Herculaneum, Missouri

Herculaneum is a city in eastern Jefferson County, Missouri, and its oldest continuously-settled and incorporated community today. It had a population of 3,468 at the 2010 census.

History

Though it was not the first organized community to be established in what became Jefferson County, Herculaneum was during the early 19th century the most important town in that region. It had its origins in the arrival of Moses Austin in what was then the Spanish colony of Louisiana in 1798. Austin, a native of Connecticut, obtained a land grant from the Spanish colonial government to conduct lead-mining operations in the vicinity of present-day Potosi. Austin's enterprise was successful, making the Potosi area one of the most important economic centers of the future state of Missouri; as it was some distance from the Mississippi River, though, Austin sought a shipping point from which the excavated lead could be more easily sent to market. In 1808, he and an associate of his, Samuel Hammond, selected a spot on the mouth of Joachim Creek, not only because it lay on the Mississippi but also because it was situated upon high bluffs, on which towers could be erected for the processing of the raw lead into shot. It is thought that these eroded limestone bluffs inspired Austin to name the new town for the ancient Roman city of Herculaneum, destroyed with Pompeii and other towns by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in AD 79--Austin supposedly was reminded of the ruins of the old city's amphitheater.

Herculaneum grew rapidly, on account of its connection to the lead-mining activities. The first shot tower in America west of Pittsburgh was opened in 1809, and by 1813 three were in operation there; these produced a considerable amount of the lead ammunition and cannonballs used by the American army in the War of 1812. During these years, Herculaneum was one of the most significant towns in the region south of St. Louis, and upon the creation of Jefferson County in 1818, it became the county seat. In addition to the courthouse, it had at this time some thirty to forty houses, several stores, a post office, and a school.

Beginning in the 1830s, Herculaneum began to decline, for several reasons; the demand for a more centrally-located county seat led to its being relocated westward to Hillsboro in 1839, taking away one of the older city's functions, and by this time, other shipping points for the lead trade had emerged. Additionally, the railroads that began to be constructed through the county in the 1850s bypassed Herculaneum, and for a time it appeared that the town might be abandoned entirely. It was revitalized in 1887, however, when the St. Joseph Lead Company, now dominating most mining operations in the region, chose it as a lead smelting site. The plant built by the company, which at its completion included a 550-foot-tall smokestack, was for some time thereafter the largest lead smelter in the United States, producing some 225,000 tons of refined lead per year. By the early 20th century, Herculaneum had recovered considerably, having at that point a population of about 800 and a number of business establishments in addition to the smelting plant.

Herculaneum maintained a slow but steady growth throughout the 20th century. It benefited from the construction of U.S. Route 61, and later Interstate 55, through the town, and beginning in the 1960s it received an influx of suburban dwellers from the north as the St. Louis metropolitan area expanded.

The lead smelting plant was purchased in 1981 by the Doe Run Company, which maintained operations there until 2013. By 2000, there was mounting concern over the dangers of lead pollution in the Herculaneum area; dust from the transport of lead ore had accumulated on the land roundabout, and by-product "slag" had in some cases leached into neighboring water sources. After an investigation revealed levels of lead concentration in the soil that were well above what regulations permitted, the Doe Run Company was fined $65 million in 2010, and this contributed to its decision to shut down the smelter in 2013. For the time being, the decline of the lead business has not hurt Herculaneum's livelihood seriously, given growth in the county at large. The community celebrated its bicentennial in 2008 with a series of events, including the unveiling of a new flag for the city.