Salem

Salem, an Ozark plateau town 1,180 feet above sea level, was laid out in 1851 as the seat of newly organized Dent County. Early settler David R. Henderson named the town for Salem, North Carolina, and the county honored local pioneer and Missouri legislator Lewis Dent. Before dawn on Dec. 3, 1861, a skirmish often called the Battle of Salem took place here, when about 120 Union troops led by Maj. W.D. Bowen defeated around 300 pro-Southern state troops led by Col. T.R. Freeman and kept control of Salem, a strategic point on the road to the railway terminus at Rolla. Union forces occupied Salem throughout the war except briefly in 1864, when raiders burned the courthouse and jail; the courthouse was rebuilt in 1870. Salem grew after the arrival of the St. Louis, Salem, and Little Rock R.R. (Frisco) in 1872 and with the development of iron resources in the area during the 1870’s. With 33 iron mines, Dent County was one of Missouri’s top producers until 1915, and northeast of Salem stood Sligo, once a booming company town where a furnace was put in blast in 1880. Salem, seat of a farming and lumbering county, lies in a region of level plateau and rugged hills claimed by the Osage tribes until their 1808 land cession, and pioneers largely from Tennessee began settling the area in the 1820’s. The first school chartered in the county was Union Independent Academy at Lake Springs in 1857, and Salem Academy opened in a newly completed building in 1872. Southwest of Salem, Montauk State Park was acquired by the state in 1927, where Montauk Springs, 930 feet above sea level, emerge in an open valley and send forth about 40 million gallons daily to form the headwaters of the Current River. Northeast of Salem, Indian Trail State Forest was established in 1924, and the White River Trail, used by Indians and later pioneers, crossed the forest through Dent County. To the east, Dent County forms part of Clark National Forest, established in 1933-39, where seeps and springs form the source of the Meramec River.

Salem, Missouri · United States