West Plains was so named because the settlement was on a prairie in a westerly direction from the nearest town, Thomasville.

[8] The location of West Plains led to nearly constant conflict due to the proximity to what was then the border between the Union and Confederacy.

No major battles occurred in West Plains or Howell County, but much of the devastation came from constant guerrilla warfare.

An overwhelming majority of Howell County residents chose to flee, and over 90% of the population had fled by the time the war was over.

South Carolina native, and West Plains resident, William Monks, was a scout for the "North" (Union army) and recounted his tales of the Civil War in his 1907 book "A History of Southern Missouri and Northern Arkansas."

The first bank to fail in West Plains was the Farmers Savings Bank in West Plains circa 1926, and the lack of the present-day Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation meant that some people initially lost whatever wealth was deposited.

On April 13, 1928,[12] for reasons still unknown, a violent explosion occurred in downtown West Plains.

About 60 people had gathered in the Bond Dance Hall, which was on the second floor of a building on East Main Street.

The explosion also damaged the nearby Howell County Courthouse so badly that it was vacated and left until late 1933, when it was demolished by the Civil Works Administration.

Twenty of those killed were never positively identified, but buried in a mass grave at Oak Lawn Cemetery in the southeast part of town.

The most widely accepted theory is that the explosion somehow originated from leaking gasoline in a garage owned by J. W. Wiser, which happened to be on the floor below.

In addition, the late West Plains native Robert Neathery explained in his 1994 book, West Plains As I Knew It, that a truck containing dynamite parked in the garage may have been the cause, indirectly part of a crime in which someone shot Wiser and set a fire to cover up the crime, and the dynamite exploded.

In 1954, following Brown v. Board of Education, city leaders voted unanimously to desegregate the school system.

A local couple, Crockett and Tonya Oaks III, bought the building in 2023 and restored it, partnering with the Missouri Historical Society and Missouri History Museum and commissioning art from local artist Heather Legler and Nigerian muralist Dr. Bolaji Ogunwo.

[18] On the evening of April 2, 1982, a long-track F4 tornado struck the West Plains area, beginning in Ozark County and ending near what was the airport at the time.

[19][20] The downtown area of West Plains, namely Court Square, was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on July 17, 2003.

[23] West Plains is characterized by four distinct seasons and is located near the northern border of a humid subtropical climate (Cfa), as defined by the Köppen climate classification system; as such, West Plains tends to be exceptionally humid in the late summer.

Topliff took the place of Jack Pahlmann, who retired alongside former City Administrator Tom Stehn in 2021.

In addition, some parts of the immediate area surrounding West Plains are covered by rural schools.

Private education is also provided in the West Plains area, primarily by religious institutions.

[32] The West Plains area is served by U.S. Route 63, which runs along the western and southern edges of the city.

U.S. 63 is a four-lane expressway from the 60/63 interchange near Cabool to Route ZZ in the extreme southeastern part of West Plains, then becomes a 2+1 road going southeast.

One exit exists on U.S. 63 in the city near McFarland Street, which allows drivers to exit onto Business Route 63. Business Route 63 consists of Porter Wagoner Boulevard, a majority of Main Street, and Bill Virdon Boulevard before it ends at an intersection with the eastern end of Jan Howard Expressway.

It enters city limits near the Southern Hills business district, where it is named Preacher Roe Boulevard to its intersection with Main Street.

Many traffic lights in the city were recently upgraded to have flashing-yellow arrow signals for left-turning intersections.

One railroad, dated to 1882, passes through town on a BNSF Railway line from Springfield, Missouri to Memphis, Tennessee.