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'''Saint Francois County''' (usually abbreviated as '''St. Francois''') is a county in the [[Lead Belt]] region of southeast [[Missouri]]. It had a population of 65,359 at the 2010 census, making it the second-most populous county in southeast Missouri (behind [[Cape Girardeau County, Missouri|Cape Girardeau County]]). [[Farmington, Missouri|Farmington]] is the county seat and largest city.
The county was organized in 1821 and named for the Saint Francis River (spelled "Francois" in some early accounts), whose upper course flows through the region.
==History==
Present-day St. Francois County derives its name from the St. Francis River (as do the St. Francois Mountains, in which the county is included), whose headwaters are just beyond its western boundary. The river in turn was named by Father Jacques Marquette, a French [[Jesuit]] missionary and explorer, when he discovered its junction with the [[Mississippi River]] in modern-day [[Arkansas]] as part of a 1673 expedition. It is not clear who the "Francis" refers to; he may have meant [[St. Francis of Assisi]], or alternately [[Francis Xavier]], the 16th-century founder of the Jesuits. Some have suggested it is more likely that Marquette, being a Jesuit himself, would have been more likely to honor the founder of his own order than the founder of a rival (Franciscan) order.
The river, mountain range, and later county were for a long time variously spelled as "Francis" or "Francois," with many other versions abounding as well. Eventually, the river came to be labeled "St. Francis"; however, in the legislation establishing Missouri's boundaries upon statehood, the river was spelled as "Francois," and it is possible that the mountains and therefore the county received their spelling from this.
The first European exploration of the area may have come around 1720, when Philippe François Renault, a French explorer and entrepreneur, led an expedition into the uplands west of the Mississippi to investigate reports of [[lead]] and [[iron|iron ore]] deposits in the region. He did in fact find evidence of their existence, and lead mines may have begun operations as early as the 1740s. These were generally operated at first by French colonists from [[Ste. Genevieve, Missouri|Ste. Genevieve]] to the east, who set up temporary camps rather than permanent settlements; the mines' products had become a significant part of the frontier economy by the late 18th century and helped make the fortunes of many colonial merchants.<ref>https://collections.shsmo.org/manuscripts/columbia/C2366/st-francois-county</ref>
Permanent residents only began arriving in the late 1790s, as the authorities of the Louisiana Territory (now a Spanish colony) began authorizing land grants for the French colonists as well as arriving American pioneers. In 1796 a few settlers established a homestead, soon known as Alley's Mills, on the Big River in the north. Two years later, William Murphy, a Baptist minister from eastern [[Tennessee]], immigrated to the region, followed by his extended family, and created a community known as Murphy Settlement; this was shortly followed by another to the east, known as Cook's after its founder. Additionally, French and American entrepreneurs continued to open more mining operations around 1800, to which more and more workers flocked.
Settlement of the area only accelerated after the [[Louisiana Purchase]] of 1803, after which the flow of American arrivals dramatically increased. Throughout this period, it was a part of the Ste. Genevieve administrative district, and continued to be when that district was reorganized into [[Ste. Genevieve County, Missouri|Ste. Genevieve County]] in 1812; however, there was already a demand for it to have its own separate government. Immediately after Missouri received statehood, commissioners were chosen to carve a new county from parts of Jefferson, Ste. Genevieve, and Washington Counties (into which the region had already been divided). The new county was titled St. Francois, and officially formed on December 19, 1821. Citizens of Murphy Settlement donated land for the county seat, which was soon renamed Farmington. At its first census (1830), St. Francois County had a population of 2,366.<ref>Robert Sidney Douglass, ''History of Southeast Missouri'' (1912), p. 247.</ref>
==Geography==
St. Francois County is located in southeast Missouri, one of the counties that make up the so-called "Lead Belt" on account of the many deposits of lead scattered throughout the region. It is bordered on the north by Jefferson County, on the east by Ste. Genevieve County, on the southeast by [[Perry County, Missouri|Perry County]], on the south by [[Madison County, Missouri|Madison County]], on the southwest by Iron County, and on the west by Washington County.
The county has a total area of 454.68 square miles, including 451.89 of land and 2.79 of water.<ref>https://web.archive.org/web/20131021170230/http://www.census.gov/geo/maps-data/data/docs/gazetteer/counties_list_29.txt</ref> The most prominent natural feature is the St. Francois Mountains, which are especially high and rugged in the southwest, from the boundary with Iron County to about the city of Park Hills. Brown Mountain, the county's highest peak at 1,650 feet, is in this region, near the city of Iron Mountain Lake. Farther north and east, the terrain is more open and rolling, with relatively flat sections around Farmington that contain fertile farmland.<ref>https://www.peakbagger.com/peak.aspx?pid=6573</ref> The lowest elevations, at about 600 feet, occur in the far north in the valley of the Big River.
There are several small-to-moderate rivers that drain the county. Most of the southern half is drained by the St. Francis River, which originates just to the southwest in Iron County; most of the northern half is in the watershed of the Big River, a tributary of the Meramec farther northwest.
==Communities==
St. Francois County is home to twelve incorporated communities, including eight cities and four census-designated places (CDPs).
===Cities===
* [[Bismarck, Missouri|Bismarck]]
* [[Bonne Terre, Missouri|Bonne Terre]]
* [[Desloge, Missouri|Desloge]]
* [[Farmington, Missouri|Farmington]] (county seat)
* [[Iron Mountain Lake, Missouri|Iron Mountain Lake]]
* [[Leadington, Missouri|Leadington]]
* [[Leadwood, Missouri|Leadwood]]
* [[Park Hills, Missouri|Park Hills]]
===CDPs===
* [[Doe Run, Missouri|Doe Run]]
* [[Frankclay, Missouri|Frankclay]]
* [[Terre du Lac, Missouri|Terre du Lac]]
* [[Wortham, Missouri|Wortham]]
==References==
{{reflist}}
[[Category:Missouri]]
[[Category:Counties]]