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Augusta
"A Town For All Seasons" The town of Augusta
is located on the bluffs overlooking the Missouri River Valley on scenic
highway 94. The community traces it roots back to Leonard Harold, one of the
settlers that followed Daniel Boone to Missouri. Leonard purchased over 300
acres of government land in 1821 and grew tobacco and other crops on his
farm. Realizing that there was good access to the Missouri River from his
property he decided to he laid out the first streets and lots on a portion
of his farm in 1836 and called the town Mount Pleasant. The town grew largely
from the immigration of German Liberals who had supported the revolutions of
1830 and 1848. At least two-thirds of the German immigrants into St. Charles
County came from an area in northwest Germany and most tended to settle near
other immigrants who had been their neighbors in Germany. Of the immigrants
from Oldenburg most settled along the Missouri River between Augusta and
Dutzow. When the town applied for a post office in 1842 the residents found
that there was already a Mount Pleasant post office in Missouri and adopted
the name of Augusta. Although local tradition claims the name honors
Harold’s wife, records indicate that neither of his two wives was named
Augusta. By 1855, when Augusta
incorporated, the town had become a prosperous agricultural community and
river port. The town had also become a trading center and supported numerous
craftsmen, merchants, hotels, and wineries. Augusta’s role as a river port
ended in 1872 when a flood shifted the channel of the Missouri River. The
arrival of the Missouri, Kansas & Eastern Railroad in the early 1890s
helped replace the loss of river traffic. The Germans in St.
Charles County began making wine soon after their arrival and the vineyards
in the Augusta area had achieved notoriety by the 1850s. By the 1880s about
400 acres in St. Charles County were dedicated to vineyards and were
producing 100,000 gallons of wine annually. Over half of that acreage was in
the Augusta area and Augusta had 20 wine cellars. The favored grapes for
wine making were the Norton’s Virginia Seedling and the Concord. The wine
business in Missouri was dealt a severe blow when the Prohibition era began
with the passage of the 18th Amendment in 1919 and many of the grape growers
turned to other crops and the remaining vines were killed by pesticides.  The
vineyards (photo left) began to revive in the late 1960s and Highway 94 has become known
as the Weinstrasse, or "The Wine Road." Today Augusta’s economy
caters to visitors and offers antique shops, small boutiques, restaurants,
and bed and breakfast inns. Katy Trail State Park, built on the former
corridor of the Missouri-Kansas-Texas (MKT) Railroad (better known as the
Katy) makes a stop at Augusta. This unique and popular state park
consists of a bike trail that
stretches nearly across the state. Other nearby attractions include the Lewis and Clark National
Historic Trail, the Daniel Boone Home, and Klondike Park.
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