Phelps is an unincorporated community in Lawrence County, Missouri, United States. It lies along former U.S. Route 66 (Route 96) twenty-one miles east of Carthage.
Phelps dates back to the 1830s, a town on the old Carthage Road (later US 66). It was a fairly large town by the 1870s until a fire wiped out everything south of Carthage Road. It went through a building boom in 1926 with Carthage Road becoming Route 66. In 1955, US 66 was widened which razed all the business on the south side of the highway. Like other towns on the highway, the construction of Interstate 44 to the south hurt the town, though it remains a sizeable community. Josh Holloway, who portrayed the character Sawyer on the hit TV show LOST, lived in Phelps, MO for 2 years as a child and attended Mt. Vernon Middle School in Mount Vernon, Missouri[1].
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