Honey War
| Honey War | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
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| Belligerents | |||||||||
 Iowa
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 Missouri
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| Commanders and leaders | |||||||||
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Robert Lucas
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Lilburn Boggs
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| Strength | |||||||||
| Casualties and losses | |||||||||
| None | None | ||||||||
Coordinates: 40°35′N 93°28′W / 40.58°N 93.46°W
The Honey War was a bloodless territorial dispute in 1839 between Iowa, then Iowa Territory, and Missouri over their border.
The dispute over a 9.5-mile (15.3 km) wide strip running the entire length of the border, caused by unclear wording in the Missouri Constitution on boundaries, misunderstandings over the survey of the Louisiana Purchase, and a misreading of Native American treaties, was ultimately decided by the United States Supreme Court in Iowa's favor. The decision was to affirm a nearly 30-mile (48 km) jog in the nearly straight line border between extreme southeast Iowa and northeast Missouri at Keokuk, Iowa that is now Iowa's southernmost point.
Before the issue was settled, militias from both sides faced each other at the border, a Missouri sheriff collecting taxes in Iowa was incarcerated, and three trees containing beehives were cut down.
The Southern Boundary of Iowa
Early Wars (Iowa)--Iowa Pathways
The first major Native American treaties following the Louisiana Purchase in 1803 were the Treaty of St. Louis in 1804 in which the Sac and Fox ceded much of northeast Missouri as well as southern Wisconsin and northern Illinois and the Treaty of Fort Clark in 1808 in which the Osage Nation ceded most of Missouri and Arkansas.
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