News

The Sedalia Katy Depot, a restored historic landmark is a moving symbol of one of Sedalia’s great periods in its history–the railroad era.  Today, the Depot tells many other stories about Sedalia’s grand past; one of those gaining excitement is an archive project about its musical heritage of Ragtime music and its greatest composer, Scott…

The Sedalia Area Convention and Visitors Bureau works hard to recruit sporting groups to our city, build relationships and support visitors’ needs. We burst with pride when an organization that has many other location options chooses Sedalia to hold its event! So, it is with great pleasure that the Sedalia Convention and Visitors Bureau, in…

A Sedalia Convention & Visitor’s Bureau Blog By L.C. Melton Now all this weekly Sedalia place name business was instigated by an eBay sale I made awhile back. This is a photo of my purchase and If you will observe carefully I think you will see why I was so intrigued. In case you are…

A Sedalia Convention & Visitor’s Bureau Blog By L.C. Melton We have only one more state to visit to round out our collection of Sedalia community place names. South Carolina’s Sedalia also has an interesting history and like most of the others it is probably linked to Missouri’s Sedalia but again there is no direct…

A Sedalia Convention & Visitor’s Bureau Blog By L.C. Melton For a change it is nice to drive into a state and find an actual Sedalia again. North Carolina’s version isn’t very large but after chasing down phantoms in Kentucky and Tennessee its nice to actually see a city limit sign and find a city…

A Sedalia Convention & Visitor’s Bureau Blog By L.C. Melton As I was about to head down the East Coast, I stumbled upon another inland Sedalia, this time in Tennessee. I found it hiding in Hancock County nestled in a crotch just east of Wallen’s Ridge about an hour east of the Cumberland Gap right…

A Sedalia Convention & Visitor’s Bureau Blog By L.C. Melton Considering that West Virginia was split off of the state of Virginia during the Civil War in 1863, I didn’t anticipate finding a Sedalia in the Old Dominion. Nevertheless, there it is so I presume it preceded West Virginia’s but can find out little about…

A Sedalia Convention & Visitor’s Bureau Blog By L.C. Melton I’m back in the states this week…West Virginia specifically and I’m winding my way through the Ohio River Valley in the northwestern part of the state next to the Allegheny Culberland Plateau. Eventually I come upon the tiny impoverished little burg of Sedalia, West Va.…

A Sedalia Convention & Visitor’s Bureau Blog By L.C. Melton This time I managed to find a Sedalia on foreign soil (just barely a place however). Basic information is that this Sedalia was founded in 1925 when a local railroad trunk line came through but it was torn out in 1979. Albertans call it a…

A Sedalia Convention & Visitor’s Bureau Blog By L.C. Melton After wandering out west, I’ll cyber-saunter down to Sedalia, Kentucky in Graves County, current population 315. It is about 35 miles south of Paduca just a spit and slobber from the Tennessee state line. This has to be my favorite Sedalia place name story…true or…

A Sedalia Convention & Visitor’s Bureau Blog By L.C. Melton While I’m out west I’ll head down to Texas and regale you with that bit of Lone Star Sedaliana. Sedalia, Texas, it was established in 1887 and was about 50 miles North of Dallas, 30 miles from Plano on the Collin-Grayson County border. If Sedalia,…

A Sedalia Convention & Visitor’s Bureau Blog By L.C. Melton The mysterious fellow whose hometown of Sedalia, Illinois named the Indiana berg also gave his own name to Moran, Indiana down the road. However, this is the extent of information I can garner on the Illinois, Sedalia. Given the date of the Indiana settlement as…

A Sedalia Convention & Visitor’s Bureau Blog By L.C. Melton In my pilgrimage to trace all the Sedalia communities on the map, I came upon quite a quagmire when I arrived in what was supposed to be Sedalia, Indiana. Oh, it is there for sure about 60 miles north of Indianapolis in the center of…

A Sedalia Convention & Visitor’s Bureau Blog By L.C. Melton I continue my cyber-pilgrimage seeking Sedalia shrines, this time with what I thought would be a brief stop in Ohio. I’m still on Dalia’s trail, too, so I may have to return to the Bluegrass State shortly. When I began my Ohio visit quickly discerned…

A Sedalia Convention & Visitor’s Bureau Blog By L.C. Melton While enjoying the Sedalia, Kentucky story (there just has to have been a Dalia) I stumbled across another on-line Missouri place-names book and lo and behold just as I suspected. Henry Gannett says definitively that Sedalia’s first name was Sadieville using Sarah Smith’s nickname and…

A Sedalia Convention & Visitor’s Bureau Blog By L.C. Melton Browsing for Sedalia sights on the Internet, especially on archival newspaper sites often brings up Sedalia Mining Companies (SMC). Today it is easy to forget that mining was a very popular commercial enterprise in not only Sedalia, Missouri but around the mid-west from the Minnesota…

A Sedalia Convention & Visitor’s Bureau Blog By L.C. Melton First, however, I realize I didn’t adequately locate Sedalia, Colorado which is about 25 miles South of Denver, 30 minutes away by I-25 in Douglas County. While I was roaming around the Centennial State, I popped over to Salida (that’s the right spelling) in Chaffee…

A Sedalia Convention & Visitor’s Bureau Blog By L.C. Melton I’ve been pursuing the origin(s) of Sedalia’s name for some time now since it is now synonymous with the birth of Classic Ragtime and is recognized as a place where America’s music began. But, of course, there are all those other Sedalia’s chartographically sprinkled over…

A Sedalia Convention & Visitor’s Bureau Blog By L.C. Melton Working on the Sedalia Ragtime Archive has frequently led me out of the intoxicating realm of syncopation and into the other fascinating aspects of old “Sedville’s” saga. We’ve all heard the story of Sedalia’s naming, but as I probe the accumulating depths of our magnificent…