Biohazard Cleanup Near North Centerville Centerville, MO

Centerville is a small city and the county seat of Reynolds County, Missouri, set along the West Fork of the Black River in the Ozark foothills.

Centerville was named for its position near the geographic center of Reynolds County, and it was spelled 'Centreville' until about 1896.

A post office called Centreville was established in 1846, and the community was in existence by 1852 at the latest.

Centerville was not Reynolds County's first seat — that honor belonged to Lesterville — but after the courthouse at Lesterville burned during the Civil War, the seat was moved to Centerville.

The present Reynolds County Courthouse in Centerville was built in 1872 at a cost of $8,000, after earlier courthouses were lost to fire in 1863 and again in 1871.

The 2020 census counted 167 people in Centerville, and the 2010 census had counted 191 people living in 78 households — despite being the county seat, Centerville is smaller than Ellington, the county's largest city.

The West Fork Mine, a lead-zinc-silver-copper mine developed by ASARCO near Centerville, reached full production of about 3,400 tons of ore per day and revived the town's economy when it opened in the late 1980s.

Reynolds County around Centerville holds Johnson's Shut-Ins State Park, where the East Fork of the Black River squeezes through some of the oldest exposed rock in Missouri, and large parts of the surrounding county lie within the Mark Twain National Forest.