Muscotah, an incorporated town in Atchison county, is located at the junction of Little Delaware creek and the Delaware river on the Missouri Pacific R. R. in the western part of the county. The name Muscotah means beautiful prairie. The old town of Muscotah, located about two miles northeast of the present town, was laid out by Dr. W. P. Badger and Maj. C. B. Keith in the spring of 1856. The survey was completed in the fall, and Mr. Keith opened the first store about a year later. In 1867 the Union Pacific railroad purchased the site of the new town from an Indian. The town was surveyed in the fall of that year, and Mr. Armstrong soon afterward opened a general store, which was followed by other business houses. A number of dwellings were built, a school was established and in the early '70s it was one of the prosperous towns of the county. It is a banking point for the surrounding country, has several general stores, a hotel, hardware and implement houses, blacksmith shop, several churches, a money order postoffice, express and telegraph offices. In 1910 its population was 491.