Guest, Sign inJoin

Post to Mine La Motte

We’ll email a one-tap link to publish your post. No password, and nothing is public until you click it.
Already a member? Sign in
–Not graded
History · Mine La Motte

Mine La Motte’s post office opened in 1840

Most of Mine La Motte was built recently: 0.0% of its homes predate 1940 and the median home dates from 1994. Below: maps from 1947 on.

1840first post office
0on the National Register
0.0%homes built before 1940
Add an old photoShare a memory
Quick answers

How Mine La Motte began

When was Mine La Motte founded?

1840

The Mine La Motte post office opened in 1840, the earliest record of the town by name.

2020 census: 364186 years
Founding year: the first Mine La Motte post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).The full story ↓

What stands out about Mine La Motte’s past

Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.

A history waiting to be writtenNo old photos of Mine La Motte are in the public archives yet. The rest are in attics and albums.Deep rootsA post office since 1840: 186 years of Mine La Motte.
★ What stands out · Help out

Start Mine La Motte’s collection

The first neighbors to add old photos shape how Mine La Motte’s history is told.

Decades since 1900 with photos
00s10s20s30s40s50s60s70s80s90s
0 of 10 decades. The empty ones are waiting for someone’s album.
Share a family photoSign in to add one+10
Timeline

Mine La Motte, 1840 to 1985

Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.

  1. 19th century
  2. 1840Post officeThe Mine La Motte post office opens
  3. 20th century
  4. 1947On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological Survey
  5. 1985Post officeThe Mine La Motte post office closes
The story

How Mine La Motte came to be

From Wikipedia’s history of Mine La Motte.

Read it all →

Europeans discovered lead here and had also hoped to find silver. The French governor of Louisiana, Antoine de la Mothe Cadillac, failed to find silver, but succeeded in recruiting investors in the Company of the West, which was organized in 1717. Mine La Motte was eventually settled by about 200 French settlers along with their slaves from Santo Domingo, under the leadership of Philip François Renault, to develop mines in 1717, making it one of the oldest settlements west of the Mississippi River. The presence of lead, a critical ingredient for ammunition, attracted unusually early mining by French colonists in this otherwise remote interior region of the North American continent. That same lead, still used for ammunition nearly 150 years later at the time of the American Civil War, was also a factor in the Battle of Fredericktown, in which forces aligned with the Confederate States of…

Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.

By decade

No old photos in the archives yet

Weddings on Main Street, storms, parades, school pictures, the old store. If it’s in your family album, it belongs here.

Be the first to add onePhotograph a print flat, in daylight, no flash.
Add from your album
On the map

Mine La Motte on the map, 1947 to 1980

Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Mine La Motte. Tap a year, or press play to watch the town change.

Mine La Motte on the 1947 USGS mapMine La Motte on the 1950 USGS mapMine La Motte on the 1980 USGS map1947Fredericktown 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 Mine La Motte.

Famous people

Famous people close to Mine La Motte

Nobody well known was born in Mine La Motte itself, so here are the best known from just nearby.

See all →
Jake ArrietaAmerican baseball player · b. 1986
Patrick WilliamsAmerican composer, arranger, and conductor who … · b. 1939
C
Chris CarrAmerican basketball player · b. 1974
H
Herbert AsburyAmerican journalist · b. 1889
R
Robert Moore WilliamsAmerican writer · b. 1907
Charles E. SebastianAmerican mayor · b. 1873
Places that used to be

Lost post offices, places now gone and burying grounds

Mine La Motte had its own post office from 1840 to 1985.

Mine La Motte
1840–1985
18401930today
Gone or out of use
Lindsey MinemineOffset Minemine
1cemetery inside Mine La Motte
Mine la Motte

US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock, CC0). Places and cemeteries from the USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021).

Questions about Mine La Motte’s history

What year was Mine La Motte founded?

The Mine La Motte post office opened in 1840, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).

Memory lane

What the archives can’t tell you, neighbors can.

Town Square →
Start a conversation
Sources

Where this page comes from

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.