Bourbon: The Only Town in America Named for the Whiskey

Bourbon, Missouri holds a modest but specific distinction: it is the only town in the United States named for bourbon whiskey. The first settler arrived around eighteen twenty-nine, and a post office opened in eighteen fifty-three under Richard Turner and his partner. Local legend says railroad workers bought bourbon liquor at Turner's store so often the place just became known by that name.

Historians note the store predated the railroad by six years, making the story unlikely but too good to discard. The Missouri Pacific tracks arrived in the eighteen fifties, Route Sixty-Six came through in nineteen twenty-six, and the town incorporated in nineteen oh seven. A new four-lane alignment bypassed the old business district in nineteen fifty-three, the story of countless Route Sixty-Six towns.

The water tower still reads Bourbon, and people still find it worth a photograph.