Arrow Rock’s post office opened in 1821, and 63% of its homes were built before 1940
7 places in town are on the National Register, among them 2 National Historic Landmarks and a historic district with 16 buildings. Below: 1 old photo or paper, maps from 1947 on, and the census since 1880.
Arrow Rock was the name of a prominent flint-bearing bluff on the Missouri River. The name first appeared on a French map from 1732 as "Pierre a Fleche", meaning "Rock of Arrows". Edwin James on the 1819 Yellowstone Expedition wrote, "Arrow Rock is so called from its having been formerly resorted to by neighboring Indians for the stone used to point their arrows." The two dominant Native American tribes in the area encountered by French traders early in the 18th century were the Missouria and the Osage.
Passages that mention Arrow Rock, cut from the printed page as they were published.
Along the old trail ... pioneer sketches of Arrow Rock and vicinity1914 · page 92Read the page →
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Arrow Rock was visited three times by cholera; first about 1832, next in 1850, and last in 1866. That disease always followed the navigable streams, supposedly being carried by river boats. I have heard that in 1832 the disease was so serious in Arrow Rock that there were not sufficient well people to wait upon the sick, and that Esq. Wm. M. Davidson, one of the original Sappington school fund trustees, and his wife, who was a Miss Ven-
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Along the old trail ... pioneer sketches of Arrow Rock and vicinity1914 · page 78Read the page →
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Ish afterwards lived in Arrow Rock, he was not of the original Arrow Rock settlement, but his father came with the Hayes, Gwinn, Wilhite and Tennille emigration, which first settled in the "Big Bottom" and on Fish Creek.
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History of Saline County, Missouri, carefully written and compiled from the most authentic official and private sources ... with a condensed history of Missouri1881 · page 478Read the page →
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The first settler in the township, if he could be called a settler, was the Indian trader Geo. Sibley, who built his log trading house on the bluff, now in the township of Arrow Rock. (See early history). This was either in 1807 or 1808. Mr. Henry Nave, one of Andrew Jackson's soldiers in the war of 1812, prominently mentioned in the history of the settlement of Cox's bottom, says the first permanent settlements in this township were upon section thirteen, township fifty, range nineteen, b}- Daniel Thornton, from Ten-
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History of Saline County, Missouri, carefully written and compiled from the most authentic official and private sources ... with a condensed history of Missouri1881 · page 559Read the page →
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Clark, and a native of Albemarle county, Virginia. They had five children, three of them now living: Jesse, Thomas A., and John W. In 1810, he moved west, and with 'others, made a settlement in Cooper county, six miles south of Arrow Rock, and about four miles south of Arrow Rock, built a block house, or fort, called Anderson's fort. They brought their families west in 1811. His immediate neighbors were Wm.
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Scans and text from the Internet Archive. Books published in 1930 or earlier, which are in the public domain.
Timeline
Arrow Rock, 1821 to 1965
Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.
Nothing in the archives for these yearsWeddings on Main Street, storms, parades, school pictures, the old store. If it’s in your family album, it belongs here.
Peaked at 358 in 1900; 60 people lived here in 2020.
15 censuses, 1880–2020.
U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Arrow Rock’s Wikipedia page.
Questions about Arrow Rock’s history
What year was Arrow Rock founded?
The Arrow Rock post office opened in 1821, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).
What is on the National Register in Arrow Rock?
7 listings, 2 of them National Historic Landmarks: 4 buildings, 1 historic district, the Arrow Rock, with 16 contributing buildings, and 2 structures. 20 historic buildings in all.
Founding dates: Wikidata, Wikipedia, the U.S. post office records of Blevins & Helbock (CC0) and the Census. Homes by year built: Census ACS 2020–24. National Register of Historic Places: National Park Service (list of May 22, 2026). Old photos, postcards and papers: Wikimedia Commons, the Library of Congress and other public archives, credited on each item’s page. Maps: U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (via Esri) and Sanborn fire-insurance maps (Library of Congress). History text and census tables: Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0). Places that used to be: USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021). How TownRatings grades history →
From Wikimedia Commons (17), the Library of Congress (1), the National Register of Historic Places (7), Wikipedia, Wikidata and Wikipedia for famous people, U.S. Geological Survey historical maps, U.S. Census counts (via Wikipedia), the US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock), the USGS Geographic Names Information System and old county and town histories (Internet Archive). Archive images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.
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