The National U. S. Trail Association has its headquarters at the former infirmary building at Jefferson Barracks, Missouri, where it shares space with the building’s owner, Jefferson Barracks Heritage Foundation. The building, at 96 Worth Road (63125), faces the Barracks’s historic parade ground, which is still an active Air National Guard post. The Trail Association is an active participant in efforts to preserve the history and character of lands adjacent to the post that have been decommissioned over the course of the last 20 years. Jefferson Barracks celebrates its 200th anniversary in 2026.
Jefferson Barracks has this distinction: More future Civil War Generals, Union and Confederate, served here than at any other military installation in the United States. As Civil War enthusiasts well know, in 1843, this was the first posting of Lt. Ulysses Grant. It was also the reason he met his future wife Julia Dent: His roommate at West Point in their senior year was Julia’s brother Frederick Dent. The Dent home of 1843, now the Ulysses S. Grant National Historic Site, is seven miles from our headquarters. [link to NPS site]