The history of Strafford business is based on its proximity to transportation routes. Early immigrant routes, the Trail of Tears, commercial overland trade with St. Louis, and civil war era military traffic impacted the area before the founding of the town. The town of Strafford owes its founding and initial growth to the economic engine of the late 1800s, the railroad. However, its long-term survival and status today is the product of the automobile. Route 66 and its successor Interstate 44 have shaped the town to its present form.