The Katy Trail State Park runs through Defiance near the Missouri River. This was the final home of frontiersman Daniel Boone, who settled in the Femme Osage Valley in 1799 after receiving a Spanish land grant. The hamlet was not named during Boone's life.
The community was named in the late 1800s when the Katy Railroad arrived. Initially, the town was to be called Parsons, after the landowner. Because there was already a Parsons, Kansas on the Katy line, settlers considered other names, including Missouriton and Bluff City, before deciding on Defiance because of the hamlet's defiance of rival Matson to get a station on the line.[5]
Characteristics
From here west to Marthasville are numerous wineries; SH 94 is sometimes called the "Missouri Weinstrasse". The area is part of the Missouri Rhineland, where vineyards are cultivated on both sides of the Missouri River.
