Biohazard and Crime Scene Remediation in Weston, MO

Weston is a city in Platte County, Missouri, founded in 1837 as the oldest settlement in the Platte Purchase of 1836.

Because it was the first town in the Platte Purchase, Weston was the farthest western settlement in the United States — the 'West Town' — until Texas joined the Union in 1845.

One account of the town's name credits Joseph Moore, who bought the land and had First Sergeant Tom Weston of the First Dragoons at Fort Leavenworth lay out the town plan.

The Lewis and Clark Expedition stopped at an island near the site of today's Weston city hall on their journey up the Missouri River.

Weston was a major jumping-off point for the Santa Fe Trail, the Oregon Trail, and the California Gold Rush, and William 'Buffalo Bill' Cody was once a resident of the town.

At its peak around 1855, Weston had about 5,000 people and was the second-largest port on the Missouri River, ahead of both Kansas City and St. Joseph, with more than 265 steamboats docking there in 1850 alone.

A flood in 1881 shifted the Missouri River into an old channel about two miles away, stranding Weston's port and shrinking the town.

The Weston Brewing Company was established in 1842 by German immigrant John Georgian and was one of the first lager beer breweries in the United States, aging its beer in five arched limestone cellars dug 55 feet underground.

Weston is home to the McCormick Distilling Company, founded in 1856 and described as the oldest whiskey distillery west of the Mississippi River and the oldest continuously operated distillery in the United States.

Before the crop was federally prohibited in 1937, Weston was the world's leading producer of industrial hemp, and Platte County was a leading producer of twist tobacco, growing about 2.8 million pounds a year.