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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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