Our Vision
The Trail's End Committee's vision is to make Sedalia a prime tourist destination. Sedalia will be known worldwide by its iconic symbol the Trail's End sculpture. This sculpture, celebrates Sedalia's historic and colorful past and invites the visitor to share in that past.
Mission Statement
The Trail's End Committee's mission is to construct a monument, in a prominent location, welcoming visitors to Sedalia. This monument to the cattle drive and to towns at the "end of the trail" will feature a one and one-quarter life-size bronze sculpture entitled Trail's End. This beautiful sculpture depicts a cowboy herding longhorn cattle along the Sedalia branch of the Shawnee Trail. It will commemorate the spirit of the cowboy and the can-do attitude associated with our western heritage.
The monument, which the Trail's End sculpture is a key part, also celebrates Sedalia's role as one of the earliest rail-heads at the end-of-the drive. It features full size replicas of a 1870's cattle car, water tower, windmill and locomotive set in a landscape of native prairie grasses and flowers. These elements highlight the role of the railroad in the founding of Sedalia, in the commercial development of the prairies and in the drive to connect our nation as one. It was the building of transcontinental railroads that linked the United States from the Atlantic to the Pacific oceans - from sea to shinning sea.
Following the Civil War, large Texas cattle drives herded longhorns north, up the eastern edge of the Indian Territories to reach the Pacific railheads in Missouri for shipment east to the packinghouses. Maverick cattle worth only two dollars in local Texas markets could be sold for twenty, even forty dollars a head up north at the railheads. Enterprising Texans decided it was worth the risk to round 'em up and head 'em out across 700 to 1,000 miles of wild, often lawless country to the railheads up north. These cattle drives were the confirmation of American exceptionalism and entrepreneurship.
This project is a memorial to the enduring, indomitable, freed-loving character of the cowboy and of the railroad men who forged the pathways across the plains.
Listen to the
Guide by Cell Trail's End Audio Tour
by calling 1-660-202-1156.
Learn about the Starline Brass Trail's End Plaza
before you arrive.
Contributing articles for the Guide by Cell are
Ken Bird, Bill Claycomb, Becky Imhauser and Doug Kiburz.