Blackwater, Missouri
17 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1888 and the latest in 1982. It stands in Blackwater Township. It lies in ZIP code area 65322. It stands on Flat Creek. The Survey maps it on the Pilot Grove North quadrangle. 170 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 630 feet above sea level.
On record in Blackwater
Buildings and businesses the archive holds for this place. Each opens its own page, with the source record it came from.
On the National Register 2 records
- Blackwater Commercial Historic Districtlisted 2005
- Blackwater Residential Historic Districtlisted 2009
Population over time
2 figuresBlackwater grew from 162 to 170 between 2010 and 2020. These are the recorded population figures Wikidata holds for this place, reached through the Geographic Names Information System number this page is keyed on rather than by name, so they belong to this place and not to another of the same name. Most are census counts, but not all are: an early figure may be a founding or settlement estimate, and an estimate published within five years of a census is left out. The change column is computed, and is left blank where more than 20 years separate a figure from the one before it, because a gap that long is not a change between two counts.
| Year | People | Change |
|---|---|---|
| 2010 | 162 | |
| 2020 | 170 | +8 (+5%) |
Topographic sheets covering this place
8 surveys from 17 printed sheetsMatched by testing this settlement's coordinate against the published boundary of every sheet in the United States Geological Survey's historical collection. Each opens the scanned sheet at the Survey.
- 1888 USGS Boonville quadrangle1:125000, 5 printings
- 1947 USGS Jefferson City quadrangle1:250000
- 1953 USGS Pilot Grove North quadrangle1:24000, 2 printings
- 1954 USGS Jefferson City quadrangle1:250000, 2 printings
- 1955 USGS Jefferson City quadrangle1:250000, 4 printings
- 1958 USGS Jefferson City quadrangle1:250000
- 1959 USGS Jefferson City quadrangle1:250000
- 1982 USGS Jefferson City quadrangle1:100000
In the county-history sources
322 words on this townshipA History of Cooper County, Missouri, from the First Visit by White Men in February, 1804, to the Fifth Day of July, 1876, published 1876 names this settlement in its chapter on Blackwater Township. These are the passages that mention it, exactly as the scans read.
This township is a peninsular, being almost entirely surrounded by the Lamine and Blackwater rivers. The soil is rich and exceedingly productive. The bottom land is low and swampy, and the ridge land fertile and susceptible of early cultivation. In the bottom, corn and timothy are grown in large quantities ; on the ridge land, corn, wheat, oats, tobacco, potatoes, and all kinds of garden vegetables are produced in great abundance. The different kinds of wood are ash, beach, black oak, black walnut, cherry, cottonw®od, elm, maple, hickory, redbud, sugar tree, white oak, and white walnut.
Passage source: A History of Cooper County, Missouri, from the First Visit by White Men in February, 1804, to the Fifth Day of July, 1876, published 1876.
Machine-read from a century-old scan, so expect the errors a machine makes: misspelled names, dropped words, stray characters.
Fires near this place
18 since 2001Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 18 fires within 5 miles of Blackwater between 2001 and 2020, burning about 85 acres in total. 1 started naturally. 1 was recorded as arson. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a fire counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.
| Reported cause | Fires |
|---|---|
| Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 6 |
| Debris and open burning | 6 |
| Recreation and ceremony | 2 |
| Arson/incendiarism | 1 |
| Smoking | 1 |
| Equipment and vehicle use | 1 |
| Natural | 1 |
The most recent of them, most recent first, with the day each was reported and the service that recorded it.
| Date | Cause | Size | Reported by | Name on the report |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2 September 2018 | Equipment and vehicle use | under an acre | Missouri Department of Conservation | 177773-02729-09022018-0230 |
| 25 August 2018 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | Missouri Department of Conservation | 177774-02729-08252018-0247 |
| 23 August 2018 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | Missouri Department of Conservation | 177775-02729-08232018-0820 |
| 11 July 2018 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | Missouri Department of Conservation | 177776-02729-07112018-1050 |
| 9 April 2001 | Arson/incendiarism | 20 acres | Missouri Department of Conservation | not named |
| 22 April 2019 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | Missouri Department of Conservation | 179318-02729-04222019-1445 |
| 21 April 2019 | Debris and open burning | under an acre | Missouri Department of Conservation | 179320-02729-04212019-0835 |
| 20 April 2018 | Debris and open burning | 2.0 acres | Missouri Department of Conservation | 177777-02729-04202018-1215 |
Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:
Mines and quarries near this place
10 of 21 shownRegional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 21 workings within 5 miles of Blackwater: 19 past producers, 2 producers. 2 still produce. What was taken out: Stone, Crushed/Broken, Barium-Barite, Barium-Barite, Lead, Zinc, Barium-Barite, Lead. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a quarry counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.
| Where | Site | Commodity | Status | Recorded |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Scott Mine | Lead | Past Producer | ||
| Unknown - Lead Zinc | Lead, Zinc | Past Producer | ||
| Unknown - S+G | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Past Producer | ||
| Blackeagle Mine & Plant | Barium-Barite | Producer | ||
| Collins Diggings | Barium-Barite, Lead, Zinc | Past Producer | ||
| Marmaduke Diggings | Barium-Barite, Lead, Zinc | Past Producer | ||
| Mccauley-Widel | Barium-Barite, Lead | Producer | 1834, 1836 | |
| Poindexter Mine | Barium-Barite, Lead | Past Producer | ||
| Unknown - Barite | Barium-Barite | Past Producer | ||
| Blackwater Quarry | Stone, Crushed/Broken | Past Producer |
Storms near this place
12 since 1993Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Blackwater in 12 storm reports between 1993 and 2025: 6 hail, 2 flash flood, 2 thunderstorm wind, 1 tornado. No death or injury is recorded in these reports. Each account below is quoted exactly as the forecast office filed it, from the NOAA Storm Events Database, and each date opens the federal record of that event.
| When | Event | Place named | Harm | What the report says |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| March 2006 | Tornado (F0) | Blackwater | $5,000 | F0 tornado crossed from Pettis county into Cooper county at 1604 CST...3 miles south-southwest of Blackwater. The tornado moved northeast over rural areas...and dissipated 4 miles east-northeast of Blackwater at 1617 CST. The tornado crossed Interstate 70 near mile marker 88 and blew over a tractor trailer. This closed the west bound lanes of I-70 for a time. |
| April 1993 | Hail | Blackwater | $5,000 | no account filed |
| June 2025 | Thunderstorm Wind | Blackwater | - | Downed tree limbs and wires in the Blackwater area. |
| September 2025 | Thunderstorm Wind | Blackwater | - | Power pole downed north of Blackwater. |
| March 2023 | Hail | Blackwater | - | A supercell produced 1.25 hail in Blackwater in northwestern Cooper County. |
| March 2023 | Hail | Blackwater | - | A supercell produced 1 hail in just east of Nelson in northwestern Cooper County. |
| December 2015 | Flood | Blackwater | - | Several intersections across Cooper County were closed due to minor flooding. Route Z southbound 7 miles northwest of Pilot Grove was closed. Route NN 5 miles west of Pilot Grove was closed. And Route HH near Pilot Grove was closed. |
| June 2009 | Flash Flood | Blackwater | - | Water is covering area roads. |
| June 2007 | Flash Flood | Blackwater | - | Flash flooding was reported on area roads. |
| April 2006 | Hail | Blackwater | - | no account filed |
| April 2006 | Hail | Blackwater | - | no account filed |
| April 2001 | Hail | Blackwater | - | no account filed |
Nearest settlements
The eight closest, with where each one stands in the county. Distances are straight-line, computed from the Geographic Names Information System coordinates.
| Map | Place | Distance | Sheets |
|---|---|---|---|
| Corioli (historical) | 5.3 miles | 17 | |
| Chouteau Springs | 6.4 miles | 17 | |
| Shackleford Crossing | 6.5 miles | 18 | |
| Lamine | 6.6 miles | 18 | |
| Pilot Grove | 8.4 miles | 18 | |
| Hoffman | 9.7 miles | 18 | |
| Harriston | 10.3 miles | 18 | |
| Billingsville | 11.7 miles | 18 |
Elsewhere
Matched on this settlement's Geographic Names Information System number rather than its name, so it cannot be a different place of the same name in another state.
| Wikipedia article on Blackwater | An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied. |
| Wikidata item Q952998 | The structured record the population and elevation above come from. Public domain (CC0). |
Provenance
This settlement is recorded in the Geographic Names Information System as feature 714334. The sheet list is computed by point-in-boundary test against the United States Geological Survey's historical topographic inventory. Both are works of the United States government and carry no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105.
Wildfire. Short, Karen C. 2022. Spatial wildfire occurrence data for the United States, 1992-2020 [FPA_FOD_20221014]. 6th Edition. Fort Collins, CO: Forest Service Research Data Archive. https://doi.org/10.2737/RDS-2013-0009.6 Collected with United States Government funding and usable without additional permissions or fees.
Mines and quarries. USGS Mineral Resources Data System (MRDS) https://mrdata.usgs.gov/mrds/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105.
Storms. NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, Storm Events Database https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/stormevents/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105. Narratives are quoted verbatim from the National Weather Service report and are not edited or summarised.







