COLUMBIA, Mo. (AP) -- The Katy Trail State Park celebrates its 20th anniversary this week as work continues to extend the hiking and biking trail closer to Kansas City.
Gov. Jay Nixon will commemorate the 1990 opening of the trail's first segment at a Saturday ceremony in Rocheport. The 236-mile trail traverses an old railroad bed once used by the Missouri-Kansas-Texas Railroad, or MKT.
The trail further expanded in 1996 and 1999 and now stretches from Clinton in the west past St. Charles to the east. It is considered the country's longest recreational path carved from a converted rail line.
Construction has started on a 46-mile extension of the trail from Pleasant Hill to Windsor. State officials and civic leaders say that many residents of small towns near the proposed extension welcome its arrival.
TV Station Profiles & Public Inspection Files forKRCG