Cameron

History

In 1854, Samuel McCorkle platted the town of Somerville. When the Hannibal and St. Joseph Railroad (a line whose founders included the father of Mark Twain and which was to deliver the first mail of the Pony Express) proposed coming through the area, the line claimed the area around Somerville was too steep for the rail, so he platted a new community 1.5 miles to the west in what is now Downtown Cameron just one year after the founding of Sommerville in 1855 . Since the Hannibal and St.Joseph Railroad Company could not come through Sommerville McCorkle had Judge Stokes and his son Edmund D. Stokes move all the buildings from Sommerville to the new town of Cameron that was named for the maiden name of his wife, Malinda Cameron. McCorkle Park is still Cameron's centerpiece park. During the 1860s, as fierce competition raged for the starting point of the First transcontinental railroad, there was competition to get the Hannibal & St. Joseph (which at the time was the farthest west railroad connected to the main rail network) to cross the Missouri River. Omaha, Nebraska was to win the fight when the Union Pacific started the railroad west from there. However, there was no bridge connecting it to the rest of the network. Kansas City, Missouri was able to convince the railroad to bypass its rivals in St. Joseph, Leavenworth, Kansas, Atchison, Kansas and Parkville, Missouri to create the "Cameron Branch" of the railroad. The construction of the Hannibal Bridge in Kansas City (which was to beat Omaha in any bids to cross the Missouri) was to propel that city into being the dominant city in the region. Cameron was to enjoy a surge in its population because of the cutoff, with its population growing from 100 in 1859 to 3,000. Cameron was a college town from 1883 until…

Geography

According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of , of which is land and is water. More than two thirds of the community is in Clinton County, south of NE Platte/8th Street/County Road 56. This area includes the original olde town center, Cameron High School and Veterans Home. The area north of the street in DeKalb includes the Crossroads Correctional Center and Western Missouri Correctional Center, and the shopping centers next to U.S. 36. In addition, portions of the community stretch east to the Caldwell County line. The north–south-east division creates an unusual street grid naming system in which some streets in the northern part of Cameron in DeKalb follow that county's naming structure of Southeast Rogers Road, Southeast Summit Road, Southeast Pence Road, etc. while roads in the south of Cameron in northern Clinton County have road names of Northeast 358th Street, Northeast 348th Street, etc. These latter street names and directions represent a continuation of the street system for Kansas City. With Caldwell County on the east side of Cameron, that means that street name extensions in Caldwell County on the far east side have a prefix of Northwest such as Northwest Old Highway 36. In one instance just outside the city limits, Southeast Oregon Road in Dekalb County becomes Northwest Oregon Road in Caldwell County when heading east from Cameron. Cameron experiences a humid continental climate, with cold and snowy winters and hot and humid summers. Extreme weather, such as thunderstorms and tornadoes, can and have occurred in Cameron. Snow falls during the winter months, while late spring and early summer are the wettest time of the year.

Race & ethnicity

Most-observed species

• Blue Jay

  Cyanocitta cristata (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  532
• Turkey Vulture

  Cathartes aura (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  509
• Northern Cardinal

  Cardinalis cardinalis (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  486
• American Robin

  Turdus migratorius Linnaeus, 1766 · Aves
  452
• Red-bellied Woodpecker

  Melanerpes carolinus (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  411
• Red-tailed Hawk

  Buteo jamaicensis (Gmelin, 1788) · Aves
  339
• Tufted Titmouse

  Baeolophus bicolor (Linnaeus, 1766) · Aves
  332
• American Crow

  Corvus brachyrhynchos C.L.Brehm, 1822 · Aves
  328

Most recent

• M 2.53 — 2025-07-15
  3 km W of Hale, Missouri
• M 3.5 — 2024-03-15
  2 km NE of Ferrelview, Missouri
• M 2.6 — 2018-07-20
  1 km WNW of Saint Joseph, Missouri
• M 3.1 — 2007-03-23
  5 km N of Nortonville, Kansas