Located at the intersection of Interstate 70 and U.S. 54, at Kingdom City, is a tourism center and firefighters memorial about twenty minutes east of Columbia.
The firefighters memorial is a unique attraction, and is maintained by the Firefighters Association of Missouri. The associations web site has a lot of pictures of various events at the memorial. There are restaurants nearby as well as other amenities so it makes a good place to make at least a brief stop.
The best information I could find about the history of the memorial was from www.waymarking.com and this is a direct quote from that excellent web site:
This fire fighters memorial was dedicated May 18, 2002. On the black granite walls the names of all the Missouri fire fighters who have died in the line of duty since the first Fred Turnbull, St. Louis VFD, 1838 to the present. The Fire Fighter in Prayer statue is actually the second one. The first one was in transit through New York City on September 11, 2001 enroute to this memorial. On September 19, 2001, the New York Fire Department accepted the gift of the first Fire Fighter in Prayer statue from Missouri Fire Service. The gift was in honor of the 343 fire fighters who died in fall of the World Trade Center. The original remains in New York City at 8th Avenue and 41st Street and is probably one of the first 9/11 Memorials.
