West Quincy is a small commercial area in northeastern Marion County,

Missouri Missouri 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 is bordered by eight states (tied for the most with Tennessee ...

, United States, on

U.S. Route 24 U.S. Route 24 (US 24) is one of the original United States highways of 1926. It originally ran from Pontiac, Michigan, in the east to Kansas City, Missouri, in the west. Today, the highway's eastern terminus is in Independence Township, Mic ...

. It has no permanent residents.

History

West Quincy was

plat In the United States, a plat ( or ) (plan) is a cadastral map, drawn to scale, showing the divisions of a piece of land. United States General Land Office surveyors drafted township plats of Public Lands Surveys to show the distance and bear ...

ted in 1874, and named for its location west of

Quincy, Illinois Quincy ( ), known as Illinois's "Gem City", is a city in and the county seat of Adams County, Illinois, United States, located on the Mississippi River. The 2020 census counted a population of 39,463 in the city itself, down from 40,633 in 2010. ...

. It is the location of the Lock and Dam No. 21 Historic District, listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...

in 2004. West Quincy is directly across 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 f ...

from

and once housed a Chicago, Burlington & Quincy train station, drive-in theater, and corporation. However, since the

Great Flood of 1993 The Great Flood of 1993 (or Great Mississippi and Missouri Rivers Flood of 1993) was a flood that occurred in the Midwestern United States, along the Mississippi and Missouri rivers and their tributaries, from April to October 1993. The flood wa ...

, many businesses have left. The Knapheide corporation headquarters was formerly located in West Quincy, but it has relocated its main location to northern Quincy, Illinois. However, an active Knapheide facility still remains in West Quincy to this day. A

tornado A tornado is a violently rotating column of air that is in contact with both the surface of the Earth and a cumulonimbus cloud or, in rare cases, the base of a cumulus cloud. It is often referred to as a twister, whirlwind or cyclone, altho ...

hit the drive-in theater and nearly crossed to Quincy but receded once it hit the bluffs. During the flood of 1993, the

levee A levee (), dike (American English), dyke (English in the Commonwealth of Nations, Commonwealth English), embankment, floodbank, or stop bank is a structure that is usually soil, earthen and that often runs parallel (geometry), parallel to ...

was sabotaged and water filled the floodplain, and a nearby barge was sucked into the break in the levee. It hit a local gas station and caused an explosion. Oil caught fire and the fire snaked across the water before it extinguished itself. All of the Quincy bridges—the only links across the river from Missouri to Illinois for 200 miles—were closed. One bridge, the Bayview Bridge, was closed for 71 days.Floods in Missouri Prevent Border Crossing for Miles

Weekend Edition ''Weekend Edition'' is a set of American radio news magazine programs produced and distributed by National Public Radio (NPR). It is the weekend counterpart to the NPR radio program ''Morning Edition''. It consists of ''Weekend Edition Saturday'' ...

National Public Radio National Public Radio (NPR, stylized in all lowercase) is an American privately and state funded nonprofit media organization headquartered in Washington, D.C., with its NPR West headquarters in Culver City, California. It differs from other n ...

, 1993-07-17. This forced residents to drive to

St. Louis St. Louis () is the second-largest city in Missouri, United States. It sits near the confluence of the Mississippi and the Missouri Rivers. In 2020, the city proper had a population of 301,578, while the bi-state metropolitan area, which e ...

or Burlington, Iowa, fly or take a ferry to get across the river. A man from the

Illinois Illinois ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern United States. Its largest metropolitan areas include the Chicago metropolitan area, and the Metro East section, of Greater St. Louis. Other smaller metropolita ...

side of the river, James Scott, was convicted of causing the flood and was sentenced to life in prison. Today, West Quincy is home to a number of gas stations that largely serve consumers from Quincy. Missouri's lower state taxes on gasoline and cigarettes are the primary draw, as are the seasonal fireworks tents that spring up in the area during the summer. A number of other small businesses, including a pawn shop, a bank, and a number of car dealerships also operate in West Quincy.

References

{{authority control Unincorporated communities in Marion County, Missouri Hannibal, Missouri micropolitan area Unincorporated communities in Missouri