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'''Benton''' is a city within [[Scott County, Missouri|Scott County]], [[Missouri]], of which it is the county seat. It had a population of 863 at the 2010 census.
'''Benton''' is a city within [[Scott County, Missouri|Scott County]], [[Missouri]], of which it is the county seat. It had a population of 863 at the 2010 census.
==History==
A settlement on the current site of Benton was made as early as 1796 by Captain Charles Friend, but was not organized until 1822, when a local landowner, Colonel William Meyers, provided land for a town to be laid out. It was named in honor of [[Thomas Hart Benton]], one of Missouri's first senators and a prominent national statesman during the antebellum era.<ref>https://shsmo.org/manuscripts/ramsay/ramsay_scott.html</ref>
Benton was chosen to be the county seat for the newly-created Scott County, as it was close to the geographic center of the county. Except from 1864 to 1878, when the seat of government was moved to [[Commerce, Missouri|Commerce]], it has held that status continuously.<ref>https://books.google.com/books?id=G-AlAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA392#v=onepage&q=benton&f=false</ref>
The current courthouse (at least the third such building), designed in the [[Beaux Arts]] fashion, was constructed in 1912 and sits along U.S. Route 61. In 2004, it was added to the National Register of Historic Places.<ref>https://dnr.mo.gov/shpo/nps-nr/03001505.pdf</ref>
==Geography==
Benton is located in central Scott County, at the junction of U.S. Route 61 and Missouri State Highway 77, with Interstate 55 about a mile to the east. Its exact coordinates are 37°05’49”N, 89°33’44”W. [[Scott City, Missouri|Scott City]] is about eight miles to the north, and [[Sikeston, Missouri|Sikeston]] is about 15 miles to the south.
The town sits atop the southeastern face of Crowley's Ridge, a range of low hills in the northern part of the county, well above the low-lying floodplain nearby (another reason it was chosen to be the county seat). Benton has a total land area of 0.64 square miles, and an elevation of 436 feet.<ref>https://www2.census.gov/geo/docs/maps-data/data/gazetteer/2017_Gazetteer/2017_gaz_place_29.txt</ref>
==References==