Editing Sedalia, Missouri (section)

===Railhead===
Following a victory for those proposing the "ridge route" for the railway over those advocating the "river route", the railway reached Sedalia in January 1861.<ref>Ihrig, et al., 1960, p.7.</ref> Sedalia's early prosperity was directly related to the railroad industry. Many jobs were associated with men maintaining tracks and operating large and varied machine shops run by both the [[Missouri Pacific]] and the [[Missouri-Kansas-Texas Railroad]] lines. The Missouri-Kansas & Texas Railroad was widely known as the "KATY", from its "K-T" stock exchange code.

Sedalia was an important [[wikt:railhead|railhead]] for the massive [[Cattle drives in the United States#Texas roots|Texas cattle drive of 1866]]. It maintained stockyards to receive cattle from drives and shipping through much of the 19th century.

{{blockquote|[[Chicago]] [[slaughterhouse]]s were willing to pay almost any price [for beef]—[[Texas longhorn (cattle)|longhorns]] were worth three to four dollars each on the ''[[Llano Estacado]]'' while in [[Chicago]] a steer was worth ten times that amount.  It cost about a dollar per head to drive a herd northward to a railroad, and thus with these simple economics, the long drive and the cattle bonanza got its start.<br />
During the spring and summer of 1866, some 260,000 head followed the trail to Sedalia, Missouri, the terminus of the [[Missouri Pacific Railroad]]." (McComb, 1989, p.84).}}

For nearly a century, Sedalia's economy was tied to the railroads. By the end of the 19th century, the MK&T had numerous buildings and a wide variety of workers in the city: the MK&T shops, [[Feedlot|stockyards]], [[Railway roundhouse|roundhouse]], and the [[hospital]] for employees working in the Sedalia Division were among the Katy's properties in Sedalia.

After the KATY reduced its operations in the 20th century, its railroad right-of-way through much of Missouri was converted to a 240-mile multi-use trail. The [[Katy Trail State Park|KATY Trail]] is used by bikers, walkers and horseback riders. This has been the largest new trail developed in the nation among the late 20th-century federal and state "[[Rails to Trails]]" projects.