Racine, Missouri

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Racine is an unincorporated community in Newton County, Missouri. It is located along the Frisco RR tracks between Neosho and Seneca, Mo in Lost Creek Valley. Racine is on Route 86 about 6 miles west of Neosho and ten miles south of Joplin and about 5 miles northeast of Seneca and the Oklahoma state line. Some homes, a post office, a fire station, and a couple of businesses are located here.

Many of the original settlers who arrived before the Civil War are buried in Burkhardt Cemetery just northeast of town at the junction of what is now known as Juniper and Jasmine Drives. The old joke was that when you saw someone in town you didn't recognize you would greet them: "Hello, Mr Gilstrap!" If the response was not a smile, you responded , "Oh excuse me Mr Buzzard."

Due to its proximity to many of the back-roads into the "dry state" of Oklahoma, illegal alcohol and low-tax tobacco was bootlegged through this part of Missouri up to the 1960s.

There are several churches despite the small size of the town. And a rich heritage of christianity can be found still today. There is one Apostolic Church and two Christian churches.