Dent County, Missouri

Dent County is a county in the Ozarks of southern Missouri. Officially organized on February 10, 1851, it was named for Lewis Dent, a pioneer to and state representative from the region. At the 2010 census, the county had a population of 15,657. Salem is the county seat and the largest city.

History[edit]

The Dent County area was first explored by the American geographer Henry Rowe Schoolcraft, who in 1818 conducted a small expedition from Potosi, Missouri to the vicinity of present-day Springfield, during which he passed along the upper reaches of the Current River in what are now Dent and Shannon Counties. As far as is known, the first settler in the region was George Cole, who cleared a farm along the Meramec River in 1828 on the site of the later settlement of Stone Hill. Most early settlement was likewise along the Meramec or two small nearby tributaries, Spring Creek and Dry Fork. Some members of the Cherokee tribe stayed in the area as well, during and after the Trail of Tears in the late 1830s.

In 1851, the Missouri legislature created a new county from territory formerly belonging to Crawford and Shannon Counties. It was named for Lewis Dent, who had moved there from Virginia around 1835 and who served as a state representative from the area. Officials for the new county originally met at a farmhouse belonging to the Bressie family, but the town of Salem was made the permanent county seat shortly after its settlement in 1852. As was the case in much of Missouri, the local courthouse was burned during the Civil War; a replacement, built in the Victorian style, was completed in 1870 and is now on the National Register of Historic Places.^[1]

Dent County had significant deposits of iron ore, and after the opening of a major blast furnace at Sligo in 1880, its economy boomed; for a time, it was producing as much as 100 tons of pig iron a day, while the cutting and processing of the Ozark forests of pine and oak made it a leading supplier of railroad ties, barrels, and other lumber-related goods. These and other industries declined after the early 20th century, but the county suffered less in its economy and its population levels than some of its neighbors. Its banks remained stable during the Great Depression, unlike many others, and it was home to a number of clothing factories in the decades after World War II. Today, the production of machinery related to food delivery is the most important activity in the county.

In recent years, Dent County attracted national attention on two occasions: first, in 2012–13, concerning accusations of abuse of a dog impounded by the city of Salem;^[2] and again in July 2015, when the county commissioners voted unanimously to lower all flags to half staff on the 26th of every month for a year, to protest the Supreme Court's imposing of gay marriage on the country, though they later reversed this decision.^[3]

Geography[edit]

Dent County lies in the Ozarks Plateau of south-central Missouri, immediately west of the St. Francois Mountains and the so-called "Lead Belt." It is generally rectangular in shape, though with some irregularities on its western and especially its eastern ends. It is bordered on the east by Iron County, on the southeast by Reynolds County, on the south by Shannon County, on the southwest by Texas County, on the northwest by Phelps County, and on the north and northeast by Crawford County.

The county has a total area of 754.51 square miles, including 752.79 of land and 1.72 of water.^[4] Except for some more rugged regions in the east and southeast, most of the county is relatively level, belonging to a broad subsection of the Ozarks known as the "Salem Plateau." It lies along the boundary separating the watersheds of the Missouri River to the north and the Arkansas River to the south.^[5] The highest point in the county is an unnamed peak in the east near the border with Reynolds County, at 1,461 feet above sea level, while the lowest point, about 850 feet, is along the Current River at the border with Shannon County in the south.^[6]

The chief waterways in the county, the Current and Meramec Rivers, both have their sources within its boundaries. The Current rises from Montauk Springs in the southwest and from there flows generally southeast into Arkansas; the Meramec originates in the east near the Reynolds County line and from there flows north and then east into the Mississippi River south of St. Louis.

The four major highways in the county all converge near its center at Salem. Missouri State Highway 19 crosses the county from north to south, with Highway 68 joining it north of Salem (its southern terminus) then diverging to go northwest into Phelps County; State Highway 32 runs through the county from west to east, while Highway 72 joins it west of Salem before diverging southeast toward Bunker.

Demographics[edit]

At the 2010 census, Dent County had a total population of 15,657, with 6,338 households and 4,366 families; this represented a moderate increase from its 2000 population of 14,927. The population density was 20.8 per square mile. There were 7,285 housing units, or about 9.7 per square mile. The racial makeup of the county was about 96.63% White, 0.35% African-American, 0.86% Native American, 0.26% Asian, 0.04% Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander, 0.21% from some other race, and 1.64% from two or more races. Hispanics of any race were 0.95% of the population.^[7]

The median age in the county was 43 years. 23.32% of the population was under the age of 18, 7.36% was between the ages of 18 and 24, 22.00% was between the ages of 25 and 44, 28.31% was between the ages of 45 and 64, and 19.01% was 65 years old or older. The sex ratio was 49.6% male, 50.4% female.^[8]

As of 2018, the median household income in the county was $39,916, and the median family income was $51,125. Males had a median income of $36,776 versus $31,736 for females. The unemployment rate was 6.4%. The per capita income was $22,581. About 21.0% of the population was below the poverty line, including 30.9% of those under the age of 18 and 13.3% of those 65 years old or older.^[9]

Communities[edit]

Dent County is home to two incorporated cities:

• Bunker (partly in Reynolds County)
• Salem (county seat)

Government[edit]

Local government in Dent County is provided by the elected officials. At present, a majority of these positions are held by members of the Republican party.^[10]

Countywide official	Name	Party
Assessor	Jamie Homeyer	Republican
Circuit Clerk	Becky Goforth Swiney	Democratic
County Clerk	Angie Curley	Democratic
Collector	Shannon VanKirk	Republican
Commissioner (presiding)	Darrell Skiles	Republican
Commissioner (District 1)	Wes Mobray	Republican
Commissioner (District 2)	Gary Larson	Republican
Coroner	Ben Pursifull	Republican
Prosecuting Attorney	Andrew Curley	Republican
Public Administrator	Sherida Cook	Republican
Recorder	Cindy Edwards-Ard	Republican
Sheriff	Bob Wells	Republican
Surveyor	Craig Ruble	Democratic
Treasurer	Denita Williams	Republican

At the state level, all of Shannon County is part of the 143rd District in the Missouri House of Representatives, which also includes all of Oregon and Shannon Counties and part of Reynolds County. It is currently represented by Ron Copeland (R-Salem), who was elected to his first term in November 2020 without opposition.

In the Missouri State Senate, Dent County is part of the 16th District, which also includes Camden, Crawford, Phelps, and Pulaski Counties. It is currently represented by Justin Dan Brown (R-Rolla), who was re-elected in November 2018, defeating Democratic candidate Ryan Dillon.

Candidate	Party	Votes	Vote Percentage
Justin Dan Brown	Republican	42,382	70.077%
Ryan Dillon	Democratic	18,097	29.923%

Brown somewhat overperformed his overall total in Dent County, winning 4,508 votes to 1,445 for Dillon.

At the federal level, Dent County is part of Missouri's 8th Congressional District, which includes most of southeast and south-central Missouri. It is represented by Jason Smith (R-Salem), who won re-election in November 2020, defeating Democrat Kathy Ellis.

Candidate	Party	Votes	Vote Percentage
Jason Smith	Republican	253,811	76.86%
Kathy Ellis	Democratic	70,561	21.367%
Tom Schmitz	Libertarian	5,854	1.773%

Smith significantly overperformed his average margin in Dent County, winning 83.107% of the vote.^[11]

Political Culture

As the above numbers indicate, despite occasionally voting Democratic on the local level, Dent County is a solidly Republican county at the state and national level. Though it generally supported Democratic candidates for much of the 20th century, it steadily trended toward the GOP from the 1960s on, and the last Democratic presidential nominee to win the county was Bill Clinton in 1992. In 2016, Donald Trump carried the county with 75.97% of the vote, increasing his total to 83.83% in the 2020 election.^[12]

Like much of southern Missouri, Dent County can be included within the Bible Belt, combining social conservatism with economic populism. In 2004, it voted overwhelmingly in favor of Constitutional Amendment 2, which recognized marriage as between a man and a woman only—the measure passed in Dent County with 85.93% support; following the Supreme Court's imposition of gay marriage on the country in 2015, the county commission made a short-lived attempt to lower official flags in mourning. In 2006, while the state narrowly passed an amendment to fund embryonic stem-cell research, the county decisively defeated the measure with 66.49% voting against. At the same time, it often supports economic measures that appear to favor the working and middle class, though less strongly than some other areas. In the November 2006 election, the county, like the state, supported a proposed increase in the state minimum wage, with 74.62% voting in favor, but in November 2018, a similar measure (which passed the state at large) was narrowly defeated, with 53.55% voting against. These results generally align with the rest of southern Missouri.^[13]

References[edit]