DAY TRIP by Vicki Wood
Missouri River Steamboat days
The Katy Trail State Park runs 240 miles between Clinton and Machens with 26 trailheads, including one in Rocheport. Charming restaurants and boutiques are a great stop-off along the trail.
Missouri Division of Tourism photos
C
ommerce in Missouri took a hard hit with the Civil War from 1861-1865. One area in particular took on a second wave, when at the end of the war years in 1864, Sterling Price tried to revamp a final acquisition of the Booneslick Country area with a high concentration of pro-confederacy civilians there. Four days before “Bloody Bill” Anderson’s raid and massacre on Union forces at Centralia, he tore up and burned a business district in Rocheport on his way there. What Anderson didn’t count on was the strength of the steamboat commerce at Rocheport, which thrived long before the Civil War. It continued to carry the small town through those hard times, and birthed what is still a popular tourist spot today. Steamboat merchants enjoyed a thriving business at Rocheport’s low docking inlets naturally snuggled up to 12 VACATION NEWS
the rocky cliff faces. The name of the town was originally designated as “Rockport.” It changed when a French missionary showed up later when the town was being platted and Roche happened to be his name. When walking or biking the Katy Trail from the visitor’s center, a short journey takes one to the areas that can clearly still be imagined with river commerce coming and going. There are humble roots there, however. Rocheport’s river trade began with one man and a ferry. John Gray opened a single ferry in 1819. By 1835 there were stores in Rocheport, and two years later there were many more ferries and became a busy crossing for travelers heading west. Daily landings of steamboats at Rocheport June 3-16, 2022
