Katy Trail State Park has its western terminus at Clinton and stretches 240 miles east across the midsection of Missouri, connecting more than 30 communities and cities along the historic corridor of the Missouri, Kansas and Texas Railroad, constructed between 1870 and 1893. The railroad greatly contributed to the economy of mid-Missouri by encouraging the development of towns such as Pilot Grove, Mokane, and McKittrick, importing manufactured goods from around the world, and exporting local commodities including corn, hay, livestock, coal, shoes, and pottery, while also providing quick transportation and mail delivery. The corridor was traveled earlier by Osage Indians, members of the Lewis and Clark Expedition, and Daniel Boone and his family, and later steamboats carried goods and passengers on the nearby Missouri River. Today the park allows travelers to experience the railroad era through truss-and-trestle bridges, restored depots, and towns and villages where trains once ran, while also passing remnant prairies, bottomland forest, towering bluffs, and rich agricultural lands.