Paw Paw is a community in south central
Sullivan County, in the
U.S. state
In the United States, a state is a constituent political entity, of which there are 50. Bound together in a political union, each state holds governmental jurisdiction over a separate and defined geographic territory where it shares its so ...
of
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 ...
, which the
GNIS
The Geographic Names Information System (GNIS) is a database of name and location information about more than two million physical and cultural features, encompassing the United States and its territories; the associated states of the Marshal ...
classifies as a populated place.
The community is located approximately one third mile north of Paw Paw Creek, approximately south-southeast of
Milan
Milan ( , , ; ) is a city in northern Italy, regional capital of Lombardy, the largest city in Italy by urban area and the List of cities in Italy, second-most-populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of nea ...
and northeast of
Browning.
The name was sometimes spelled "Pawpaw".
A post office called Pawpaw was established in 1899 and remained in operation until 1905. The community most likely was so named because of the
paw paw thicket
A thicket is a very dense stand of trees or tall shrubs, often dominated by only one or a few species, to the exclusion of all others. They may be formed by species that shed large numbers of highly viable seeds that are able to germinate in th ...
s near the original town site.
References
Ghost towns in Missouri
Former populated places in Sullivan County, Missouri
{{SullivanCountyMO-geo-stub