Plattsburg

Some web sites relating to the Plattsburg area... To add your web link to this listing below, email us at gpc@northwestmissouri.com
Plattsburg Apple Blossom Inn Pat's Auto Sales City of Plattsburg Plattsburg Airpark Plattsburg History Apple Blossom Inn Plattsburg Lumber	Today's weather in Plattsburg, MO

Unlike most county seat towns throughout Northwest Missouri, Plattsburg features a modern courthouse built in 1975. This brick structure is the county's fourth, mostly financed by a $700,000 bond. A life-size metal statue of David Rice Atchison is prominently featured at the courthouse entrance.

Atchison was, according to some, the 12th U.S. president. President elect Zachary Taylor refused to be inaugurated on a Sunday for religious reasons, thereby leaving no constitutional president or vice president in office. Atchison, then president of the U.S. Senate, was U.S. president pro tempore for 35 hours: from midnight on March 3, 1849, to 11 a.m. on March 5. He helped establish Plattsburg and the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railroad. He is the namesake of Atchison County and Atchison, Kans. Atchison is buried at Green Lawn Cemetery; inquire locally; statue at courthouse.

Plattsburg was platted in 1833 as county seat of newly organized Clinton County. The town was named Concord by the court, which changed the name in 1834 (for reasons unknown) to Springfield. Because of an existing Springfield, the state legislature changed the name in 1835 to Plattsburg(h), honoring Plattsburgh, Clinton County, N.Y., on the Sarnac River, whose name is derived from Dutch (plat, meaning flat or little current). An 1830s crossroads trading center and the location of a U.S. land office from 1843 to 1859, Plattsburg became a railroad center. Depots were built by branch lines of the St. Louis, Kansas City & Northern and the Hannibal & St. Joseph Railroads in 1871.

The Clinton County Museum in Plattsburg is Queen Anne architecture with 19th-century furnishings. Exhibits include a 350-million-year-old fossil (ammonite) and Civil War and local historical items. The Ellis House is Folk Victorian (c. 1900) built by J. Breckenridge Ellis (1870-1950), author of 26 books and longtime president of the Missouri=s Writers Guild. He lived in the one-story frame house with bay windows and a cupola. The summerhouse, where he entertained, remains.