MKT Segment 1
Part one of eight in my presentation on the MKT railroad.
The MKT trail is a popular hiking and biking trail in Columbia, Missouri. It starts at Flat Branch Park at 4th and Cherry, and continues, not only through 9 miles of the college town, but throughout the state of Missouri connecting with the larger Katy Trail (MKT Nature and Fitness Trail). The Katy Trail follows the Missouri River, traveling the same path as the railroad that was there for over ninety years before it was converted into a nature trail in the Rails-to-Trails movement.
The Missouri, Kansas, and Texas Railroad, shortened to the MKT and nicknamed the Katy Railroad, ran through Missouri, Kansas, and Oklahoma down to Texas. This development began after the Civil War when the potential of the Midwest was realized (Missouri, Kansas, and Texas Railway 1). John D. Rockefeller was one of the many to realize that railroads were going to become the official mode of agriculture transportation (Poole). In 1891, he signed a certificate for 100 shares in the MKT Railway, supporting the MKT in the race to connect the Indian Territory with the rest of the United States. Because of his participation, the MKT beat Union Pacific in the race (Scripophily.net).
Columbia was put on the MKT line for the resources the town offered. The creeks -- Hinkson, Perche, and Flat Branch -- lead to the Missouri River Valley (Christisen). Flat Branch Creek was a boon for Columbia residents and the area around the creek was Columbia's original settling spot. They abandoned Smithton, a town a half-mile west of the Columbia area, to get water from a well in the Flat Branch bottoms. In 1899 the MKT officially had a line in Columbia, bringing in passengers and supplies from St. Louis and Kansas City through McBaine. The main purpose of the railroad transportation was to bring coal to the university power plant on what is now Stewart Road, and passenger service (CBT Staff). The train brought in papers from Kansas City and St. Louis to go along with local city papers like The Missourian or The Columbia Daily Tribune (Hunt). The idea that passenger service would widen university admissions due to student transportation was a major contributing factor to resident support. Still, many objected to the placement of a railroad in the educational center that is Columbia, fearful that it would bring an undesirable element to the community. (Christisen).
Columbia residents may have had a point. Criminal activity seemed to go along with railroads. Jimmy Doyle, a retired conductor from Boonville, recalled the hobos he would see on the train when they stopped for water to power the steam engines. The professional hobos went south in the winter and came back north in the spring. (Bailey). Thomas Hart Benton painted Regionalism depictions of American life, particularly in the Midwest. One of his paintings titled City Slums shows the railroad passing through a Kansas City criminal slum neighborhood (Benton). My great-grandfather moved to Kansas City to work on the MKT in the fifties, leaving my great-grandmother and their children behind in Indiana. My grandfather was living on the streets in a slum like this. My grandma missed him so much that she packed up all the kids and took a train right to the depot without any money. My grandpa had to quit the railroad in order to find a better paying job to support the family. I always loved this story because it showed how romantic my family could be, at least before dysfunction set in later.
The most infamous criminal from Missouri, Jesse James, was the leader of the gang to stage the world's first robbery of a moving train in 1873 (Jesse James Historical Site). Benton depicted the outlaw and his gang performing this crime (Benton). The actor Brad Pitt starred as the outlaw Jesse James in The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford in 2007 (Internet Movie Database). Pitt was raised in Springfield, Missouri. He went to the University of Missouri, majoring in journalism with a focus in advertising, but left two credits short of graduating to move to California to try out acting (IMDb). Brad Pitt is one of the most famous attendees of MU and the mere rumor of his presence on campus, supposedly visiting his old school for an Oprah interview, whipped the student body into frenzy on February 17th, 2011. The criminal activity on the railroads in Columbia was average until the Spring of 1923 when a wrongful lynching occurred due to criminal activity on the MKT railroad tracks.
Drone aerial 4K video of Les Bourgeois Winery and vineyards, United States Fall 2018.
4K Les Bourgeois Winery and vineyards, United States-Fall 2018 - Drone Footage
CINEMATOGRAPHY CREDITS:
Les Bourgeois Winery and vineyards, Rocheport, Missouri
footage: Robert Kennalley
Enjoy still images also from Robert Kennalley posted and for sale at the Istockphoto by Getty Images website.
Sterling Price | Wikipedia audio article
This is an audio version of the Wikipedia Article:
Sterling Price
00:00:57 1 Early life and career
00:03:00 2 Mexican–American War
00:04:23 3 Governor of Missouri
00:05:24 4 Civil War service
00:05:33 4.1 Early months
00:07:23 4.2 Pea Ridge, Iuka, and Corinth
00:10:03 4.3 Arkansas and Louisiana
00:11:31 4.4 Price's Missouri Raid
00:13:44 4.5 Notable battles
00:14:02 5 Post-war activities and death
00:15:09 6 Modern assessment of Price's Missouri campaign
00:17:32 7 CSS/USS iGeneral Sterling Price/i
00:18:25 8 Legacy
00:19:45 9 See also
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The only true wisdom is in knowing you know nothing.
- Socrates
SUMMARY
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Sterling Old Pap Price (September 14, 1809 – September 29, 1867) was an American lawyer, planter, soldier, and politician from the U.S. state of Missouri, who served as the 11th Governor of the state from 1853 to 1857. He also served as a United States Army brigadier general during the Mexican–American War, and a Confederate Army major general in the American Civil War. Price is best known for his victories in New Mexico and Chihuahua during the Mexican conflict, and for his losses at the Battles of Pea Ridge and Westport during the Civil War–the latter being the culmination of his ill-fated Missouri Campaign of 1864.
Following the war, Price took his remaining troops to Mexico rather than surrender. He unsuccessfully sought military service with Emperor Maximillian there. He ultimately returned to Missouri, where he died in poverty. He was buried in St. Louis.