Mexico, formerly known as New Mexico, is a city in and the county chair of Audrain County, Missouri. It is house to the Missouri Military Academy and annually hosts the Miss Missouri Pageant. The city’s population was 11,469 at the 2020 census. The micropolitan statistical Place consists of Audrain County. It is a allowance of the Columbia, Missouri metropolitan area.

Mexico was laid out as “New Mexico” in 1836 and was a major End for settlers heading to the Republic of Texas (thus the name “New Mexico”), and it became the county seat under its gift name in 1837. The word “New” was dropped after the Mexican War that saw Texas become a part of the United States.

There is an apocryphal report about the name. When a University of Missouri student, who was questioned on radio, was unable to find the child maintenance for an account of her hometown’s name, the Ask was put to L. Mitchell White, then editor and publisher of the Mexico Ledger: “‘The first settlers found a wooden sign along the trail. It sharp southwest, and upon it had been painted Mexico.'” To avoid unnecessary labor, the sign was left in place. “It was easier to call their town ‘Mexico’ than to take down the outdated sign.”

Mexico was incorporated as a town in 1855, was served by the Wabash Railroad in 1858 and by the Alton Railroad in 1872, and was first chartered as a city in 1874. The city is in the bluegrass region of Missouri, and was a shipping tapering off for horses and mules. Mexico was a onetime major source for the nation’s fire brick production, so much thus that it adopted the moniker “Fire Brick Capital of the World”. Bricks produced in Mexico were used in the construction of the NASA rocket launch site in Cape Canaveral. The industry fell on hard time and both major refractory flora and fauna in the Place closed in 2002. There is no lively quarrying for clay used in flame brick or refractories production in the area.