Devils Elbow is an unincorporated community in Pulaski County, Missouri, United States on historic U.S. Highway 66. It is situated on the Big Piney River and is named for a tight incised meander in the river known as a "devil of an elbow". The community is approximately five miles (8 km) east of St. Robert. History In the 19th and early 20th centuries, lumbermen were busy upstream cutting the short leaf pine or hacking railroad ties from the hardwoods. Rafters floated the planks and ties down the Big Piney to the railroad yard at Arlington on the Gasconade River, but they first had to negotiate the sharp bend in the river where rafts sometimes broke up and ties were lost. The rafters named the bend in the river the Devil's Elbow. The hamlet of Devils Elbow is located on the inside of the bend. The Devil's Elbow area was a destination for St. Louis sportsmen beginning in the late 19th century. It is on the fine fishing stream of the Big Piney which flows into the Gasconade River a few miles north. The surrounding forest provided good hunting. Before improved highway access, the sportsmen came by train to Dixon, 12 miles north, and then by wagon to the area. Early autoists negotiated State Highway 14, part gravel and part dirt, which ran from St. Louis to Springfield, Missouri. As part of the improvement of State Highway 14 in 1923, a steel truss bridge was constructed that spanned the Big Piney River across the lower portion of the elbow. In 1926, Highway 14 was renumbered as U. S. Highway 66. A post office named Devil's Elbow was established in 1927 by Walter E. Graham in the office/store of his Graham’s Resort and Camp, located a quarter mile south of the bridge. A few years later, Nelle Munger and Howard Moss built the Munger-Moss Sandwich Shop on the north side of the bridge and Dwight Rench erected the native rock Devil's Elbow Cafe on the south side. Graham and Rench offered rental cabins to the increasing number of tourists on Route 66. During the 1930s, the village became a stopping point on Route 66. Its bluffs were listed by the State Planning Commission as one of the seven beauty spots in Missouri. The community experienced a population surge during World War II boom associated with the construction and development of Fort Leonard