The Monark Trail - is a rail-trail between Neosho & Harrison, AR possible? Neosho Daily News

Headlines are quick hits from media outlets from Missouri and around the world. Follow the headline link for the full story. The source of this headline says:

I read an interesting article last week about a hiking and biking trail being created in Missouri on part of an abandoned bed of the Rock Island Railroad line.

It wouldn't be the first such project of its kind, of course, but it did reawaken a thought I had years ago: What if a nature trail could be made of part of the old Missouri and North Arkansas Railroad Company rail route? At its peak, M&NA trains carried passengers and freight from Joplin, Mo. to Helena, Ark.

For most of its life (1907-1946) trains ran steady between Neosho and Harrison, Ark. The railroad is directly responsible for the birth of a number of local, modern “Monark” towns along its former route, including Stark City, Fairview, and Wheaton. The railway was also directly and indirectly responsible for the creation of several smaller communities such as Monark Springs, Aroma, and Ridgley, among others. The old M&NA rail bed runs between and through them all.

Link: 

The Monark Trail - is a rail-trail between Neosho & Harrison, AR possible? Neosho Daily News

A good place to start is with the Missouri Blueways report by MoBikeFed Advisory Commission and Yellow Jersey Club member Jeff Huff:

http://mobikefed.org/2006/03/missouri-blueways-report-how-to-identify-an...

The report details and maps existing, unused, and abandoned railroads across Missouri, with an eye to allowing them to be converted to railtrails where possible.

That report, compiled in 2006, shows the Monark line as still 'active'. That may mean that is far easier to convert to a rail trail than Wes anticipates in his article.

http://www.railstotrails.org/build-trails/trail-building-toolbox/corrido...