Day 1 - Monday, June 22, 2009 - Clinton to Pilot Grove
Clinton is the Henry County Seat and home to the largest town square in Missouri.
Lewis was once a thriving export center for coal.
Calhoun, founded in 1835, is the oldest town in Henry County. Pottery factories once operated here, thus the nickname Jugtown.
Windsor was named for the castle in England.
The high point of the Katy Trail is near Byson, once called Kansas City Junction. Only an old schoolhouse and a few homes remain.
Green Ridge was built as a railroad town between the Osage River and Lamine River watersheds.
Sedalia is best known for the Missouri State Fair and the one-time home of Scott Joplin, who composed the “Maple Leaf Rag” here.
Sedalia (1857) remains an important railroad town, as Amtrak maintains a station here. The Department of Natural Resources restored the Katy Depot (1896).
Day 2 - Tuesday, June 23, 2009 - Pilot Grove to Jefferson City
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.
Boonville (1817) was a frontier river port and rail station. Boonville was the site of the first Civil War battle west of the Mississippi River on June 17, 1861.
The Riverscene Bed and Breakfast was the 1869 home of Riverboat Captain Kinney.
The first newspaper west of St. Louis was printed in Franklin, which was relocated after the floods of 1826-1828.
It was in Franklin that the Santa Fe Trail began and Kit Carson learned the saddle-making trade before departing for the Rockies.
Diana Bend Conservation Area is named for the steamboat Diana that sunk here c. 1836.
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.
Rocheport is a restored river port and railroad town. Antiques and bed and breakfasts dominate its commerce today.
Just west of Rocheport is the Jones monument erected in honor of Edward D. “Ted” Jones and the contributions he made to Katy Trail State Park.
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.
There is a pictograph above Lewis and Clark Cave.
Right before 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 166.9.
Lewis and Clark camped on June 4, 1804, in the vicinity of present-day milepost 151.
Across the river, the state Capitol in Jefferson City (1822) can be seen from the trail.
A monument to the opening of the first 185 miles of Katy Trail State Park on Sept. 29, 1996, is located at the North Jefferson trailhead.
Day 3 - Wednesday, June 24, 2009 - Jefferson City to Hermann
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.
Mokane is a derivative of Missouri, Kansas and Eastern Railroad.
One of the more impressive bridges along the Katy crosses the Auxvasse Creek (French for swamps and morasses).
On May 31, 1804, the Lewis and Clark expedition described the eastern woodrat, a species new to science, in the vicinity south of present-day 122.1.
Steedman (pronounced Stedman) was built by the railroad around 1893 and is named for another of the company’s financiers.
A small natural arch and cave is found at 120.2.
Rhineland is a German-settled community. To immigrants, this area was reminiscent of the Rhine River region of Germany.
Riders cross the Loutre River (French for otter), where in 1815 Sac and Fox Indians killed Capt. James Callaway, for whom Callaway County is named.
Day 4 - Thursday, June 25, 2009 - Hermann to Augusta
McKittrick and Gore were named after financiers of the MK&E railroad.
Between Bernheimer and Gore is one of the most spectacular stretches of the trail.
Treloar is named after a Harden College professor of music.
Peers is a rail town named for Judge Charles Peers, an MKT attorney.
Charrette Creek is named for La Charrette, a small French settlement established in 1797.
Dutzow is an old Slavic country place name.
Day 5 - Friday, June 26, 2009 - Augusta to St. Charles
It was in the area of Matson that Daniel Boone and sons platted the town of Missouriton. Across the river is Tavern Cave.
Defiance is located less than 2 miles from Matson. It was given this name after preventing Matson from having the only nearby rail stop.
Femme Osage Creek is crossed and is supposedly named by a French settler who encountered a dead Osage woman in the creek.
St. Charles was a French settlement dating back to the mid 1700s. The historic town was also the state’s first capital before it was moved to Jefferson City.
