Rails-to-Trails Conservancy: Rallying for Missouri's Rock Island Trail

The Rails-to-Trails Conservancy is one of our partners in the effort to preserve the Rock Island RR corridor, and partnered with the Missouri Rock Island Trail, Inc, and MoBikeFed to organize last Friday's Rally in Support of the Rock Island Trail at the capitol.

After Friday's event, Brandi Horton of RTC wrote:

Wow. Today my heart is full. 

Supporters of the Rock Island Trail rallied at the state Capitol in Jefferson, Missouri. | Photo by Brandi Horton

I’m just coming off of a trip to Jefferson City, Missouri, where I met dozens of people who live along the Rock Island rail corridor. Hearing their stories about what this future trail means to their lives affirmed the importance of the work that we are doing. Beyond that, though, it affirmed how critical this trail is to the well-being of the small towns it will pass through.

It’s easy to get excited about the Rock Island Trail; at 144 miles in length, this trail has the potential to be epic. It has tunnels and amazing bridges (like the Gasconade River Bridge) and weaves in and out of rural towns that are the length of its route. It promises beauty and adventure.

The connections to the Katy Trail—more than 450 miles when the whole thing is completed—will be beyond epic. It will be an international sensation. Nothing like it will exist in the country or the world.

But when you listen to people like April Siegfried, who recently opened a general store in Chilhowee, you understand that what makes this trail epic isn’t just its vistas and its infrastructure—it’s the promise of a new economy to small towns that don’t have much else to count on. Siegfried told the more than 150 people at the Missouri State Capitol that since her store opened a few months ago, more than 170 have signed her guest book—more than half the population of Chilhowee, which boasts 329 residents—some from as far away as Alaska and Germany. In her words, they wouldn’t have any other reason to visit Chilhowee. The trail brings them—and their tourism dollars.

  

Much more of Brandi's article at the RTC web site.

Please remember to fill out Missouri State Park's Survey in support of the Rock Island Trail--and if you have already completed the survey, make sure every one in your household and every one of your bicycling, walking, and trails friends have completed the survey.

Working to create a world-class bicycling, walking, and trail network across Missouri one of the top goals of MoBikeFed's Vision for Bicycling and Walking in Missouri.

Working to support major statewide trails initiatives like the Rock Island Trail is one of the most important ways we help reach that goal.

Your ongoing membership and generous financial support helps turn our Vision into reality!