Boonville to Pilot Grove

Boonville to Pilot Grove. Points of Interest. The Katy Trail leaves the Missouri River at Boonville and heads southwest into Cooper County for 11.5 miles to Pilot Grove. The 1912 Spanish Mission-style Boonville depot stands near the trail head. The depot now serves as home to the Boonville Tourism Center. The Boonville Katy Caboose Museum is located in Caboose 8134 outside the depot and is opened for visitors. , Riders make a gradual ascent out of Boonville and the Missouri River valley on Lard Hill. According to local legend, the hill was named after a Katy train killed a woman's pig but refused to pay her more than $5. To receive justice, she melted down the fat of the pig into lard. Each morning for weeks afterward, she and her children covered the tracks along the grade with the lard, forcing trains to slip and skate uphill. Needless to say, the railroad gave in and made full compensation. , The Katy's only overhead crossing of Interstate 70 is at milepost 196. The rest of the way to Pilot Grove, trail users cross a rolling landscape dominated by hay and crop fields. At milepost 197 is the site of Prairie Lick, once an MKT railhead for agricultural products. Around milepost 199, look right for some long vistas back toward Boonville and the Missouri River. , (photo captions:), Milepost 191.8 - Boonville depot looks much the same as in this photo from around 1915., Milepost 195.5 - After climbing Lard Hill, the trail offers some downhill relief on the way to Pilot Grove., Milepost 196 - The Katy Trail goes over Interstate 70 just west of Boonville. , Milepost 197 - The town site of Prairie Lick is now abandoned., Milepost 199.2 - From this section of trail, look north through trees toward the Missouri River bluffs., Milepost 202 - Though sometimes difficult to see, old telegraph poles and milepost markers remain from the railroad era.