2025 Summer Road Trip – Part 1

Sometimes you just need to hit the road, to get away and get back to your roots. For me, the towns of rural America are my roots. As successful as last year’s road trip through Kansas was, I decided to take another this year, but through the Show Me State. There were a number of communities in Missouri that I had been eyeing to check out for a while now, and this past August, I got my chance.

Sedalia, Missouri

After various delays, I was finally able to escape the office on a Friday afternoon in August to run down the road to my first stop, Sedalia, Missouri. The town of Sedalia was my first overnight destination. Sedalia had actually been the home of two of the past posts on Rural Resurrection. Originally, I had found out about the Katy Depot, an adaptive reuse project along the Katy Trail. But then I also looked into Sedalia Depot, a second train depot that underwent a significant rehabilitation and was enjoying a resurrection as an Amtrak stop.

Due to my late start, I was unable to get to town to check out much else, other than the Katy Depot. This was important as one of the main goals of the next few days was to document the great Katy Trail that runs through Missouri, and the Katy Depot is a great trailhead along the way. I was able to get a few pictures of the depot in the fading light after I arrived in Sedalia.

Cole Camp, Missouri

My first stop the next day was in Cole Camp, a small town of 1,172, roughly 20 miles south of Sedalia. I had been eyeing Cole Camp for quite some time. After a trip through the community on the way to the Lake of the Ozarks in 2018, the first year of Rural Resurrection, I began drafting a post about the community. The town intrigued me in the short time that it took to drive through. I just had to return.

Cole Camp has a nice downtown with hints of its German heritage. But if places like Handel Haus and the German Table don’t tip you off on their heritage, the Immigrant Memorial solidly confirms it. Not your typical veteran’s memorial, the Immigrant Memorial celebrates those first settlers to the area with German roots.

Making up the floor of the memorial is an array of donor bricks, but with a slight twist. Like many other memorials, the Immigrant Memorial utilizes bricks that donors purchase to help fund the project. However, what sets this one apart is the colors of the bricks, their inscriptions, and their meanings. The gray-colored bricks are numbered and are engraved with the names of the German immigrants, where they came from, what year, and which county (Benton, Morgan, or Pettis) the immigrants settled in. The red-colored bricks are engraved with the names of descendants of the immigrants.

The most intriguing feature in the memorial is the line of porcelain plaques on the back wall of the memorial. Each plaque is adorned with a colorful depiction of the coat-of-arms for each of the 38 districts within the former German province of Hanover, where most of the initial settlers to the area came from.

Be on the lookout for more on Rural Resurrection about Cole Camp as I finally get that draft post done and published.

Blackwater, Missouri

For this road trip, as well as the one to Kansas last year, I conducted extensive research on the area I was targeting. There are always towns that come up in my research again and again as communities that are a must-see. Blackwater wasn’t one of them. This diminutive town wasn’t even on my radar. But thankfully, Google Maps took me off the main route to Arrow Rock and through Blackwater.

Blackwater is oozing with historic charm.

Greeting you at the entrance to downtown is a rustic windmill adorned with welcome signage and plantings. Each side of Main Street is lined with wide, brick sidewalks that front a variety of traditional downtown building types. Decorative lighting, banners, flags, seating, and planters full of colorful vegetation greet your stroll through town. The overall look and feel seems pretty authentic and unforced.

Look for more to come on this historic Destination Town.

Arrow Rock, Missouri

After my detour at Blackwater, I moved on to Arrow Rock, Missouri. This heritage community had been on my list ever since I started looking at central Missouri. Its name is plastered all over the “best small towns in Missouri” posts.

The community of Arrow Rock is a time capsule, transporting residents back to the mid-1800s. Ageless buildings line Main Street, including shops, museums, and bed and breakfasts. Near the end of downtown is J Huston Tavern with its colonial architecture and its traditional American food.

There’s also the Arrow Rock State Historical Site Visitor Center and adjoining campground. Whether you’re camping or staying at one of the many BnB’s, it’s easy to spend a relaxing weekend in this small town.

Boonville, Missouri

Following the Missouri River as it meanders eastward towards Columbia, I came upon Boonville. Like the two previous towns I visited, Boonville has a rich history. It served as the eastern terminus of the Santa Fe Trail. One of the main trails that led settlers westward. The Missouri-Kansas-Texas (Katy) Railroad also crossed over the Missouri River at Boonville.

Although the Katy Railroad is no more, the community has continued to benefit from the trail that replaced its tracks. Boonville has made significant strides to make itself a trail town along the Katy Trail. In addition to the standard trailhead kiosk that you see in all the towns along the trail, they have a number of other ques that point to their focus on drawing cyclists. From the road crossings to the wayfinding signage, the community welcomes those on bikes. Bikes are also a unique part of their streetscape. At numerous nodes throughout the downtown, painted-up bikes are secured to signs or planters. An interesting public art project that signals to two-wheeled tourists that they are welcome in Boonville.

Rocheport, Missouri

During my trip through Missouri, I was specifically looking for a community that was latching onto the Katy Trail and successfully utilizing it to help make their community a trail town. I found it in the town of Rocheport. Although the town has only 215 residents, it embraces this impactful trail better than most towns ten times its size. After the abandonment of a railroad line, many towns this size fall apart and are eventually forced to disincorporate. But not Rocheport, they’ve found a second life as a trail town, and they’ve received quite a bit of internet notoriety for it.

Next to the Katy trailhead is the former train station. Reborn into its new role, this building now houses the City Hall and public restrooms for riders. Nearby, the Meriwether Cafe and Bike Shop provides food, drink, and bike rentals. There are also wineries, bed and breakfasts, and other attractions.

More to Come…

The sun set on me on the second day of my road trip after I left Rocheport and headed to my hotel in Columbia. But there was more to come as I made my way towards St. Louis. Check out next week’s post for more on the Summer 2025 road trip!