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Rocky Comfort is an unincorporated community and census-designated place in McDonald County, Missouri, United States, on Missouri Route 76. As of the 2020 census, it had a population of 176. A post office called Rocky Comfort has been in operation since 1876. Some say the community was named for the rocky terrain in an idyllic setting, while others believe the name is a transfer from Rocky Comfort, Arkansas. The community is mentioned in Dennis Murphy's poem of 1941, The Doomed Race, and is both title and setting for Wayne Holmes' 2009 memoir, Rocky Comfort. From 1902 to 1908, when it moved to nearby Fairview, the Horner Institute, a private school offering courses from the eighth grade thr…
Its first post office opened in 1876.
Intro from Wikipedia. Population: U.S. Census Bureau.
From the old history books
What they wrote about Rocky Comfort in 1897
Passages that mention Rocky Comfort, cut from the printed page as they were published.
Illustrated history of McDonald County, Missouri1897 · page 9Read the page →
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South Indian creek takes its source at a large spring in the town of Rocky Comfort and runs south of west for some ten or twelve miles where it connects with the main creek which has its source in Newton county, and enters McDonald county about twelve miles from the northeast corner. The main creek flows south and west from where it enters this county, and empties
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Illustrated history of McDonald County, Missouri1897 · page 77Read the page →
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Rocky Comfort is a nice little town in the northeast corner of the county, and has a population of between 200 and 300 people. It can boast of as fine a set of citizens as can be found in the great Southwest. They have a handsome school house, good churches, and almost all branches of business are represented. It is located in the heart of a rich agricultural country
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Scans and text from the Internet Archive. Books published in 1930 or earlier, which are in the public domain.
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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 Wikidata and Wikipedia for famous people, 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.
