My Corner Online
Boonville and Katy Trail Railroad Bridge
We visited Boonville, Cooper County, Missouri on June 17, 2023, after a long day biking on Katy Trail State Park, Rocheport, and hiking at Rock Bridge State Park. We thought we had enough time to do a quick visit and we enjoyed our time in this quaint town. We saw the Katy Trail Railroad Bridge and took a walk out on it as far as we could go. This bridge was part of the MKT, which stands for "Missouri, Kansas and Texas Railway Company" (MK&T). It is informally known as the Katy because of the final two letters. This bridge is a lift bridge which is quite unique and I am glad they are making efforts to save it as a historic bridge. You can see the Katy Bridge in the distance when crossing the Missouri River on Highway 40. To walk out on the bridge you must park near the entrance at the casino. We parked in the back of the casino parking lot and walked up the hill to avoid the narrow driveway to the bridge.
The railroad tracks have been replaced with a nice cement walk.
This is the end of the walk on the Katy Bridge since the lift is in the up position.
This is a view of the Highway 40 bridge crossing the Missouri River from the Katy Bridge.
When I looked down I actually felt height-scare in my belly! I do not think that the photo does the height justice. The part of the concrete juts out over the bridge so it is a bit intimidating as you never know how safe something such as this might be.
I really enjoyed this rusted metal building on the side of the bridge. If I had used my "big camera" instead of my cell phone, I might have gotten a shot at different exposures and then put them together for a really awesome shot. Instead I just played and got different exposures with my cell phone (that are not aligned and cannot be merged).
I like the lighter exposure for the textures on the building, but it looses the depth of the sky and river in the background.
This is as we turned around to walk back.
This is where a current railroad tracks go below the Katy Bridge and along the Missouri River.
Next we drove a short distance to Harley Park. There is not much here but an amazing view across the Missouri River. You can see it better in the above video. I tried to do a panorama with my phone but the perspective is off.
There is an information sign at Harley park describing the Santa Fe Trail and the pioneers that passed through the area.
At the entrance to Harley Park is a Prehistoric Indian Mound. I have learned a lot about these Indian mounds and many other parks around Missouri.
We did drive around town for a little bit and saw the outside of the Old Jail and Hanging Barn, but we were there outside of the touring hours. It was built in 1848 and 1878 and was the longest running jail in Missouri until it stopped operations. Frank James, brother to infamous outlaw Jesse James, was once housed here.
We drove by the historic Hotel Frederick. It seems like it would be a great place to stay to explore this town. It is right there as you cross the Missouri river into town. There is lots of information about it online.
We also went down this terrifyingly steep hill trying to find Bell's View Park, but I think we found a dog park instead. Watch the video for more on that hill on 8th Street going down to Water Street. We met some folks at The Blufftop at Rocheport later that evening who said they used to sled down that hill! We thought, "and how did you stop, go into the Missouri River?" The answer was that they built up a large snow pile at the end and ran smack dab into it and I am not sure I would want to do that either!
This is the view of the lift bridge from Highway 40.