Chouteau Springs, Missouri

In 1799 Jean Pierre Chouteau and his party of fur traders on an inland excursion from the Missouri River came upon bubbling mineral springs in a valley surrounded by sycamores and elms. The local Osage Indians informed Chouteau of the curative qualities of the mineral water and told him that their braves would often drink from them. Chouteau bartered with the Osage for 30,000 arpens (about 25,000 acres) of what is now called the Chouteau Springs area. The official transaction took place at the Fort of the Osages on March 19, 1799.[2] Chouteau would later sell the 30,000 arpens to William Henry Ashley.[3][4]

Pierre Chouteau, acquired Chouteau Springs area from the Osage. Image from the Missouri Historical Society Collections, 1911, v3, p. 391

As early as 1855, the "medicinal qualities" of the water from Chouteau Springs was being touted in newspaper advertisements.

1855 Advertisement touting the medicinal benefits of Chouteau Springs water from the Boonville Weekly Observer, July 7, p. 1

Source: Sedalia (Missouri) Democrat, 27 Aug 1896, p. 7

In 1870, St. Martin's Catholic Church, an 18x24 log structure, was built in Chouteau Springs on 1.5 acres of land donated by Daniel Martin, called "Martinsville."[5][6] St. Martin's Cemetery (Chouteau Springs "Martinsville") is located on the eastern rim of Chouteau Springs 38.9169006°N 92.8778000°W / 38.9169006; -92.8778000. Cemetery records are regularly surveyed.

In 1877, a 4-story frame hotel 190 x 45 ft. was built in Chouteau Springs for about $25,000 with C. B. Lakin of Kansas City as the architect. It had a passenger elevator, steam bath, speaking tubes, hardwood, stained glass.[7] In 1906, there was a hotel in Chouteau Springs called the "Hotel Brown".

1906 Advertisement for Hotel Brown, Chouteau Springs, Missouri; appeared in Sedalia Democrat, Aug 6, p. 3

In 1882, citizens of Boonville seriously considered piping Chouteau Springs mineral water from Chouteau Springs to Boonville, a distance of about ten miles. Chouteau Springs Resort had several turreted structures from which to obtain the mineral water, a large dancing pavilion, a pool, and ample picnic grounds.

Chouteau Springs Resort Entrance & Pavilion early 1900s. From Schmidt, Maximilan E, Photographs (P0001)P0001-A041. The State Historical Society of Missouri, Photograph Collection

Families from St. Louis and beyond would spend a week or more at Chouteau Springs Resort (1902). Fox hunts were also conducted at Chouteau Springs Resort.[8]

Chouteau Springs was officially platted in 1886 beside a mineral spring, and named after Jean Pierre Chouteau, the original owner of the town site.[9]

In 1887, an electric railroad from Boonville to Chouteau Springs was proposed. It was never built.

In 1889, Nick, John and Leonard Smith sunk a shaft south of Chouteau Springs, seeking gold.[10]

A post office called Chouteau was established in 1890, and remained in operation until 1896.[11]

In 1900, Eugene A Windsor purchased Chouteau Springs Park Resort from James E. Young of Kansas City, Kansas.[12]

1915 Camping at Chouteau Springs Resort, Cooper County, Missouri. From p. 83 of the Standard Atlas of Cooper County, Missouri, 1915, State Historical Society of Missouri

Everett Spry was manager of Chouteau Springs Resort from about 1917 to 1932. By 1907, KATY Railroad was making multiple stops in Chouteau Springs.

1907 Katy Train Stops in Chouteau Springs, Missouri {The Sedalia Democrat, July 24, 1907, p. 8}

Melton (1937, p. 159) noted the following about the Chouteau Springs Grade School: "DISTRICT 18, CHOUTEAU, is taught by Miss Florence Stoecklein. Members of the board are: President, John S. Davis; Herman Lammers and John Schuster. Henry Brownfield is clerk. Pupils are: Dorothy Davis, Lorena Gatewood, John Edward Schuster, Farrel Gatewood, Jr., Margie Edson, Edna Grace Davis, Ruby Smith, Goldie Nelson, Kenneth Nelson, Bennie Evans, Albert Gatewood, Orville Evans, Mary Schraeder, Albert Leo Imhoff, Alberta Schraeder, Thomas Gatewood, Homer Evans, Alvin Oland and Robert Imhoff." [13]

Chouteau Springs Resort ceased operations about 1960. In a 1982 piece in the Kansas City Times, James J. Fisher called Chouteau Springs "The Town That Could Have Been" and attributed its demise to the building of Bagnell Dam, which created the Lake of the Ozarks, and to the Great Depression. Chouteau Springs Resort is in ruins as of 2019. The surrounding farmlands and homes of the Chouteau Springs community continue to thrive.

In 1874, Professor Adolphe Smith of the Missouri Geological Survey was "delighted with Chouteau Springs water, pronouncing it the best he ever tasted and better than the famous Blue Lick waters in Kentucky."[14] In 1886, an analysis of Chouteau Springs water by G. C. Swallow, Missouri state geologist, showed the following minerals: carbonate of protoxide of iron, carbonate of lime, carbonate of magnesia, chloride of calcium, chloride of potassium, chloride of sodium, carbonic acid and silica. Total weight of the minerals was approximately one-tenth of one per cent of the weight of the water.[15]

In 1902, Professor F. A. Sampson of the State Historical Society of Missouri and Professor Stewart Weller of Chicago University studied the subcarboniferous era geologic formations of Chouteau Springs.

In 1981, Larry Stout, a scientist at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography in La Jolla, California, published an article in the Journal of Paleontology regarding his discovery of the unusual occurrence (only the third known in North America) of the brackish-water ostracode Cyprideis salebrosa in Chouteau Springs, Missouri.[16]

In 1944, William H. Easton of the Illinois State Geological Survey Division published an article (Report of Investigations No. 97) which noted, among many other things, that the coral fauna of the Chouteau Springs limestone is larger in number of genera and species than that known from any other Carboniferous formation in this hemisphere (p. 7).[17]