Complete · Rocheport to North Jefferson · July 2026

Bringing the Katy Trail to Life

36 Miles Captured on America's Longest Rail-Trail

Terrain360 has already captured the entire Missouri River, Sioux City to the Confluence, as part of the Lewis & Clark NHT. In July 2026 we added the parallel land corridor: 36 miles from Rocheport to North Jefferson, including the 1893 tunnel and the river bluffs, published as 1,167 scenes. Funded end to end by Terrain360, free to the public, and ready to seed the full 240-mile corridor.

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The Project

We Have the River. The Katy Completes the Picture.

The Lewis & Clark National Historic Trail has been a multi-year focus for Terrain360 in partnership with the National Park Service. We have already captured the entire Missouri River from Sioux City to the Confluence — the same waterway the Corps of Discovery rowed up in 1804 and back down in 1806. Browse the live L&C NHT map.

The Katy Trail State Park runs parallel to the Missouri for the great majority of its 240-mile length. Pairing the river corridor (complete) with the land corridor (36 miles captured, the remaining 204 to follow) creates something neither can do alone: a single seamless exploration tool that lets stewards, visitors, and partners move between water and trail in one experience.

Phase one is done. In July 2026 we rode Rocheport to North Jefferson with a mast-mounted 360° camera and published 1,167 scenes across 36.4 miles — the 1893 tunnel, the Moniteau and Perche Creek trestles, the limestone bluffs, Cooper’s Landing, and the Hartsburg bottoms. It was funded end to end by Terrain360 at no cost to DNR, NPS, or any partner. Ride it in 360°.

Those miles now anchor a public rider’s guide to the whole corridor at bikethekaty.com: live surface conditions graded from rain history at fifteen points along the trail, a ride planner that checks the wind against the direction you will actually be riding, all 26 trailheads with their services, and the 360° capture at the centre of it. Free, with no account and no advertising. Independent of, and grateful to, Missouri State Parks.

Independent research

The ROI Is Documented

An independent study of five LECL sites found $14.5M in annual visitor expenditures and 195 jobs supported. Lewis & Clark State Park alone supported 106 jobs and $12M in economic output.

The Katy pilot scales that proven model along a 240-mile recreational corridor.

Read the full economic impact study →

The Corridor

From Corps of Discovery to Rail-to-Trail

Confluence of the Missouri and Mississippi
The confluence of the Missouri and Mississippi at Machens — the eastern terminus of today’s Katy Trail and the spot Lewis & Clark passed in 1804 and 1806.

In May 1804 the Corps of Discovery left St. Charles and rowed up the Missouri. The river cut through what would become the Katy Trail’s central corridor — Hermann, Jefferson City, Boonville, Arrow Rock — long before any of those towns existed. Lewis and Clark named landmarks, mapped tributaries, and met with the Otoe, Missouri, and Osage along this very stretch. They returned the same way in September 1806.

Eighty years later the Missouri-Kansas-Texas Railroad — the Katy — laid track along the river’s north bank. By the late 20th century the line was abandoned and converted, beginning in 1986, into one of the longest rail-to-trail conversions in the country. Today the Katy Trail State Park draws hundreds of thousands of visitors a year. What it lacks is the same kind of mile-by-mile virtual access that exists for the Lewis and Clark National Historic Trail elsewhere. This project closes that gap.

  1. May 1804 Corps of Discovery on the Missouri

    Lewis and Clark depart St. Charles, traveling up the Missouri along what is now the Katy corridor.

  2. Sept 1806 Return down the Missouri

    The expedition retraces the river back to St. Louis.

  3. Late 1800s MKT track laid along the river

    The Missouri-Kansas-Texas Railroad runs line beneath the river bluffs.

  4. 1986 Rail-to-trail conversion begins

    Missouri State Parks begins converting the abandoned MKT bed into the Katy Trail.

  5. July 2026 36 miles captured in 360°

    Terrain360 rides Rocheport to North Jefferson and publishes 1,167 scenes, pairing with the already-complete Missouri River map.

Why This Matters for the Katy

Trail Use & Public Access

  • Plan rides and hikes before you go — every trailhead, every amenity
  • Free, browser-based exploration — no app required
  • ADA-aligned virtual preview for accessibility planning
  • Discoverability for trailheads, depots, river-bluff overlooks
  • Family-friendly trip-planning for first-time visitors

Trail Management & Stewardship

  • Asset inventory: signage, surface, depots, trestles, drainage
  • Maintenance prioritization with visual reference
  • Grant-narrative support backed by mile-by-mile imagery
  • Emergency response and precise wayfinding for first responders
  • Volunteer coordination and condition reporting

A Digital Twin of the Corridor

  • Snapshot in time — preserves the trail as it is right now
  • Pre-storm, pre-construction reference baseline
  • Engineering reference for trestles, depots, and drainage features
  • Foundation for VR, AR, simulation, and curriculum tools
  • Future generations see the Katy as it is in 2026

Heritage & Tourism

  • Documents the Lewis & Clark return-route corridor in 360°
  • Pairs seamlessly with the already-complete Missouri River map
  • Visibility for trailside towns, chambers, and outfitters
  • Free public educational resource for schools and historians
  • Builds the case for full 240-mile deployment

What We Captured: Rocheport to North Jefferson

Rocheport to North Jefferson is the stretch we captured — the most recognizable mile on the Katy. Here's what's in it:

  • The Rocheport tunnel — the only tunnel on the Katy Trail, cut through the bluff for the MKT line
  • The Missouri River bluffs above the trail — where Lewis and Clark recorded the pictographs on June 7, 1804
  • The historic MKT depot and the Rocheport trailhead
  • River overlooks and the bluff-line corridor running west out of Rocheport
  • The village of Rocheport itself — trailhead district, wineries, and river access

Fund the Full Corridor

$75,000 maps the entire 240-mile corridor end-to-end. That includes the 360° capture, the custom interactive map, a town profile for every trail-town along the corridor, the standalone Katy Trail site, and the backend that lets each town keep its own content current.

36 of those miles are already captured and donated as community match, and the public site they feed is live now at bikethekaty.com. Capture follows construction: we do not promise trail that is not built yet.

If you represent a foundation, agency, or trail-town stakeholder who could underwrite the rest of the corridor — or part of it — let’s start the conversation. Work begins across the remaining corridor as soon as funding lands.

Or email jim@lewisandclarktrust.org directly to start a corridor-funding conversation.

What the Deliverable Looks Like

Public projects in the same format we'll deliver for the Katy. Pairs seamlessly with the existing Lewis & Clark NHT map. Click any to explore.

A Natural Extension of the Project

The Rock Island Trail Loop

The Katy Trail’s natural counterpart is the Rock Island Trail State Park — Missouri’s 93rd state park, designated in 2023 on a corridor donated to Missouri State Parks by Ameren in 2021.

47.5 miles of Rock Island are open today, running from Pleasant Hill to Windsor, where the corridor meets the Katy. An additional ~144 miles from Windsor to Beaufort is being developed by Missouri State Parks, with active 2026 work in Owensville and Versailles.

When complete, Rock Island and the Katy together form a continuous ~450-mile loop — the longest connected rail-trail loop in the United States. We expect to capture the open 47.5 miles in 360° and add new sections as Missouri State Parks completes them. Same equipment, same methodology, same free-public-access posture as the captured Katy miles. The Katy work is under way, so this is a natural next step rather than a new undertaking.

Partner With Us on the Katy

Are you with DNR, NPS, Magnificent Missouri, a friends-of-the-trail group, a chamber, or a trail business? Drop your details and we'll be in touch about segment selection, introductions, and how the captured miles can complement your work.

Aligned With

Lewis and Clark Trust
Terrain360
Lewis & Clark NHT (NPS)

Frequently Asked

When did the capture happen?

July 2026 was our capture window — chosen for the full leaf-on canopy that defines the Katy in summer, longer daylight hours, and stable trail conditions after spring rain. The 36-mile Rocheport to North Jefferson segment was funded end to end by Terrain360 — no cost to DNR, NPS, the Trust, Magnificent Missouri, or any partner.

Capture is performed on a single continuous push: a calibrated 360° rig with synchronized GPS, recording every meter of trail at roughly walking pace. Most segments take 2–3 days in the field. Post-processing — image stitching, GPS alignment, blurring of any incidental faces or plates, and tile generation — runs another 2–4 weeks. Public imagery is live on terrain360.com now, alongside the existing Missouri River and L&C NHT maps.

Why the Rocheport segment?

The choice came from the people who steward the Trail. Three lenses shaped it, in this order: (1) what the trail’s stewards prioritized — DNR, Missouri State Parks, Magnificent Missouri, friends groups; (2) heritage value tied to the Lewis & Clark return-route corridor; and (3) visitor demand and trip-planning utility for first-time riders, hikers, and accessibility users.

Rocheport leads on all three. It carries the only tunnel on the Katy and the Missouri River bluffs where Lewis and Clark recorded the pictographs on June 7, 1804 — the trail’s signature mile, and a natural pairing with the river map we’ve already completed.

This is a first segment, not the last. Future blocks remain on the table for a phased full-corridor deployment — McKittrick to Hermann’s wine corridor, the Ted & Pat Jones Welcome Center at Treloar, Defiance / Augusta wine country, and the St. Charles terminus.

What about the rest of the 240 miles?

Phase one was built to seed the conversation about a full-corridor deployment. We expect the path forward to be collaborative and phased — Missouri DNR / State Parks line items, federal grants tied to the Lewis & Clark NHT, philanthropic match through the Lewis & Clark Trust, regional tourism funding, and corporate sponsorship are all live possibilities. We’ve structured the work so that every additional segment is independently fundable — partners don’t have to commit to the whole 240 to move forward.

Capture cadence at full deployment is roughly 30–50 miles per week of field time, weather permitting, plus post-processing. A complete 240-mile Katy corridor would publish in stages over one season once funded.

Where will the imagery live?

Free, permanent public access at terrain360.com, alongside the existing Missouri River and Lewis & Clark National Historic Trail maps. No paywall, no app — anything a visitor needs runs in the browser.

For partners we provide:

  • Embeddable URLs — drop a specific mile or trailhead into your own website, blog post, grant application, or interpretive panel.
  • ArcGIS / GeoJSON integration — geo-tagged imagery hooks into existing GIS workflows for DNR, NPS, and friends-group planning.
  • Tile and image API access for partner orgs that want to build on top of it.
  • Long-term archive — imagery is preserved as a baseline reference for the trail as it exists in 2026, available to researchers, historians, and engineers.

Terrain360’s posture on this corridor is the same as on the L&C NHT: captured once, free to the public, forever.

Who do I talk to about partnership?

Ryan Abrahamsen — Terrain360 founder and the person doing the field capture work — ryan@terrain360.com or 804.677.1456. The fastest path is the partnership form on this page; it routes directly to Ryan and to the Lewis & Clark Trust.

Good fits for a conversation: DNR / Missouri State Parks staff, NPS L&C NHT, Magnificent Missouri, Katy Trail friends groups and chambers of commerce, trail-side businesses, accessibility advocates, and anyone working on the Rock Island corridor. We’re also open to introductions through the Trust — Jim Mallory, Executive Director, can flag partner conversations into the right channel.

Why pair the river map with the trail map?

The Katy parallels the Missouri River for most of its 240 miles — the same corridor Lewis and Clark traveled in 1804 and 1806. Terrain360 has already captured the Missouri end-to-end (Sioux City to the Confluence) as part of our NPS partnership on the Lewis & Clark NHT. Pairing river and trail in one experience unlocks use cases neither side does alone:

  • Stewardship — DNR, NPS, and friends groups can review the same mile from both the river bank and the trail surface, comparing erosion, signage, vegetation, and access conditions across modes.
  • Education and curriculum — a teacher can move between Lewis’s 1804 journal entry, the river view he described, and the modern trail at the exact same coordinate. We’re building this with classroom use in mind.
  • Heritage and research — historians, archaeologists, and tribal partners get a unified visual record of a corridor that’s currently fragmented across maps, archives, and silo’d datasets.
  • Trip planning and accessibility — paddlers, cyclists, hikers, and accessibility-focused visitors can plan multi-modal trips: paddle one direction, ride back, with confidence about every access point.

No other National Historic Trail has anything like this. The Katy capture is the first step toward making the L&C corridor — water and land, end-to-end — the most thoroughly documented historic trail in the country.

Help Fund the Rest of the Corridor

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