National City: The Town Built to Dodge Taxes

In nineteen oh seven, the St. Louis National Stockyards Company incorporated a new town just outside East Saint Louis and named it National City. The purpose was not to build a community.

It was to avoid paying city taxes. By placing the stockyards in their own municipality, the company could control local government and keep its tax burden low. The stockyards here became one of the largest livestock processing operations in the country, a critical node in the midwestern meat trade.

National City never grew into a real town, it had almost no residents, just yards, pens, and rail lines. It was eventually dissolved and absorbed. What it left behind was a model other industrial companies would copy: incorporate your own municipality, write your own rules, keep the profits.