Melva

Melva was a small community in southern Taney County, Missouri, situated on the east bank of Turkey Creek along the Missouri Pacific Railroad, south of Hollister. Its existence came to a tragic end on March 11, 1920, when a tornado tore through the area and killed 11 people, nine of them children, effectively wiping the town from the map.

Today Melva is classified by the GNIS as a populated place, though nothing of a functioning community remains. Visitors will find little more than a rural landscape along Turkey Creek, with no preserved structures or formal historic markers noted. It is a destination primarily for those drawn to the somber history of the site rather than any developed amenity.