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'''Leadwood''' is a city in central [[St. Francois County, Missouri|St. Francois County]], [[Missouri]], named for the numerous lead deposits discovered in the area. It had a population of 1,282 at the 2010 census.
'''Leadwood''' is a city in central [[St. Francois County, Missouri|St. Francois County]], [[Missouri]], named for the numerous lead deposits discovered in the area. It had a population of 1,282 at the 2010 census.
==History==
The exact date of settlement at Leadwood is uncertain, though a post office was in place by 1902 at the latest, at which time the community was called Owl Creek after a nearby stream. As might be surmised, its present name (which it had received by 1910) came from the forested nature of the general area, and the existence of significant [[lead]] deposits nearby.<ref>https://collections.shsmo.org/manuscripts/columbia/C2366/st-francois-county</ref> Leadwood was a mining town throughout the first part of its existence, and like many such communities in the area, was not even incorporated for a long time, being owned by the St. Joseph Lead Company that operated the local mines; its permanent population fluctuated significantly depending on the level of mining activity.<ref>Robert Sidney Douglass, ''History of Southeast Missouri'' (1912), p. 384.</ref>
A minor but still significant source of production in the "Old Lead Belt," the Leadwood mine closed down in 1962.<ref>https://pubs.usgs.gov/sir/2008/5140/pdf/Chapter1.pdf</ref> Unlike other former mining towns, which have found ways to diversify and recover lost ground, Leadwood has generally declined since that point, though there were signs of a revival in the 2000s.
==References==
{{reflist}}
[[Category:Missouri Cities and Towns]]
[[Category:Missouri Cities and Towns]]