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Boonesborough

Ghost town · Boone County, Missouri

Millersburg quadrangle, USGS topographic map (1944, 1:62,500)
Millersburg quadrangle, USGS topographic map (1944, 1:62,500) · U.S. Geological Survey, Historical Topographic Map Collection · Public domain

Boonesborough is a ghost town in Boone County, Missouri, recorded as human settlement in Missouri, United States of America. It is one of 17 former communities in Boone County on the federal names register. No county in Missouri has more among the 102 Missouri counties with a vanished settlement on record.

The U.S. Geological Survey lists Boonesborough as a historical populated place on the Millersburg topographic quadrangle: the name is no longer in official use for a community, whether the settlement was abandoned, absorbed into a neighbouring town or renamed. The recorded location is 38.9770° N, 92.1499° W.

In old newspapers

The earliest digitized newspaper pages printed in Missouri before 1931 that mention “Boonesborough”, from the Library of Congress. A page may use the name for something else; open it to read the context. 9 pages in all.

Key facts

USGS quadrangleMillersburg
Elevation827 ft
Nearest living townColumbia, MO
Distance to it9.7 miles
GNIS feature ID759417
Coordinates38.97699, -92.14990

Open the location on a map

Then and now

Drag the slider: the old USGS map on the left, the same ground from the air today on the right. Both cover the same 1.9-mile square centred on the recorded location.

Boonesborough today, aerial view
Millersburg quadrangle, USGS topographic map (1944, 1:62,500)

Left: Millersburg quadrangle, USGS topographic map (1944, 1:62,500), U.S. Geological Survey, Historical Topographic Map Collection. Right: The same ground today: NAIP aerial imagery, USDA Farm Service Agency, National Agriculture Imagery Program (via USGS). Both public domain.

What's there now

Boonesborough is no longer a community in its own right. The nearest living town is Columbia, MO (population 127,200), about 9.7 miles away in a straight line, and the site sits at roughly 827 feet above sea level. The aerial view above shows what covers the ground today. Much of the land around former townsites is private; check access before you visit.

Nearby places

Questions

Where is Boonesborough?

Boonesborough is in Boone County, Missouri, at 38.9770, -92.1499.

How many ghost towns are in Boone County?

Boone County, Missouri has 17 ghost towns on record at Wayfarrow.

Sources and licences

Facts marked "approximately" carry an uncertain date in the source. Text on this page is generated from the sources above; no encyclopedia prose is copied. Last updated 2026-11-06.