Wolf Island is an

unincorporated community An unincorporated area is a region that is not governed by a local municipal corporation. Widespread unincorporated communities and areas are a distinguishing feature of the United States and Canada. Most other countries of the world either have ...

in eastern Mississippi County,

Missouri Missouri is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. Ranking 21st in land area, it is bordered by eight states (tied for the most with Tennessee): Iowa to the north, Illinois, Kentucky and Tennessee to the east, Arkansas t ...

, United States. It is located on Route 77, approximately nine miles east of East Prairie.

History

The community was founded in 1792 and is named for Wolf Island in the

Mississippi River The Mississippi River is the second-longest river and chief river of the second-largest drainage system in North America, second only to the Hudson Bay drainage system. From its traditional source of Lake Itasca in northern Minnesota, it fl ...

, which is actually part of

Kentucky Kentucky ( , ), officially the Commonwealth of Kentucky, is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States and one of the states of the Upper South. It borders Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio to the north; West Virginia and Virginia ...

. According to Missouri folklorist Margot Ford McMillen, the name of both the island and the community stem from the large number of

wolves The wolf (''Canis lupus''; : wolves), also known as the gray wolf or grey wolf, is a large canine native to Eurasia and North America. More than thirty subspecies of ''Canis lupus'' have been recognized, and gray wolves, as popularly un ...

that were present in the area in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. The wolves have long since disappeared from the state, but the place names remain. Wolf Island was once a hideout for criminals. After they left their headquarters at Cave-In-Rock in 1799,

Samuel Mason Samuel Ross Mason, also spelled Meason (November 8, 1739 – 1803), was a Virginia militia captain, on the American western frontier, during the American Revolutionary War. After the war, he became the leader of the Mason Gang, a criminal gang o ...

and his gang of

river pirates A river pirate is a pirate who operates along a river. The term has been used to describe many different kinds of pirate groups who carry out riverine attacks in Asia, Africa, Europe, North America, and South America. They are usually prosecuted ...

relocated to the Kentucky island.

References

* Shull, C.A. "The Formation of a New Island in the Mississippi River," ''Ecology'', Vol. 3, No. 3, (July, 1922), pp. 202–206. Unincorporated communities in Mississippi County, Missouri Populated places established in 1792 Unincorporated communities in Missouri 1792 establishments in the United States {{MississippiCountyMO-geo-stub