Katy Trail State Park

Which a lot of people don't know.

They know about the Katy Trail, but they don't maybe understand just how large and incredible that it is.

Yeah, and, you know, I think one of the great points that Trail State makes is that it, uh, is a way to, uh, invigorate, uh, these rural communities-

Mm-hmm

I'm gonna be running in the New York Marathon in a couple weeks.

Wow.

So, uh, you know, I'm on the Katy Trail.

I was at Forest Park this weekend.

I had the great opportunity of hooking up with him last Sunday.

He texted me and said he was doing the Big Mo bike ride, which takes the Katy Trail across Missouri.

He said, we're starting in Clinton, Missouri.

I don't know how far that is from you.

... over the last six decades.

And it's important to, you know, that you created this festival that really celebrates what's happening in St. Louis and then all across the Midwest, 'cause you mentioned those three aspects that, that feel so Missouri to us, you know, is the hiking, growing up biking on the Katy Trail, outdoors, all these hi- all these beautiful parks that we have in St. Louis, and then also this creative community that we're surrounded by.

I mean, even us here, we're in our studio here creating something-

Exactly

We've got, uh, Kansas City.

We've got the Katy Trail, uh, here, where a lot of people hike and bike it.

So St. Louis-

[laughs]

And man, that whole corner there between the Good News Brewery, Stone Ledge, and the Defiance Roadhouse, what a f- what a place.

That is just like a wild little cor- And then it's right next to the Katy Trail.

So, uh, that was really cool.

In fact, right behind the Stone Ledge, uh, at the Katy Trail, uh, they had, like, a little table where you could buy mimosas and screwdrivers and stuff like that.

And so I bought a, a screwdriver, and I was standing there.

And I guess they put the table where, like, if you're standing in front of the table, you're basically in the Katy Trail.

Uh, and there are two ways you can go if you're biking that way.

There's one through a fence, like there's a little opening there, another opening there.

So what's true of cities is also true of states.

I recently had the pleasure of riding some of Missouri's Katy Trail, which spans some 240 miles from the suburbs of St. Louis to the suburbs of Kansas City.

With the initial startup costs bankrolled by Pat

Edward Jones,

Missouri continues to invest in maintaining this trail.

A recent study determined that the economic impact of Katy Trail Park visitor spending on the state's GDP was valued at $20 million annually.

Much of this economic impact supports towns struggling due to the loss of the railroad.

The impact has been so positive, in fact, for the quality of life for the people in these communities, that Missouri is now working on building a second trail that spans the entire width of the state.

... bike trails.

The Katy Trail, as you know, in, um, uh, Missouri goes from, you know, St. Louis to Kansas City on a, on a uninterrupted bike path.

It's a fantastic way to go see the state.

A- and you're ...

Oh, my goodness.

I, well, I, I, I rode the Katy Trail, so I went to all them places.

Yeah.

Katy Trail goes right through Sedalia.

Yeah.

My wife rides it every now and again, so.

The Katy Trail?

Yeah.

But he loved those communities, and he wanted to see them grow and thrive.

And because of the work he did, he now just has a firm that's in you know, every client with every county in the country and every province in Canada, but the investments he's made into the state of Missouri, into the Katy Trail, into the city of St. Louis, and into now so many communities that have been touched by Edward Jones across the country.

I wonder if he would have thought about what that impact would have been as he started this and got into the early fights with his father.

It was, I was at my, I won't say which, but I was at a high school reunion, and, you know, we were running into people that you hadn't seen in 20, 25, 30 years, and I ran into a good old friend of mine, somebody I'd spent a lot of time with in high school and just had fallen out of touch.