The Madonna of the Trail statue on the Fayette County Courthouse lawn commemorates the pioneer women who traveled the National Road westward. Vandalia was the western terminus of the old National Road (now US 40), the first federally funded highway in the United States. The road was built starting in 1811 from Cumberland, Maryland, and reached Vandalia in 1839 — at which point Congress refused further funding and the project stopped.
The statue, dedicated in 1928, depicts a strong woman in pioneer dress with a rifle, a baby in her arms, and a small child clutching her skirt — a deliberately unglamorous portrait of the realities of westward migration. It is one of twelve identical statues placed along the route of the National Road through twelve states. The courthouse square setting makes it easy to find and photographs well.