Abandoned Towns
A two-story church with a white columned portico and a domed roof beside a grain bin, under a blue sky

Railroad and road town

Old Pattonsburg

A railroad town on the Grand River that flooded again and again, until the flood of 1993 finished it. The town moved uphill, and the old streets now run between soybean fields.

40°02′48″N 94°08′09″W · ≈770 ft

Photo: SamuelNelsonGISP, Wikimedia Commons, CC0

Private land

The old town site is farmland leased by the local government, with a few private homes and buildings. Nothing here is set up for visitors: see it from Route Z and the public streets, and keep off fields and yards. The bottoms still flood: the park and Route Z were under water on June 30, 2017.

Overview

A river town that finally moved

The Christian Church in Old Pattonsburg, July 2026
The Christian Church in Old Pattonsburg, July 2026 · Photo: SamuelNelsonGISP, Wikimedia Commons, CC0

Pattonsburg has moved before. The first settlement grew up around Matthew Patton's water mill on Big Creek in the 1840s. When the railroad came through in 1871 and 1872 it stopped short of the town, and the businessmen moved to the tracks. The new town, platted as Elm Flat and incorporated in 1877, kept the Pattonsburg name. That railroad town is the one now called Old Pattonsburg.

It sat on the bottoms of the Grand River, and the river kept coming in. A fire took most of the business district in 1895, and in 1909 the Grand crested at 40 feet and put the town under water. Gene Walker, who sat on the town council in 1993, told the Omaha station WOWT that a big flood came about every ten years. The town still grew, to 1,068 people in 1920, and then slowly shrank.

In July 1993 the river flooded the town twice. FEMA bought out the whole place, appraising its homes at about $12 million, and in July 1994 the move to higher ground was approved. How far depends on the source: Wikipedia says four miles north, KCUR "a mile or so", WOWT "a few miles" and a 1997 church news story three. Many families moved their houses. The Methodist church was too big to move and was to be razed. Most of what stayed behind came down. KCUR found the townsite in soybean fields in 2013, leased to farmers, with a few flood-damaged houses standing empty and a farm cooperative where the bank and hardware store had been. Before that, Ang Lee used the empty street front as a set for his film Ride with the Devil.

Video

Fields where the town stood

A dashboard camera drives the roads through the old townsite with the corn standing dry in the fields: long stretches of cropland where the streets were, a new concrete bridge, a crossroads with farm equipment, a few houses and outbuildings and passing pickup trucks. Everything off the road is leased farmland or private property; the video stays on the public road.

Play “Driving Through Old Pattonsburg, Missouri” from YouTube
“Driving Through Old Pattonsburg, Missouri”, by gatorpics09 on YouTube. The player loads from YouTube when you press play.

Timeline

Mill, railroad, floods and buyout

The first sheet of the Sanborn fire insurance map of Pattonsburg, May 1916, with corrections to 1931: the public school, the Baptist church, the high school and the railroad depot
The first sheet of the Sanborn fire insurance map of Pattonsburg, May 1916, with corrections to 1931: the public school, the Baptist church, the high school and the railroad depot · Photo: Unknown author, Wikimedia Commons, Public domain
  1. Matthew Patton builds the first water mill in Benton Township on Big Creek. The settlement around it takes his name.
  2. A railroad reaches the county. Instead of running through Pattonsburg, it stops at Big Creek, and the town's businessmen move to the tracks. The 1922 county history says "soon the old town was deserted."
  3. The new town on the railroad, platted as Elm Flat for its elm trees, is incorporated. It keeps the Pattonsburg name.
  4. Population 532.
  5. Fire destroys most of the business district, a loss of more than $50,000.
  6. The Grand River crests at 40 feet, its highest recorded at Pattonsburg. The town goes under water except a few houses in the Highland addition.
  7. Population 1,068, the town's peak.
  8. Another big flood; the river crests at 34.25 feet on June 1.
  9. The Great Flood. The town floods twice; the river crests at 36.60 feet on July 24, and one family finds up to four feet of water in its home.
  10. FEMA buys out the town, offering about $12 million for its homes. The move is approved in July 1994. Residents move their houses to higher ground a few miles north, and the Methodist congregation builds a new church there. Most of what is left behind is torn down.
  11. KCUR finds the old town site in soybean fields, rented to farmers, with a few flood-damaged homes standing empty.
  12. Floodwater covers the park in Old Pattonsburg and Route Z.
  13. Lyle Warford, one of the few who stayed, is flooded again.
  14. A photo shows the Christian Church still standing in the old town.

What's left

Streets between the fields

The streets are still there. Route Z runs into the old town as 2nd Street, and today's USGS map labels 1st, 3rd and 4th Streets, Dilley, Lake, Elm and Locust around it. On the aerial photo most blocks are fields, with scattered trees, a few buildings and a large farm cooperative on the north side.

The Christian Church still stands, with a columned portico, a domed roof and a grain bin beside it. A photo from July 18, 2026, shows it in good repair. Some people never left: KCUR in 2013 visited Lyle and Donna Warford, who turned down the buyout and stayed in their house in the floodplain, and WOWT found Lyle Warford still there in 2020. Treat every standing house as private.

The river is still the landlord here. The Daviess County Historical Society reported the park in Old Pattonsburg and Route Z under water on June 30, 2017. The 1984 sheet below shows the town before the flood: blocks of houses south of Big Creek, a park and water wells, with US 69 to the east.

  • The street grid, along Route Z (2nd Street)
  • The Christian Church
  • A few private houses
  • A farm cooperative where the business district was
  • The park
USGS topographic map of Old Pattonsburg, with Route Z, the old streets, US 69 and Big Creek
USGS The National Map, topo. The old streets on Route Z, labeled Old Pattonsburg, with US 69 to the east and Big Creek curving across the top.
Aerial view of a street grid with fields between the roads and a farm cooperative at the top
Aerial imagery, same area. Most blocks are now fields. The farm cooperative stands on the north side.

Historic maps

Old Pattonsburg on USGS maps, 1925–1984

Crops from the USGS Historical Topographic Map Collection, centered on the townsite. Each sheet shows what surveyors mapped that year; compare them with today's topo and aerial on this page.

USGS topographic map around Old Pattonsburg, 1925
Pattonsburg sheet, 1925, 1:62,500 · U.S. Geological Survey, public domain · catalog record

Map & directions

Getting there

Bethany, the Harrison County seat, is the nearest city with full services; the new town of Pattonsburg is a few miles north of the site. From Kansas City, take I-35 north and US 69 east. Route Z is the old town's main street.

USGS topographic map of I-35 and US 69 from Bethany to Old Pattonsburg, with routes drawn on it

Base map: USGS The National Map (public domain). Routes: OSRM on © OpenStreetMap contributors data (ODbL), computed October 2026. Times assume dry roads.

From downtown Bethany18.6 miabout 23 min
  1. From downtown Bethany, take South 25th Street (US 69).0.2 mi
  2. Turn left on Miller Street (US 136).0.7 mi
  3. Take I-35 south.14.2 mi
  4. Leave I-35 and turn right on Route C.0.8 mi
  5. Turn left on US 69.2.3 mi
  6. Turn right on 2nd Street (Route Z) into the old town.0.4 mi
Google Maps directionsApple MapsOpenStreetMap

Road and safety notes

  • Route Z and US 69 in the bottoms can flood. The Daviess County Historical Society reported both Route Z and US 69 under water in the June 2017 flood.
  • There are no services in the old town.

Photos

Old Pattonsburg in photos

Visitor reports

Been to Old Pattonsburg?

Been there lately? Tell the next visitor what you found: whether you could get in, the state of the road and what's still standing. Photos are welcome. We read every report before it appears here.

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Nearby

Other sites near Old Pattonsburg

Straight-line distance from the townsite to other mapped sites in our Missouri index.

Sources

Sources and credits

  1. Wikipedia, "Old Pattonsburg, Missouri", retrieved October 2026: the original site of Pattonsburg, devastated by the 1993 Grand River flood; the GNIS coordinates.
  2. Wikipedia, "Pattonsburg, Missouri", retrieved October 2026: the new town four miles north on higher ground; the census counts of 1890 and 1920.
  3. John C. Leopard, History of Daviess and Gentry Counties, Missouri (Historical Pub. Co., 1922), pp. 86–90, as transcribed online: Matthew Patton's mill about 1845, the railroad of 1871–72 and the move, Elm Flat and its 1877 incorporation, the 1895 fire, the 1909 flood.
  4. Laura Ziegler, "20 Years Later: A Look Back At The Floods Of 1993," KCUR, July 22, 2013: the two floods of July 1993, up to four feet of water in the Warfords' home, the new town a mile or so away, the FEMA buyout and $12 million appraisal, the soybean fields, the empty houses, the farm cooperative, the Warfords, the film.
  5. Linda Bloom, United Methodist News Service, April 17, 1997: the floods of 1993 and 1995, the move about three miles, the vacant lots and boarded-up buildings, the Methodist church to be razed.
  6. Tara Campbell, WOWT, January 31, 2020: the flood every ten years or so (Gene Walker), the move approved in July 1994 at upwards of $11 million, the 350 residents, Lyle Warford flooded again in 2019, Ride with the Devil.
  7. Daviess County Historical Society, "2017 Flood Nearly Matches List of Historic Floods": the Grand River crests at Pattonsburg (1909, 1947, 1993 and others) and the park and Route Z under water on June 30, 2017.
  8. SamuelNelsonGISP, "Christian Church in Old Pattonsburg," Wikimedia Commons, photographed July 18, 2026: the church standing (the newest dated report).
  9. Sanborn Map Company, Pattonsburg, sheet 1, May 1916 with 1931 corrections, via Wikimedia Commons (public domain).
  10. Historic maps: USGS Pattonsburg sheets of 1925, 1946 and 1984. Elevation: USGS 3D Elevation Program point query. Routes: OSRM on OpenStreetMap data, October 2026.
  11. gatorpics09, "Driving Through Old Pattonsburg, Missouri", YouTube, posted May 8, 2024: a drive through the townsite (the video on this page); no captions, checked against its storyboard frames.

Photo and map credits