The town of Tightwad has a population of 69 according to the sign and takes its name from a Scrooge-like mythical character who stars in at least four legends.
The most popular tale—the one that locals tell over and over—pegs him as a watermelon farmer who lived many more than 75 years ago (that’s the most concrete dating locals could do). Back then, Tightwad was Edgewood.
One day an Edgewood postmaster asked the farmer to set aside one watermelon, which the postmaster intended to pick up after his route. The farmer agreed. But when the postmaster returned, the melon had vanished, taken by a customer who had offered 50 cents more.
“Tightwad!” the postmaster called the farmer.
Some say he repeated “Tightwad!” every day thereafter.
Postmasters have a history of sharp tongues. Benjamin Franklin, Abraham Lincoln, Harry Truman, and William Faulkner all served as postmasters. In the early days of the United States, postmasters could freely submit place-name suggestions to the government.
Names had to be short, easy to read and write, and not copycats of other places in the state, according to Robert Lee Ramsay’s Our Storehouse of Missouri Place Names.
So the fruitless mailman suggested Edgewood’s new name: Tightwad.
***I suggest you pull off 7 Hwy onto the deadend road to park before looking for this cache a few steps away***.