Boone County is located in the U.S. state of Missouri. Centrally located the state's Mid-Missouri region, its county seat is in Columbia, which is Missouri's fourth-largest city and location of the University of Missouri. As of the 2020 U.S. census, the county's population was listed as 183,610, making it the state's eighth-most populous county or county equivalent. The county was organized November 16, 1820, removed from the former larger Howard County (now to the northwest) of the old federal Missouri Territory of 1812–1821, and named for the famous Western explorer and settler of Kentucky, then recently deceased Daniel Boone (1734–1820), whose kin largely populated the Boonslick area, having arrived in the 1810s on the Boone's Lick Road.
Boone County comprises the Columbia Metropolitan Area. The towns of Ashland and Centralia are the second and third most populous towns in the county.
History
Boone County was organized November 16, 1820, from a separated portion of the larger territorial Howard County, first designated under the former federal Louisiana Territory (1804–1812) and subsequent successor Missouri Territory (1812–1821). The central region of the state is known as Mid-Missouri and is also known as the cultural area of Boonslick or Boone's Lick Country, because of a nearby salt spring or "lick" which famed Western American frontier explorer, pioneer, settler Daniel Boone's (1734–1820) sons, Daniel Morgan Boone (1769–1839), and younger Nathan Boone (1780–1856), used for their animals stock.
thumb|right|The [[Boone County Courthouse (Missouri)|Boone County Courthouse of Greek Revival style architecture, built with three stories and basement, with front portico / pediment and columns, at the surrounding Boone County Government Complex, in the county seat town of Columbia, Missouri]]
Boone County was settled primarily from the Upper South states of Kentucky, Tennessee and further east of Virginia. The settlers brought slaves and idea of slave-holding with them, and quickly started cultivating crops similar to those in Middle Tennessee and the bluegrass state of Kentucky: hemp and tobacco. Boone was one of several counties to the north and south of the diagonal flowing southwestward Missouri River that was settled by mostly Southerners. Because of its culture and traditions, the area became known as Little Dixie, and Boone County was at its heart. In 1860 slaves made up 25 percent or more of the county's population, Boone County was strongly pro-Confederacy during the American Civil War (1861–1865).
Shortly after the assassination / murder in April 1865, of 16th President Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865, served 1861–1865), the leading citizens of the county and its county seat town denounced the killing. They also directed that all public buildings including the county courthouse and the nearby state university be draped in black mourning for thirty days.
Geography
According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the county has a total area of , of which is land and (0.8%) is water. The Missouri River makes up the southern border of the county.
National protected areas
- Big Muddy National Fish and Wildlife Refuge
- Mark Twain National Forest (part)
Adjacent counties
- Audrain County (northeast)
- Callaway County (east)
- Cole County (south)
- Cooper County (west)
- Howard County (northwest)
- Moniteau County (southwest)
- Randolph County (north)
Major highways
- 20px Interstate 70
- 20px Interstate 70 Business Loop
- 20px U.S. Route 40
- 20px U.S. Route 63
- 20px Route 22
- 20px Route 124
- 20px Route 163
- 20px Route 740
- 20px Route 763