Plato is an incorporated

rural In general, a rural area or a countryside is a geographic area that is located outside towns and cities. Typical rural areas have a low population density and small settlements. Agricultural areas and areas with forestry are typically desc ...

village A village is a human settlement or community, larger than a hamlet but smaller than a town with a population typically ranging from a few hundred to a few thousand. Although villages are often located in rural areas, the term urban v ...

in northwestern Texas County,

Missouri Missouri (''see #Etymology and pronunciation, pronunciation'') is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. Ranking List of U.S. states and territories by area, 21st in land area, it border ...

, United States. It is located approximately 20 miles northwest of

Houston Houston ( ) is the List of cities in Texas by population, most populous city in the U.S. state of Texas and in the Southern United States. Located in Southeast Texas near Galveston Bay and the Gulf of Mexico, it is the county seat, seat of ...

and 10 miles south of

Fort Leonard Wood Fort Leonard Wood is a United States Army, U.S. Army training installation located in the Missouri The Ozarks, Ozarks. The main gate is located on the southern boundary of the city of St. Robert, Missouri, St. Robert. The post was created in De ...

Route 32 The following highways are numbered 32: International * AH32, Asian Highway 32 * European route E32 Australia * Great Western Highway * Barrier Highway * East Derwent Highway * Mitchell Highway Canada * Alberta Highway 32 * Manitoba Highway 32 ...

. There is a large public school complex located there, a bank, a post office, a style and fitness center, and two churches at Plato. The population was 82 at the 2020 census. As of the 2010 U.S. Census Plato was the

mean center of United States population The mean center of the United States population is determined by the United States Census Bureau from the results of each national census. The Bureau defines it as follows: After moving roughly Boxing the compass, west by south during the ...

of the distribution of the U.S. population.

History

The community was founded in 1874 and is named after the ancient Greek philosopher

Plato Plato ( ; Greek language, Greek: , ; born BC, died 348/347 BC) was an ancient Greek philosopher of the Classical Greece, Classical period who is considered a foundational thinker in Western philosophy and an innovator of the writte ...

. The

Bates-Geers House The Bates-Geers House, also known as Geers House, is a historic home located near Plato, Texas County, Missouri. It was built about 1840, and is a two-story, five-bay, Greek Revival style frame dwelling with a rear ell. It sits on a sandstone f ...

was listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...

in 1982.

Geography

According to the

United States Census Bureau The United States Census Bureau, officially the Bureau of the Census, is a principal agency of the Federal statistical system, U.S. federal statistical system, responsible for producing data about the American people and American economy, econ ...

, the village has a total area of , all land.

Demographics

2010 census

As of the

census A census (from Latin ''censere'', 'to assess') is the procedure of systematically acquiring, recording, and calculating population information about the members of a given Statistical population, population, usually displayed in the form of stati ...

of 2010, there were 109 people, 41 households, and 35 families residing in the village. The

population density Population density (in agriculture: Standing stock (disambiguation), standing stock or plant density) is a measurement of population per unit land area. It is mostly applied to humans, but sometimes to other living organisms too. It is a key geog ...

was . There were 48 housing units at an average density of . The racial makeup of the village was 95.4%

White White is the lightest color and is achromatic (having no chroma). It is the color of objects such as snow, chalk, and milk, and is the opposite of black. White objects fully (or almost fully) reflect and scatter all the visible wa ...

, 1.8%

African American African Americans, also known as Black Americans and formerly also called Afro-Americans, are an Race and ethnicity in the United States, American racial and ethnic group that consists of Americans who have total or partial ancestry from an ...

, 1.8% Native American, and 0.9% from other races.

Hispanic The term Hispanic () are people, Spanish culture, cultures, or countries related to Spain, the Spanish language, or broadly. In some contexts, Hispanic and Latino Americans, especially within the United States, "Hispanic" is used as an Ethnici ...

or Latino of any race were 4.6% of the population. There were 41 households, of which 36.6% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 65.9% were

married couples Marriage, also called matrimony or wedlock, is a culturally and often legally recognised union between people called spouses. It establishes rights and obligations between them, as well as between them and their children (if any), and b ...

living together, 12.2% had a female householder with no husband present, 7.3% had a male householder with no wife present, and 14.6% were non-families. 14.6% of all households were made up of individuals, and 9.8% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.66 and the average family size was 2.83. The median age in the village was 36.5 years. 28.4% of residents were under the age of 18; 7.4% were between the ages of 18 and 24; 23% were from 25 to 44; 17.4% were from 45 to 64; and 23.9% were 65 years of age or older. The gender makeup of the village was 49.5% male and 50.5% female.

Mean center of the United States

In March 2011 Plato was declared the 2010

based on 2010 Census data. The mean center has been moving southwest through Missouri about 20 to 30 miles per decade since 1980, when it was near DeSoto. In 2000, it was pinpointed as being near Edgar Springs.

Transportation

Waynesville Regional Airport at Forney Field serves the community with air service. Even though it's on

, it is jointly run by the cities of Waynesville and St. Robert and is available for civilian use by private pilots and scheduled commercial passenger service. * Route 17 is the major north-south route which crosses

Interstate 44 Interstate 44 (I-44) is an Interstate Highway in the central United States. Although it is nominally an east–west road as it is even-numbered, it follows a more southwest–northeast alignment. Its western terminus is in Wichita Falls, T ...

at exit 153 at Buckhorn, runs east through Waynesville, turns north to Crocker, and then runs north out of the county to Iberia. South of

, Highway 17 hugs the western edge of Fort Leonard Wood, passes near Laquey, and circles south of the post until it runs out of the county and eventually joins

Highway 32 The following highways are numbered 32: International * Asian Highway 32 * European route E32 Australia * Great Western Highway * Barrier Highway * East Derwent Highway * Mitchell Highway Canada * Alberta Highway 32 * Manitoba Highway 3 ...

in Roby. *

runs west from Route 17 through Plato and continues west through Lynchburg.

Media

The

area has one daily and three weekly print newspapers, as well as an online internet daily newspaper. South of the post, the Houston Heral

covers Texas County issues but doesn't regularly cover Plato village or school issues.

KFBD-FM KFBD-FM (97.9 FM) is a radio station licensed to Waynesville, Missouri, United States. The station is currently owned by Alpha Media, through licensee Alpha Media Licensee LLC. KFBD-FM and its AM sister station, KJPW, are the dominant news ra ...

and its AM sister station,

KJPW KJPW (1390 AM broadcasting, AM) is a radio station broadcasting a Talk radio, news talk information format. Licensed to Waynesville, Missouri, United States, the station is currently owned by Alpha Media, through licensee Alpha Media Licensee L ...

, are the news radio providers in the Pulaski County area, which includes

as well as northern Texas County. These stations compete with the only other station broadcasting from Pulaski County, KFLW Radio, owned by the Lebanon Daily Recor

and working locally from the St. Robert offices of the Pulaski County Mirro

weekly newspaper. The Daily Guide, commonly known as the Waynesville Daily Guid

but based in St. Robert and serving all of Pulaski County, is owned by Gatehouse Medi

and is the central printing plant for three other Gatehouse newspapers in nearby counties, the daily Camden Lake Sun Leade

and Rolla Daily New

as well as the weekly St. James Leader-Journa

The Daily Guide covers school sports and the occasional big story in Plato. The content of the weekly Fort Leonard Wood Guido

is produced under the auspices of Army Public Affairs at

but printed under contract by the Springfield News-Leade

a Gannett-owne

newspaper which produces and sells advertisements in the Fort Leonard Wood Guidon. The military contract to produce the Guidon was held by the Lebanon Daily Record until the end of 2002, and before the Lebanon Daily Record had been held by the Waynesville Daily Guide for many years.

Education

The areas south of Fort Leonard Wood, including the unincorporated Pulaski County communities of Big Piney, Missouri, Big Piney and Palace, are served by the Plato R-V School Distric

which is based in the northern Texas County village of Plato but also includes parts of Pulaski County, Missouri, Pulaski, Laclede and

Wright Wright is an occupational surname originating in England and Scotland. The term 'Wright' comes from the circa 700 AD Old English word 'wryhta' or 'wyrhta', meaning worker or shaper of wood. Later it became any occupational worker (for example, a ...

counties. Nearby school districts in Success, Manes and Gasconade, are K-8 districts which don't have a high school. Some students from those districts attend Plato High School after finishing school in their own district. Fort Leonard Wood is in Pulaski County and a high percentage of military personnel live off post in surrounding communities, especially St. Robert and Waynesville but also the farther-out cities of Richland, Crocker, and Dixon, and the unincorporated communities of Laquey, Swedeborg and Devil's Elbow, all of which have a lower housing cost than nearer housing in St. Robert and Waynesville. Military personnel assigned to training areas on the south end of the post sometimes choose to live in the unincorporated areas of Big Piney, Missouri, Big Piney and Palace in Pulaski County, or the northern Texas County communities of Plato and Roby. Seven main school districts are fully or partly within the borders of Pulaski County, not counting two small districts which are mostly within other counties and only have only a few dozen residents within Pulaski County. All seven school districts have a high percentage of Fort Leonard Wood military dependents, and over two-thirds of Waynesville students fall into that category.

References

External links

Texas County, Missouri
– Official site.
Plato R-V School District
– Official site. {{authority control Villages in Texas County, Missouri Populated places established in 1874 1874 establishments in Missouri Villages in Missouri