894, known then as the Herald Post, which later became known as the Mokane Missourian and was published and edited by the Hodges family from 1901 to 1971. From 1907 to the late 1920's, Mokane was a prosperous town having a bank, a drug store, three general stores, a newspaper, three physicians, a dentist, two blacksmith shops, and barber shops. The business houses lined Main Street, Fulton Avenue, all the way from Broad Street to the railroad on both sides. The town at this time had a population of about 1,000 people.
"After the late 1920's, when the Katy division left Mokane, the population dropped to about half, or around 500 people; these were the years of 1930's and 1940's. During this period the town also had a theater and at least two filling stations. Mokane has always been a rural community and has served in many ways the needs of farm families in the area for many years. Since the 1950's the population of Mokane has steadily dropped to its present number of about 360 residents. Though the business and population of Mokane has decreased, the residents are still proud of their town and their homes and show an interest in making it a nice place to live. Mokane owns its own water system, and many residents are working to bring about a federally approved sewer system for all residents. These residents are looking for new and better ways to make Mokane a pleasant place for all who like to live in a small town near the banks of the Missouri River." ~ by John Farmer Taylor for The Kingdom of Callaway Historical Society
1818 . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Smith's Landing
Thomas Smith, a private with Callaway's Rangers, founded a small town along the Missouri River in 1818. The town, dubbed Smith's Landing, was based around steamboat commerce. In addition to goods being brought to town, crops such as tobacco and grain were exported by steamboat.
A Town by any Other Name
Smith's Landing became St. Auburt in 1848. River traffic continued to sustain the town through the steamboat heydey [sic] of 1857. The town suffered through recurring floods and declining steamboat traffic. St. Auburt was unable to recover after a devastating flood of 1888.
The people of St. Auburt disbanded soon after the flood. Some former residents used the arrival of the Missouri-Kansas-Eastern Railroad as an opportunity to build a new town. Several buildings from St. Auburt were ever dismantled and rebuilt at the new site near the railroad tracks.
Mo-Kan-E
The new town retained the St. Auburt name. When residents petitioned for a post office, they were denied because another post office , on the south side of the river, was already named St. Auburt. The townsfolk then held a contest to name the town. The winning name was Mokane, a reference to the Missouri-Kansas-Eastern Railroad (MO KAN E) that had given the town its new beginning. The Missouri-Kansas-Eastern Railroad was later incorporated into the MKT Railroad.
1893 . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
"A Location Fit for the Gods"
The Fulton Gazette published an article on June 22, 1893, about the scenery of the Mokane area. It read, in part:
"...the new M.K.& E. tracks and switches marked their trail of steel through the valley and a mile further north the mighty Missouri curved and flowed in its journey to the sea; while just beyond towered the great Osage hills with the swift Missouri Pacific skirting their base -- a location fit for the gods and a fit place for a great city to grow and prosper."
The Railroad Creates a Town
Mokane quickly became an important hub for railroad traffic. The town was the halfway point, or division point, between St. Louis and Sedalia. This necessitated and increase in infrastructure including a roundhouse and the MK&T Hotel, built primarily for railroad employees. Mokane was also an unloading point for shipments destine for Fulton, the nearby county seat.
If You Build It....
Around 1900, Mokane commissioned a small jail to be built for the town. Soon after the building's completion, the man who was in charge of building the jail was arrested for public intoxication. In a twist of fate, he ended up being the first resident of the jailhouse. The jail still stands, though it was moved from its original location to a more prominent spot in the town. Its current location is the former site of the MK&T Hotel.
1923 . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Mokane's Decline
In the early 1920s, the St. Louis-Sedalia Division pint was moved west to Franklin Junction, near Boonville. So started the beginning of Mokane's decline. The main employer during the '20s and '30s was the Missouri Veneer Co. factory, not the railroad. The towns population of 726 in 1920 dwindled to 185 as of 2010.
World's Fair-to-Go
Mokane is home to a house built in St. Louis as part of a demonstration neighborhood for the 1904 St. Louis World's Fair. A member of the MKT Railroad moved the house, probably by train, to its current location after the fair. The house is built in a neo-classical revival style with many oak accents. Today, Mokane host an annual fair called the Mokane World's Fair.
Entering the Atomic Age
In 1973, AmerenUE, a subsidiary of St. Louis-based electric company Ameren Corp., announced that it had chosen the Reform area near Mokane to build a new nuclear power plant. Construction began soon after, and the plant went fully operational in 1984. The huge cooling tower, visible from many miles away, stands 553 feet tall and is 430 feet in diameter at the base. The nearby Missouri River supplies water to aid in the cooling process via an underground pipe.
The construction of the plant was a huge boon for the Callaway County economy. Aside from the jobs created, money from local taxes made the Callaway County R-II School District one of the wealthiest district per-student in the state." Missouri Department of Natural Resources