Mine La Motte 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 ...

(CDP) in Madison 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 364.

History

Europeans discovered

lead Lead () is a chemical element; it has Chemical symbol, symbol Pb (from Latin ) and atomic number 82. It is a Heavy metal (elements), heavy metal that is density, denser than most common materials. Lead is Mohs scale, soft and Ductility, malleabl ...

here and had also hoped to find

silver Silver is a chemical element; it has Symbol (chemistry), symbol Ag () and atomic number 47. A soft, whitish-gray, lustrous transition metal, it exhibits the highest electrical conductivity, thermal conductivity, and reflectivity of any metal. ...

. The French governor of Louisiana,

Antoine de la Mothe Cadillac Antoine de la Mothe, sieur de Cadillac (, ; March 5, 1658October 16, 1730), born Antoine Laumet, was a French explorer and adventurer in New France, which stretched from Eastern Canada to Louisiana on the Gulf of Mexico. He rose from a modest beg ...

, failed to find silver, but succeeded in recruiting investors in the Company of the West, which was organized in 1717. Mine La Motte was eventually settled by about 200 French settlers along with their

slaves Slavery is the ownership of a person as property, especially in regards to their labour. Slavery typically involves compulsory work, with the slave's location of work and residence dictated by the party that holds them in bondage. Enslavemen ...

from

Santo Domingo Santo Domingo, formerly known as Santo Domingo de Guzmán, is the capital and largest city of the Dominican Republic and the List of metropolitan areas in the Caribbean, largest metropolitan area in the Caribbean by population. the Distrito Na ...

, under the leadership of

Philip François Renault Philippe François Renault (c. 1686 – 24 April 1755) was a French politician, businessman, explorer, metallurgist, and favorite courtier of King Louis XV of France, who left his native Picardy in 1719 for the Illinois Country, Upper Louisiana, ...

, to develop mines in 1717, making it one of the oldest settlements west of the Mississippi River. The presence of lead, a critical ingredient for

ammunition Ammunition, also known as ammo, is the material fired, scattered, dropped, or detonated from any weapon or weapon system. The term includes both expendable weapons (e.g., bombs, missiles, grenades, land mines), and the component parts of oth ...

, attracted unusually early mining by French

colonists A settler or a colonist is a person who establishes or joins a permanent presence that is separate to existing communities. The entity that a settler establishes is a settlement. A settler is called a pioneer if they are among the first settli ...

in this otherwise remote interior region of the North American continent. That same lead, still used for ammunition nearly 150 years later at the time of the

American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861May 26, 1865; also known by Names of the American Civil War, other names) was a civil war in the United States between the Union (American Civil War), Union ("the North") and the Confederate States of A ...

, was also a factor in the

Battle of Fredericktown Engagement at Fredericktown, also known as the Battle of Fredericktown, was a battle of the American Civil War that took place on October 21, 1861, in Madison County, Missouri. The Union victory consolidated control of southeastern Missouri. B ...

, in which forces aligned with the Confederate States of America fought for control of the lead smelters in nearby Fredericktown with the Union forces, aligned with the United States of America. Mine La Motte historical marker 1

La Mothe named the mine after himself, and the town that grew up nearby was named after the mine. While dispatching workers and supervisors to the mines, La Mothe settled for a time in the

Illinois Country The Illinois Country ( ; ; ), also referred to as Upper Louisiana ( ; ), was a vast region of New France claimed in the 1600s that later fell under Spanish and British control before becoming what is now part of the Midwestern United States. Whi ...

east of the mid-

Mississippi River The Mississippi River is the main stem, primary river of the largest drainage basin in the United States. It is the second-longest river in the United States, behind only the Missouri River, Missouri. From its traditional source of Lake Ita ...

, where the first French colonial villages were founded. In 1804 the village had a population of 150. These settlers were mostly

French Canadians French Canadians, referred to as Canadiens mainly before the nineteenth century, are an ethnic group descended from French colonists first arriving in France's colony of Canada in 1608. The vast majority of French Canadians live in the provi ...

who developed agriculture. Due to the rich soils, they were quickly able to produce grain surpluses that were critical to the survival of the lower Louisiana colony. The ''

habitants Habitants () were French settlers and inhabitants of French origin who farmed the land along both shores of the St. Lawrence River and the Gulf of St. Lawrence in what is now Quebec, Canada. The term was used by the inhabitants themselves an ...

'' shipped tons of grain to

New Orleans New Orleans (commonly known as NOLA or The Big Easy among other nicknames) is a Consolidated city-county, consolidated city-parish located along the Mississippi River in the U.S. state of Louisiana. With a population of 383,997 at the 2020 ...

and other points south on the Mississippi River. La Mothe later served as Governor-General of

Louisiana Louisiana ( ; ; ) is a state in the Deep South and South Central regions of the United States. It borders Texas to the west, Arkansas to the north, and Mississippi to the east. Of the 50 U.S. states, it ranks 31st in area and 25 ...

.State Historical Society of Missouri: Madison County http://shs.umsystem.edu/manuscripts/ramsay/ramsay_madison.html

Geography

Mine La Motte is in northern Madison County, north of Frederickton, the

county seat A county seat is an administrative center, seat of government, or capital city of a county or parish (administrative division), civil parish. The term is in use in five countries: Canada, China, Hungary, Romania, and the United States. An equiva ...

. According to the

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

, the CDP has a total area of , of which , or 2.91%, are water. Sweetwater Branch flows westward through the center of the community to the Little St. Francis River, which bends through the west side of the community on its way to join the

St. Francis River The St. Francis River is a tributary of the Mississippi River, about long, in southeastern Missouri and northeastern Arkansas in the United States. The river drains a mostly rural area and forms part of the Missouri-Arkansas state line along th ...

Demographics

References

Unincorporated communities in Madison County, Missouri Lead mining French colonial settlements of Illinois Country Unincorporated communities in Missouri Census-designated places in Missouri Census-designated places in Madison County, Missouri {{MadisonCountyMO-geo-stub

History

Geography

Demographics

See also

References