St. James: Built to Ship Iron from the First Foundry West of the Mississippi

St. James, Missouri owes its existence to iron. Thomas James and Samuel Massey began building the Maramec Iron Works in eighteen twenty-six on the banks of Maramec Spring, and when the foundry came online it became the first commercial iron works west of the Mississippi River.

The operation cast tools, implements, and household goods that supplied the westward-moving frontier. St. James developed as a railroad shipping point for that enterprise.

The foundry ran for nearly fifty years, closing in eighteen seventy-six, with the mine following in eighteen ninety-one. Route Sixty-Six later brought a new wave of travelers through on the main street, and the Ozark forests drew visitors seeking the springs and riverways. The Maramec Spring site is now a park, and the iron works ruins remain as an early chapter of industrial America hiding quietly in the Missouri hills.