Defiance is an

unincorporated community An unincorporated area is a parcel of land that is not governed by a local general-purpose municipal corporation. (At p. 178.) They may be governed or serviced by an encompassing unit (such as a county) or another branch of the state (such as th ...

and

census-designated place A census-designated place (CDP) is a Place (United States Census Bureau), concentration of population defined by the United States Census Bureau for statistical purposes only. CDPs have been used in each decennial census since 1980 as the counte ...

in Saint Charles 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. As of the 2020 census, the population was 159.

History

Defiance was struck hard in the

Tornado outbreak of December 10–11, 2021 A deadly late-season tornado outbreak, the deadliest on record in December, produced catastrophic damage and numerous fatalities across portions of the Southern United States and Ohio Valley from the evening of December 10 to the early morning ...

, by a tornado rated EF3. One person was killed.

Situation

The

Katy Trail State Park The Katy Trail State Park is a state park in the U.S. state of Missouri that contains the Katy Trail, the country's longest continuous recreational rail trail. It runs , largely along the northern bank of the Missouri River, in the right-of- ...

runs through Defiance near the

Missouri River The Missouri River is a river in the Central United States, Central and Mountain states, Mountain West regions of the United States. The nation's longest, it rises in the eastern Centennial Mountains of the Bitterroot Range of the Rocky Moun ...

. This was the final

home A home, or domicile, is a space used as a permanent or semi-permanent residence for one or more human occupants, and sometimes various companion animals. Homes provide sheltered spaces, for instance rooms, where domestic activity can be p ...

of frontiersman

Daniel Boone Daniel Boone (, 1734September 26, 1820) was an American pioneer and frontiersman whose exploits made him one of the first folk heroes of the United States. He became famous for his exploration and settlement of Kentucky, which was then beyo ...

, who settled in the Femme Osage Valley in 1799 after receiving a Spanish land grant. The hamlet was not named during Boone's life. The Daniel Boone Home,

Daniel Boone Hays House Daniel Boone Hays House, also known as Hays Farm, is a historic home near Defiance, St. Charles County, Missouri. It was built between about 1826 and 1836, and is a two-story, "L"-plan, stone dwelling. The house measures approximately 42 feet ...

, and Isaac McCormick House are 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 ...

. The

Wolf-Ruebeling House Wolf-Ruebeling House was a historic home near Defiance, St. Charles County, Missouri. It was built between about 1857 and 1859, and was a two-story, vernacular style brick I-house with Classical Revival style design references. (includes 15 ph ...

is formerly listed.

Etymology

The community was named in the late 1800s when the

Katy Railroad Katy or KATY may refer to: People and Characters * Katy, a short form of the name Katherine * Katy (given name) * Katy (Marvel Cinematic Universe), a fictional character * Katy Perry * Katie Perry, Australian fashion designer * Katy Perry (prison ...

arrived. Initially, the town was to be called Parsons, after the landowner. Because there was already a

Parsons, Kansas Parsons is a city in Labette County, Kansas, Labette County, Kansas, United States. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the population of the city was 9,600. It is the most populous city of Labette County, and the second-most pop ...

on the Katy line, settlers considered other names, including Missouriton and Bluff City, before deciding on Defiance because of the hamlet's defiance of rival Matson to get a station on the line.

Characteristics

From here west to Marthasville are numerous wineries; SH 94 is sometimes called the "

Missouri Weinstrasse The Missouri Rhineland () is a German American cultural region of Missouri that extends from west of St. Louis to slightly east of Jefferson City, located mostly in the Missouri River Valley on both sides of the river. The region overlaps with ...

". The area is part of the

Missouri Rhineland The Missouri Rhineland () is a German American cultural region of Missouri that extends from west of St. Louis to slightly east of Jefferson City, located mostly in the Missouri River Valley on both sides of the river. The region overlaps wit ...

, where vineyards are cultivated on both sides of the Missouri River.

In popular culture

Defiance was used as the name for the new settlement on top of the ruins of

St. Louis, Missouri St. Louis ( , sometimes referred to as St. Louis City, Saint Louis or STL) is an Independent city (United States), independent city in the U.S. state of Missouri. It lies near the confluence of the Mississippi River, Mississippi and the Miss ...

, in the television series of the same name. The series was produced by

Universal Cable Productions Universal Content Productions LLC (UCP) is an American television production company operating within the Universal Studio Group division of NBCUniversal, which is a wholly owned subsidiary of Comcast. History Universal Cable Productions In July ...

, in

transmedia Transmedia storytelling (also known as transmedia narrative or multiplatform storytelling) is the technique of adapting a single story or story experience across multiple platforms and formats using current digital technologies. From a product ...

collaboration with

Trion Worlds Trion Worlds was an American video game developer. It focused primarily on MMOs, particularly of the MMORPG and MMORTS genres. The company was founded in 2006 by Lars Buttler and Jon Van Caneghem, who had each previously worked for NCSoft and ...

who have released an

MMORPG A massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) is a video game that combines aspects of a role-playing video game and a massively multiplayer online game. As in role-playing games (RPGs), the player assumes the role of a Player charac ...

video game of the same name that is tied into the series world and mythology (but did not take place in the titular city). In Volume 2 of the webcomic series,

Lackadaisy ''Lackadaisy'' (also known as ''Lackadaisy Cats'') is a webcomic created by American artist Tracy J. Butler. Set in a Prohibition-era St. Louis with a population of anthropomorphic cats, the plot chronicles the fortunes of the Lackadaisy speakeas ...

by Tracy J. Butler, two of the main characters, Rocky Rickaby and Ivy Pepper, travel to a farm in Defiance, Missouri.

Education

Defiance is covered by the

Francis Howell School District The Francis Howell R-III School District, Text list with school district name also known as the Francis Howell School District (FHSD), is a school district in Missouri, headquartered in O'Fallon in the St. Louis metropolitan area. The district ...

with a small portion of the CDP attending the School District of Washington.
Text list
/ref> Most students attend Daniel Boone Elementary School in nearby New Melle, Missouri, Francis Howell Middle School in

Weldon Spring, Missouri Weldon Spring is a city in St. Charles County, Missouri, United States. The population was 5,326 at the 2020 census. History Weldon Spring was platted in 1864. The community took its name from a spring of the same name near the original town s ...

and

Francis Howell High School Francis Howell High School is a four-year public high school located in St. Charles, Missouri. Approximately 1800 students from Defiance, Foristell, New Melle, O'Fallon, Saint Peters, Saint Charles, Weldon Spring, and Wentzville attend s ...

. The comprehensive high school of the Washington school district is Washington High School.

References

Missouri Rhineland Unincorporated communities in St. Charles County, Missouri Unincorporated communities in Missouri Census-designated places in Missouri Census-designated places in St. Charles County, Missouri {{StCharlesCountyMO-geo-stub