About Fulton, Missouri

Located in central Missouri, Fulton is the county seat of Callaway County and a regional center for education, business, culture, and community life. Its location near Interstate 70 and U.S. Route 54 places it within easy reach of Columbia and Jefferson City while maintaining the strong local identity and close connections of a smaller community.

Fulton is a place where history has long intersected with big ideas. In 1946, Winston Churchill delivered his landmark “Sinews of Peace” address, remembered for popularizing the phrase “Iron Curtain,” on Westminster College’s campus. Today, America’s National Churchill Museum commemorates that moment and includes the historic Church of St. Mary the Virgin, Aldermanbury, which was moved stone by stone from London and reconstructed in Fulton.

Higher education remains central to Fulton’s identity. Westminster College and William Woods University bring students, faculty, alumni, facilities, and educational resources into the heart of the community. William Woods offers distinctive programs including nationally recognized Equestrian Science Studies and American Sign Language interpreting, while both institutions contribute to Fulton’s broader talent, entrepreneurship, and workforce ecosystem. Fulton Public Schools adds another layer through engineering, coding, and competitive robotics, giving students hands-on experience with design, programming, and problem-solving.

That educational base sits alongside a diverse economy where technology is already deeply embedded. Danuser Machine Company uses CNC equipment, robotic welding, engineering, internal workforce training, and patented product development. Callaway Electric Cooperative and Callabyte have expanded the region’s digital infrastructure, while manufacturers, utilities, agriculture, healthcare, education, and other employers increasingly rely on technology-enabled work.

Fulton is also adding new spaces for entrepreneurship and connection. Untethered Fulton, located in the heart of the historic Brick District, provides private offices, flexible workspace, meeting rooms, and coworking for entrepreneurs, remote professionals, and small businesses. Around it, the Brick District brings together locally owned businesses, restaurants, entertainment, historic architecture, and community events, giving entrepreneurship a visible presence in the center of town.

Those assets are increasingly being connected through a broader community leadership effort spanning education, entrepreneurship, workforce development, small business, housing, technology, and community development. The shared ambition is to make it easier for entrepreneurs to build companies, students to connect education with local careers, businesses to put new technologies to work, and residents to participate in local opportunities.

Community Partners

Untethered Fulton

Untethered Fulton is a coworking and professional workspace located in downtown Fulton’s Brick District. With private offices, flexible desks, meeting rooms, and virtual-office services, Untethered gives entrepreneurs, remote workers, and small teams a professional place to work and connect.

Beyond workspace, Untethered is helping create a more visible gathering point for Fulton’s entrepreneurial and remote-work community — providing a natural home for connections, programming, and collaboration among people building businesses and careers from Fulton.

Callaway Chamber of Commerce

The Callaway Chamber of Commerce serves as a countywide connector for business, economic development, workforce, and entrepreneurship. Through business engagement, coaching, workforce initiatives, economic development, events, and partnerships with organizations including the Missouri Small Business Development Center, the Chamber helps businesses start, grow, and invest throughout Fulton and Callaway County.

By bringing businesses, educators, workforce partners, and civic leaders together, the Chamber serves as an important bridge between Fulton’s existing economy and new opportunities in entrepreneurship and technology.

William Woods University

William Woods University is a private university based in Fulton with a strong emphasis on profession-oriented, student-centered education. Its distinctive academic offerings include Equestrian Science Studies and American Sign Language interpreting alongside programs spanning business, technology, education, and other professional fields.

Through its students, faculty, facilities, alumni, and community partnerships, William Woods contributes talent and educational capacity that can support workforce development, entrepreneurship, and stronger connections between learning and local opportunity.

Westminster College

Westminster College is a liberal arts college with deep roots in Fulton and a nationally recognized place in history as the site of Winston Churchill’s 1946 “Sinews of Peace” address. Today, the college continues to connect students with academic learning, career development, internships, and community engagement opportunities.

Its students, faculty, alumni, and facilities give Fulton another significant source of talent and expertise, with opportunities to connect higher education more closely to local employers, entrepreneurs, and the wider community.

“We are excited to join the Rural Innovation Network because it connects us with a national community of rural leaders who are committed to strengthening economic opportunity, entrepreneurship, workforce development, and innovation in rural areas.”

Seth Weinger, Co-Founder, Untethered Fulton

What Being a Member of the Network Means to Fulton

Fulton joins the Rural Innovation Network with a distinctive combination of assets already in place: two higher education institutions, a strong small-business community, advanced manufacturers, expanding digital infrastructure, a revitalized downtown, new coworking space, and leaders working across sectors to create more opportunity locally.

Network membership connects that momentum with rural communities across the country that are also exploring how entrepreneurship, technology, workforce development, and community building can reinforce one another. For Fulton, those relationships can bring new ideas and perspectives to efforts already underway — from strengthening pathways for founders and connecting students with employers to helping existing businesses adopt technology and making remote and technology-enabled careers more visible.

Fulton also brings its own perspective to that national community. Its history shows that ideas originating in a small place can resonate far beyond it. Today, the opportunity is to build on that same spirit by creating more ways for people to start businesses, develop skills, pursue ambitious careers, and put new ideas to work from Fulton.