Femme Osage Creek is supposedly named by a French settler who encountered a
dead Osage woman in the creek.
Defiance was given its name after preventing Matson from having the only
nearby rail stop.
It was in the area of Matson that Daniel Boone and sons platted the town of
Missouriton. Across the river is Tavern Cave.
Dutzow is an old Slavic country place name.
Charrette Creek is named for La Charrette, a small French settlement
established in 1797.
Peers is a rail town named for Judge Charles Peers, an MKT attorney.
Treloar is named after a Harden College professor of music.
Between Bernheimer and Gore is one of the most spectacular stretches of the
trail.
Gore is named for one of the financiers of the MK&E railroad.
Day 2 - June 17, 2008 - Hermann to
Hartsburg
Rhineland is a German-settled community. To immigrants, this area was
reminiscent of the Rhine River region of Germany. Look for a couple of old
churches to your right.
In the vicinity south of Mile Marker 122.1, Meriwether Lewis and William
Clark described the woodrat, a species new to science.
One of the most impressive bridges along the Katy Trail crosses the Auxvasse
River (French for swamps and morasses).
Mokane is derivative of Missouri, Kansas and Eastern Railroad.
Cote Sans Dessien (hill without design) was a small settlement established
in 1808. Geographically, it is a lost hill not eroded by the Missouri River, 200
yards wide and 150 feet high. Members of the Sac and Fox tribes waged a major
attack on the settlement in 1815.
Lewis and Clark camped June 4, 1804, in the vicinity of 151.0.
Hartsburg was built by the Missouri, Kansas and Eastern Railroad.
Day 3 - June 18, 2008 - Hartsburg to
Boonville
Easley was built by the railroad and named after its postmaster.
The wreck of the steamboat Plowboy occurred near Mile Marker 163.7.
Providence site was a popular river port community prior to the Civil War
and was where the main route from the river to Columbia began.
McBaine is named for Turner McBaine, a world class cattleman.
Right past McBaine, the Perche Creek Bridge is crossed. Perche is a
corruption of the French word for pierce and refers to a natural bridge hidden
by foliage on the bluff at Mile Marker 166.9.
There is a pictograph above Lewis and Clark Cave.
Hidden up the creek drainage at 174.9 is the once popular Boone Cave, once a
tour cave and now owned by the Missouri Department of Conservation.
Just west of Rocheport, note the monument erected in honor of Edward D.
“Ted” Jones and the contributions he made to Katy Trail State Park.
Rocheport is a restored river port and railroad town. Antiques and bed and
breakfasts dominate its commerce today.
The stone-arched Rocheport tunnel is 243 feet long.
The Lewis and Clark Expedition encountered curious paintings and carvings on
this bluff as well as a den of rattlesnakes on June 7, 1804.
Diana Bend Conservation Area is named for the steamboat Diana that sank here
c.1836.
It was in Franklin that the Santa Fe Trail began and Kit Carson learned the
saddle-making trade before departing for the Rockies.
The first newspaper west of St. Louis was printed in Franklin, which was
relocated after the floods of 1826-1828.
The Riverscene Bed and Breakfast in Boonville was the 1869 home of riverboat
Capt. Kinney.
Boonville (1817) was a frontier river port and rail station. More than 400
structures are in the National Register of Historic Places. Boonville was the
site of the first Civil War battle west of the Mississippi River on June 17,
1861.
Day 4 - June 19, 2008 - Boonville to
Sedalia
Pilot Grove is an 1873 town built by the railroad and named for the grove of
trees used as a landmark by travelers along the Osage Trace.
Sedalia (1857) remains an important railroad town as Amtrak maintains a
station here. The Department of Natural Resources restored the Katy Depot
(1896).
Sedalia is best known for the Missouri State Fair and the one-time home of
Scott Joplin, who composed the “Maple Leaf Rag” here.
Day 5 - June 20, 2008 - Sedalia to
Clinton
Green Ridge was built as a railroad town between the Osage River and Lamine
River watersheds.
The high point of the Katy Trail is near Bryson, once called Kansas City
Junction. Only an old schoolhouse and a few homes remain.
Windsor was named for the castle in England.
Calhoun, founded in 1835, is the oldest town in Henry County. Pottery
factories once operated here, thus the nickname Jugtown.
Lewis was once a thriving export center for coal.
Clinton is the Henry County seat and home to the largest town square in
Missouri.
