Emergency Crime Scene and Biohazard Cleanup in Rich Hill, MO

Rich Hill is a city in southern Bates County, Missouri, that is part of the Kansas City metropolitan area, and its longtime nickname is 'The Town That Coal Built.'

The name Rich Hill was chosen in 1871 by C. W. Ratekin, and the town was platted in May 1880, when the post office, doctor, merchant, and blacksmith of an older settlement two miles away moved to the new townsite.

Rich Hill boomed on coal: shaft mines and surface diggings opened by railroad-backed companies such as the Rich Hill Mining Company pushed the population to 4,053 by 1900, and the city at one time had nearly 5,000 people.

At its industrial peak, Rich Hill supported zinc and lead smelting works, machine shops, flour mills, and manufactures of vitrified brick and tile, served by both the Missouri Pacific and the Kansas City, Fort Scott and Memphis railroads.

Rich Hill's boomtown planners laid out unusually generous streets — Park Avenue, the main business street, was made 100 feet wide — with a commanding view over the Marais des Cygnes River valley.

The first mining era ended in 1906 as the mines played out, but mining around Rich Hill was renewed by Peabody Energy in the 1950s.

Rich Hill had 1,232 residents at the 2020 census — roughly a quarter of its coal-boom peak — and recent Census Bureau survey estimates count about 558 households with a median household income of about $47,000.

The Prairie View Stock Farm in Rich Hill was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2015.

About four miles north of present-day Rich Hill, the Battle of Island Mound was fought on October 28–29, 1862 — one of the first Civil War engagements in which Black soldiers fought for the Union.

Students in Rich Hill attend the Rich Hill R-IV School District, which includes Rich Hill High School, and the city hosts an annual Fourth of July celebration billed as one of the oldest and largest Independence Day events in Missouri.