Missouri Mines: Two Hundred Years of Lead in the Old Lead Belt

Southeast Missouri has been producing lead for more than two hundred eighty years, longer than the United States has existed. The Old Lead Belt, centered on Park Hills and the surrounding towns of Saint Francois County, was for generations one of the world's leading lead-mining districts.

Federal Mill Number Three, now Missouri Mines State Historic Site, was purchased by the Saint Joseph Lead Company in nineteen twenty-three and operated it as a major lead mill, processing ore until nineteen seventy-two. The company donated the mill complex to the state in nineteen seventy-five. Today the former powerhouse holds a large mineral collection alongside original crushing, grinding, and processing equipment. The rusting machine shops and decaying headframes across the grounds convey the industrial scale of an operation that shaped every town within fifty miles.