Boone County's origin story starts in Boone's Lick Country

Start Boone County’s history before modern Columbia. The county was founded in 1820 by settlers moving west from Kentucky, Tennessee, and Virginia. The older county description points to rolling foothills, open prairies, and bluffs above the Missouri River.

Before “Boone County” became the civic label, the settlement was known as Boone’s Lick Country. The name came from a nearby salt lick operated by Daniel Boone’s sons. That older geography still helps explain why the county’s history looks west toward the Missouri River corridor and the Boone’s Lick region, not only toward Jefferson City.

For a reader tracing old road names, family history, or settlement patterns, Boone’s Lick is the useful starting point. It ties the county name to a place, a river-edge landscape, and the early public story of central Missouri.