Obelisk at Ozark TravelCenter to pay homage to old Ozark Trail

65-foot sign may become landmark for Mt. Vernon travelers
If you have been by the site of the soon-to-be completed Ozark TravelCenter, just south of I-44 in Mt. Vernon, you will most likely have noticed a huge steel structure under construction on the grounds of the truck stop. When completed, that structure will be an obelisk, made in the image of another that stood out west about 100 years ago, and it will pay tribute to the old Ozark Trail, which was the main way of travel across the United States before the construction of the historic Route 66.

An homage to American history
“Before US Route 66 (was established),” said Brent Wilmoth, president of Wilmoth Companies, which owns the Ozark TravelCenter, “the Ozark Trail was a highway that connected Saint Louis and Las Vegas, New Mexico, or the Santa Fe area. So basically, it went from Saint Louis to Santa Fe, and then they had different offshoots of that going to different areas, going north to Kansas City and northward and going south to Memphis, southeast of Memphis and then south to Northwest Arkansas. And it also went to El Paso and different places.”
The obelisk will be a replica of the one that once stood at the western end of the Ozark Trail in New Mexico. Wilmoth said he hoped erecting the large structure would help bring a portion of American history to life for those who stop at the travel center.
“We wanted to bring a little bit of historical value back that pre-dated US Route 66,” he said, “so we made a decision to erect the obelisk. It's a replica of what was on the trail, and it was at the end of the trail, in Las Vegas, New Mexico. It's no longer in existence, but I saw a picture of it, and I wanted to erect an obelisk that could bring a little bit of history back, and people might be able to understand a little of the western movement in the early 1900s”

Obelisk will have names, distances of travel destinations
When completed, the replica obelisk will stand 65-feet tall, which Wilmoth estimated was “three times the height” of the original obelisk. Each of its four sides of the replica will face one of the four cardinal points of direction, and on each side, there will be written the names of different travel destinations, as well as the direction and distance from Mt. Vernon in which they are located.
“If you're going east,” Wilmoth said, “it's Springfield, St. Louis, Indianapolis, Columbus, Ohio, Pittsburgh Penn., Philadelphia, Penn. New York City and Bangor, Maine, and it's got the mileages from our location to those going east. North is Kansas City Mo, Omaha, Neb., Des Moines, Iowa, Minneapolis, Minn., Fargo, North Dakota and International Falls, Minn.”
Going south, Wilmoth said, the destinations include “Table Rock Lake, Little Rock, Ark., Dallas, Texas, Houston, Texas, New Orleans and Brownsville, Texas.”
Finally, the western destinations, Wilmoth said, are “Joplin, Tulsa, Oklahoma City, Amarillo, Albuquerque, Flagstaff and Los Angeles.”

Wilmoth hopes obelisk will become an attraction that brings in travelers
The 65-foot obelisk is being built by Troy McShane, owner of Dirtworx, out of Strafford, and it is projected to be completed by Monday, March 27. A 10-foot granite version of the obelisk, which will stand in front of Ozark TravelCenter, is expected to be completed and in place around April 15.
Next to the obelisk, Wilmoth said, there will also be other amenities for travelers to enjoy. He said he hopes the structure will become a recognized landmark for the area, a “calling card” for Mt. Vernon.
“Where it’s erected, we're going to have an area for seating so people can go out and take a break, eat lunch,” he said. (We’ll also) have a dog park, so we're going to associate that (with the obelisk). It's going to kind of be our calling card, the calling card for Mount Vernon. Our hopes are people make it kind of an attraction where people want to stop and see it.”