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Rocky Ford

Ghost town · Vernon County, Missouri

Papinsville quadrangle, USGS topographic map (1934, 1:24,000)
Papinsville quadrangle, USGS topographic map (1934, 1:24,000) · U.S. Geological Survey, Historical Topographic Map Collection · Public domain

Rocky Ford is a ghost town in Vernon County, Missouri. It is one of 6 former communities in Vernon County on the federal names register. That ranks the county 32nd among the 102 Missouri counties with a vanished settlement on record.

The U.S. Geological Survey lists Rocky Ford as a historical populated place on the Papinville 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 38.0359° N, 94.1947° W.

Key facts

USGS quadranglePapinville
Elevation708 ft
Nearest living townSchell City, MO
Distance to it4.4 miles
GNIS feature ID748448
Coordinates38.03586, -94.19467

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.

Rocky Ford today, aerial view
Papinsville quadrangle, USGS topographic map (1934, 1:24,000)

Left: Papinsville quadrangle, USGS topographic map (1934, 1:24,000), 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

Rocky Ford is no longer a community in its own right. The nearest living town is Schell City, MO (population 164), about 4.4 miles away in a straight line, and the site sits at roughly 708 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 Rocky Ford?

Rocky Ford is in Vernon County, Missouri, at 38.0359, -94.1947.

How many ghost towns are in Vernon County?

Vernon County, Missouri has 6 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.