The land on which Hunter sits was first patented by James Lieby on January 21, 1858. The land was later acquired by John Hunter, one of the stockholders of the Missouri Lumber and Mining Company, who established a sawmill at the site in 1887. This land and much of the surrounding area was then purchased by the Missouri Lumber and Mining Company, who had a contract to establish an 80-acre (32 ha) town, of which the Current River Railroad was to have half ownership, laid out the town at this location, naming it after John Hunter. The plat for the new town of Hunter was submitted at the Van Buren courthouse on October 27, 1888.
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 Wikipedia, 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.
