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PHOTO:
Hermann
Wurst Haus owner
Mike Sloan shares
his award-winning
sausages with
a customer.
The popular
establishment sits 2
miles from the Katy
Trail.
BOONVILLE BRIDGE
Much of the Katy Trail’s purpose is to keep the state’s
history alive, and in Boonville, the Katy Bridge Coalition
has worked hard to do just that. The Missouri-Kansas-
Texas (MKT) Railroad built the bridge across the
Missouri River in 1932. It featured a 408-foot lift span,
which at the time was the longest of its kind in the U.S.
The bridge carried rail traffic until 1986, when the MKT
Railroad ceased operations, and in 1987 it became part
of the Katy Trail railbanking agreement.
Although the Katy Trail was routed over the adjacent
Highway 40 bridge, keeping the original railroad bridge
intact was critical to preservation of the Katy Trail
because it kept the railbanked corridor legally intact.
In 2004, the Coast Guard deemed the railroad bridge a
navigation hazard and instructed owner Union Pacific
Railroad to demolish it. The railroad began planning
to dismantle the bridge and reuse its steel on another
bridge project downstream across the Osage River.
In 2009, after a long and protracted battle between
trail advocates, the state and Union Pacific, Gov. Jay
Nixon (then attorney general) helped save the bridge by
allocating federal stimulus money for the Osage River
Bridge, eliminating the motivation to dismantle the one
in Boonville.
Since then, the Katy Bridge Coalition has continued to
raise funds toward its renovation. The first section on the
south side of the river opened in April 2016.
Economic Impact
In 2012, Missouri State Parks conducted a study to
determine the economic impact of Katy Trail State Park
based on user spending and found the trail had a direct
impact of $18.5 million per year. Roughly three dozen
towns along the trail welcome trail users to their restau-
rants, shops, bed-and-breakfast inns and other busi-
nesses, and thousands of trail users plan mini-vacations
each year that take advantage of these establishments.
While some businesses existed before the trail and
have seen an uptick in revenue with the increased patron-
age, others specifically established their companies to
cater to Katy traffic and have enjoyed significant success.
Todd White bought Katy Bike Rental in 2002 when it
was just a small shop in the town of Defiance. He has
since expanded the business to a $500,000-per-year
enterprise with multiple locations. The Defiance location
includes Robin’s Nest, a gift shop, and the Augusta store
features Pop a Wheelie, an ice cream shop with drinks
and other concessions. Today the business employs 30
Missourians.
“We’ve bumped up sales sixteenfold since 2002,”
White says, noting the consistently high demand for his
services from trail users. “My gross revenue doubled
between 2013 and 2015.”
Many other businesses along the route have seen
similar success based largely on their proximity to the
trail. “Over a three-day weekend, we’ll get anywhere from
20 to 100 bicyclists, weather depending,” says Mike
Sloan, owner of the Hermann Wurst Haus, which sits
about 2 miles from the trail. “You can tell they’re from
18.5
MIllions of
dollars per
year of direct
economic impact
generated by the
Katy Trail
FALL 2016 RAILS TO TRAILS
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PAT H WA Y T O P R O S P E R I T Y