Cory Matteson
Cory Matteson is a contributor to Rails to Trails magazine and the TrailBlog. He lives in Springfield, Missouri, where he works as a public affairs reporter for the nonprofit Springfield Daily Citizen.
Related Posts
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Heritage Corridor: How the Farmington Canal Heritage Trail Is Sparking Connections and Community Prosperity in Connecticut
January 30, 2025
In 2015, Ray Charpentier, diagnosed with multiple sclerosis a decade earlier, fell off his bike at a red light in Manchester, Connecticut. Struggling to get up, he feared it marked the end of his cycling days. “My balance was so bad,” Charpentier, now 61, said. “I was like, ‘I can’t do this anymore.’” He shared […]
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Examining the W&OD Trail as a Beloved Northern Virginia Asset and National Model
October 08, 2024
In 2012, Beth and Dave Meyer were considering opening up a bike shop in the Washington, D.C., suburb of Herndon, Virginia, in an old downtown feed store that had mostly sat vacant for a decade. It was a sleepy block back then, Beth Meyer said, but there was a lot of life passing by just […]
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American Icon: The Great American Rail-Trail Is on Its Way to Fulfilling a Cross-Country Vision
May 07, 2024
Five Years After Launch, the Great American Rail-Trail Is on Its Way to Fulfilling a Cross-Country Vision Whitney Washington knew she’d embark on a cross-country bike trip of some kind, eventually. When a friend sent her an article about a burgeoning route called the Great American Rail-Trail®, it gave her something concrete enough to start […]
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Trident Depot Saved by Three Forks Community Encapsulates Region’s Rich History
May 06, 2024
Following a swift, all-hands-on-deck effort by a collection of historic preservationists and southwest Montana residents to save it in 2011, the historic Trident Depot now serves as the Railroad and Trident Heritage Center in neighboring Three Forks, Montana. The depot is now located in John Q. Adams Milwaukee Railroad Park along the Headwaters Trail System. […]
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Depot in Center Point Is a Trailside Landmark to Iowa Town’s 1914 Awakening
April 30, 2024
Now home to a museum that preserves the stories of the eastern Iowa town for which it is named, the Center Point Depot is a key piece of area history. Added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2018, the depot was one of eight along the Waterloo, Cedar Falls & Northern Railway (WCF&N). […]
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Century-Old Bridge in Brandon Is a Legacy to Iowa’s Railroad Heyday
April 30, 2024
After a catastrophic 2008 flood destroyed two historic bridges that offered people on Iowa’s Cedar Valley Nature Trail passage over the Cedar River, only one functional double-arched span bridge—created on the path over a century ago—remained. Built just east of Brandon, Iowa, in 1913 as part of an expansion of the Waterloo, Cedar Falls & […]
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Elements of Gold: Michigan’s Pere Marquette Rail-Trail Is a Special Place for All Seasons
April 08, 2024
“The Pere Marquette is like a gold standard, in my opinion, for the quality of the trail and the upkeep. This is something that people can enjoy all the time.” —Brad Alvesteffer, Owner, Ray’s Bike Shop As the rising sun broke through on an overcast mid-November Michigan morning, a group of four women convened in […]
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Remembering Franco Harris—Trails and Bicycling Advocate
June 15, 2023
“On a football field, you cannot go much farther than 100 yards. And on a rail-trail, you can go forever.” —Franco Harris The Immaculate Reception got its name thanks to the one-in-a-million catch Pittsburgh Steelers Pro Football Hall of Famer Franco Harris made on a last-second heave that ricocheted his way after it bounced off […]
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Of History and Industry: The Legacy of the Ohio & Erie Canal Towpath Trail
March 14, 2023
Diana Hildebrand, better known across Cleveland’s vast bike advocacy community as DevahD, bought her first bike on her 37th birthday, shortly after she and her family moved to the city. It was a hulking 1975 men’s Schwinn steel road bike, and the 8-mile ride she took on the $50 beast the day after she bought […]
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Indiana State Rep. Carey Hamilton Named 2022 Rail-Trail Champion
September 12, 2022
Rails-to-Trails Conservancy (RTC) is pleased to announce Indiana State Rep. Carey Hamilton as the 2022 Doppelt Family Rail-Trail Champion for her leadership in founding the Indiana Legislative Trails Caucus, a bipartisan group of state legislators committed to building out the state’s trail network. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Rails-to-Trails Conservancy (@railstotrails) Rep. Hamilton’s […]
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Bridge to Everywhere: Examining Signature Gateways Across America
June 09, 2022
Across the United States, bridges are serving as the hallmarks, gateways and centerpieces of communities, providing connectivity that has a major impact on active transportation, tourism and economic development. Plus—there’s the view. Here, Rails to Trails spans the country to examine how bridges are transforming trails and regions. “It will strengthen the view that if the public […]
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Richmond’s Roots
May 11, 2022
It’s a chilly mid-November Saturday morning in California’s East Bay, and a collection of staff members from Urban Tilth, an agricultural nonprofit that operates a farm and community gardens in Richmond, California, is leading a volunteer cleanup and planting session on a section of the 3-mile Richmond Greenway. Their focus is on a trail block that houses […]
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A Conversation With the 2021 Rail-Trail Champion: Indiana Governor Eric Holcomb
January 25, 2022
In the state that’s home to the Indianapolis 500, speed is a matter of pride. In Indiana, that spirit extends to the priority the state’s leadership is putting on nonmotorized recreation and active transportation. The state’s Next Level Trails program, part of the broader Next Level Connections infrastructure directive pushed by Indiana Governor Eric J. Holcomb, is […]
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Top 10 Trails in Nebraska
October 27, 2021
Let me preface my intro by saying that the first story I wrote for Rails-to-Trails Conservancy (RTC) was about the Chief Standing Bear Trail, which begins in Beatrice, Nebraska, about 40 miles south of my home in Lincoln. Nebraska is a key connector for the Great American Rail-Trail™, with over half of the 591 miles of the […]
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Connections of Land, Sea and Sky: Olympic Discovery Trail
September 07, 2021
In February 2021, the Jamestown S’Klallam Tribe in Washington State won a key court decision that paved the way for the development of a medication-assisted treatment facility in the Olympic Peninsula community of Sequim. This facility—the Jamestown S’Klallam Healing Clinic—was not without detractors. While many supporters of the project emphasized the need to provide healing […]
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What’s It Like to Ride the Great American Rail-Trail? Just Ask These Trail Trekkers.
May 07, 2021
Soon after Rails-to-Trails Conservancy (RTC) and partners announced the preferred route of the Great American Rail-Trail™ at a live broadcast on May 8, 2019, some trail fans started planning and mapping. Others barely took time to throw on a pair of sneakers or inflate their tires before they hopped on it. Whether they’re setting out to cross it in […]
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As Trail Use Spikes, Communities Seek Solutions for Safe Use This Winter
February 08, 2021
The first few months of 2020 were supposed to be a time for the volunteer stewards of the new Ashokan Rail-Trail (ART) in New York’s mid-Hudson Valley to take a breather and gear up for the trail’s first spring. Nine of the ART’s 11.5 crushed limestone miles and one of its three trailheads opened in October 2019 along the […]
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Special Olympics Promotes Exploration, Fitness and Discovery on Kansas Trails
January 31, 2021
Jennifer Jennings, a longtime competitor in Special Olympics Kansas (soks.org) swimming events, was elated last winter when she made her Overland Park high school’s swim team. “And about not even a week later, they had to cancel the season,” said Amy Jennings, Jennifer’s mom. “That was heartbreaking. To see her so disappointed—and then they canceled […]
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Rail-Trail Champion Eleanor Holmes Norton on Linking the Nation by Trail
January 28, 2021
For her long-standing efforts to support trail networks in her native Washington, D.C., and across the United States, Rails-to-Trails Conservancy has named Rep. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-D.C.) America’s 2020 Doppelt Family Rail-Trail Champion. Rep. Norton, a member of the U.S. House of Representatives’ Transportation and Infrastructure Committee and chair of its Highways and Transit Subcommittee, has been a […]
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How Trails and Outdoor Access Provide Important Mental Health Benefits
September 02, 2020
Included in the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) website pages dedicated to COVID-19 is a section about the potential effects of the coronavirus on our mental health. “Pandemics can be stressful,” it reads. Indeed. Fear about a new disease. Concern about the health of your loved ones and your own health too. Instability […]
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New York’s Ashokan Rail Trail
December 03, 2019
Trail of the Month: December 2019 “We find ourselves here today on a rail-trail that is national park-worthy, world-class really.” —Michael Hein, former Ulster County Executive On its opening weekend, in the throes of peak leaf season, the stewards of New York’s Ashokan Rail Trail assembled at the Woodstock Dike Trailhead because they rightly suspected that trail users […]
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Iowa’s Cedar Valley Nature Trail
May 14, 2019
Trail of the Month: May 2019 “Just in that original 52-mile stretch, you can see every ecosystem that Iowa has to offer.” —Cherrie Northrup, planning administrator for Black Hawk County Conservation When you visit the website that lists the dozens of parks, trails and wildlife areas managed by Black Hawk County Conservation, you will find a link to a […]
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16 Historic Highlights Along the Route of the Great American Rail-Trail
May 08, 2019
Rail-trails are the perfect way for us to connect to each other, our communities and our cultural heritage. Unique in makeup and geography, each trail that’s hosting the 3,700-miles-plus preferred route of the Great American Rail-Trail has many stories to tell—some as old as, or far older than, our country itself. Both well known and lesser known, […]
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Landmark and Legacy: Nebraska’s Chief Standing Bear Trail
November 01, 2017
Until 2015, Larry Wright Jr. had never walked the abandoned Union Pacific railway that ran alongside the Big Blue River in southeastern Nebraska, a path similar to one his ancestors traveled—against their will and on foot—years prior to the railroad’s completion in the early 1880s. In the spring of 1877, U.S. Cavalry evicted the Ponca […]
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