The Bennett Springs post office opened in 1939, the earliest record of the town by name. Another post office, Brice (1900), opened inside today’s town and later closed.
2020 census: 13887 years
Founding year: the first Bennett Springs post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).
What stands out about Bennett Springs’ past
Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.
Wikipedia doesn’t have a history of Bennett Springs yet. The photos, dates and memories neighbors add here are how it gets written.
Bennett Spring is an unincorporated community and census-designated place (CDP) in Dallas and Laclede counties, Missouri, United States. As of the 2020 census, Bennett Spring had a population of 138. It lies 12 miles (19 km) west of Lebanon on Missouri Route 64. The community is named after a spring that is reported variously as the third or fourth largest in the state, with an average daily flow of about one hundred million gallons, and which is the centerpiece of Bennett Spring State Park. The community is located adjacent to the confluence of Bennett Spring Branch with the Niangua River, a north-flowing tributary of Lake of the Ozarks and part of the Osage River watershed, which flows no…
Its first post office opened in 1939. Between the 2010 and 2020 censuses its population grew from 130 to 138 (+6%).
Intro from Wikipedia. Population: U.S. Census Bureau.
Timeline
Bennett Springs, 1900 to 1966
Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.
Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Bennett Springs. Tap a year, or press play to watch the town change.
1939Long Lane sheet · 1:62,500
U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (public domain), via Esri’s collection of the scans. The red ring marks the center of Bennett Springs.
On the National Register
2 listings protect 8 historic buildings
The country’s official list of buildings and places worth saving.
Bennett Springs had its own post office from 1939 to 1966. Another post office, Brice, opened and closed inside today’s town.
Brice
1900–1939
Bennett Springs
1939–1966
19001960today
1cemetery inside Bennett Springs
Bennett
US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock, CC0). Places and cemeteries from the USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021).
Questions about Bennett Springs’ history
What year was Bennett Springs founded?
The Bennett Springs post office opened in 1939, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).
What is on the National Register in Bennett Springs?
Two places: the Bennett Spring State Park Shelter House and Water Gauge Station (listed 1985) and the Bennett Spring State Park Hatchery-Lodge Area Historic District (1985).
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 the National Register of Historic Places (2), U.S. Geological Survey historical maps, the US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock) and the USGS Geographic Names Information System. Archive images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.
