The now extinct town of Middle Creek was located in the Belleview Precinct near the scenic Boone Cliffs (now the Boone Cliffs Nature Preserve). During the 19th century the thriving town included five mills, a distillery, a store, a post office and a Baptist church.

One of the leading citizens of Middle Creek was miller Thomas Zane Roberts, a talented woodworker whose workmanship graces some of Boone County's finest antebellum residences. His son, also named Thomas Zane Roberts, was a brilliant and eccentric farmer, teacher and inventor. The younger Roberts devised and built a remarkable solar clock based on celestial observations calculated in his backyard observatory.

Although the other buildings of Middle Creek are long gone, the Roberts house and mill still stand.

• Towns in Boone County