Ironton Circuit Court is the circuit court of Iron County in the Forty-Second Judicial Circuit of the Missouri Circuit court system. The Associate division of this court acts as the municipal court in cases related to city ordinance and traffic violations for the cities of Annapolis (SR 49), Arcadia (SR 21 and SR 72), Ironton (SR 21 and SR 72) and Pilot Knob (SR 21 and SR 221).

The earliest settler to the area built his log house around 1806, however few other settlers came for the next thirty years. At that time, huge iron ore resources were discovered. With the mining of these resources many more settlers came to the area. When the Iron county was formed, around 1857, voting took place to select the county seat. The offer by two landowners to donate the proceeds of the sale of lots to the building of a courthouse swayed the vote in Ironton's, a recently laid out town, favor. Business was thriving in the city until the Civil War, after which the economy picked up. Evidence of the wealthy people who visited for the summer are the thriving economy of the city are evident in the antebellum homes and turn of the century mercantile buildings still standing.