County of park: Howard County
Location of park 2nd St. & Stephens Ave., Franklin
Please read below the explanation of this Franklin, and the original Franklin and the other Franklin's near here.
The park, once green and very nice, has received a lot of damage from the May 2022 flood. The park was a green space, with rest rooms, and playground equipment, and one pavilion. Many people used this space.
Franklin had a population of about 70 before the flood, I would venture a guess it is now about half that.
About this town. Franklin was one of the first town west of the Mississippi River, was county seat of Howard County. It was south of this location, on State Hwy 87 and the Missouri River at the Katy Trail Crossing, and the entire town swept down the Missouri River in a flood (1827).
So the people moved to higher ground and created New Franklin. Still exists NE of this location, about 2 miles away.
This location was created when the MKT (Katy), Missouri-Kansas-Texas Railway came through the area. It built a depot, and hotel, and had its major division headquarters here, and also had the turn-table, or roundhouse, built here and named it Franklin Junction.
The railroad folded around 1986, and left this area abandoned, sort of. Some people did live here. So they re-named it Franklin.
So we have four names of Franklin, in different forms, and only three sites of towns. Oh, by-the-way, the original Franklin, is now known as Old Franklin.