This article first appeared in INHF's Spring 2008 magazine.
Whether you bike, skate or walk on INHF’s latest trail corridor acquisition, you will be traveling through history. In late 2007, INHF purchased a 28-mile trail corridor that connects Waukee, Dallas Center, Minburn, Perry and Dawson. Readers over a certain age may remember boarding the train in Des Moines for a vacation get-away to Iowa’s Great Lakes region. Or they might have caught the cross-country Hiawatha train in Perry and gone all the way to California. Riding along what will be trail corridor, train passengers in the 1880s would have passed by family farms, small towns and people traveling by foot and horse. Later travelers spotted an increasing number of roads and automobiles, which forced an end to passenger train service by 1952. More recently the rail system supported freight trains. However, when Union Pacific Railroad determined that this 28-mile segment was no longer required to serve Iowa’s rail transportation needs, it began “railbanking” the line and negotiating with INHF for its purchase. In December 2007, Union Pacific sold the corridor to INHF for a generous bargain price, donating more than $4 million dollars of its appraised value. INHF has since transferred ownership to the Dallas County Conservation Board, which is raising acquisition and development funds from trail communities, the Iowa Department of Transportation and private sources. This newest trail project will be an extension of the Raccoon River Valley Trail (RRVT), a popular “rail trail” which opened in 1989. The new segment will form a large loop within the RRVT, which is part of an even larger loop within the growing Central Iowa Trails Network. The Network is part of the American Discovery Trail, a proposed transcontinental route. And they’re all part of our nation’s heritage and its future. For more information, e-mail Cathy Engstrom, Director of Communications, or call (515) 288-1846. © Copyright
2009
Iowa Natural Heritage Foundation |
