Featured Magazine Articles

Montana: On a Path to Better Health Through Trail Prescriptions

Posted 05/11/22 by Amy Grisak in America's Trails | Tagged with Featured Magazine Articles, Great American Rail-Trail, Montana

Missoula's Milwaukee Trail | Courtesy Missoula In Motion

Wellness happens step-by-step in Missoula, Montana. Instead of relying solely on the prescription pad, more of Missoula’s health-care community is recommending movement on Missoula’s Rx Trails to improve everything from back pain to depression.

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Considered icons of the New Orleans jazz sound, King Oliver’s Creole Jazz Band recorded their debut album in 1923 at Gennett Records in Richmond, Indiana. | Courtesty Charlie Dahan

A Walk to Remember: Indiana’s Place as the Crucible of American Music

Posted 02/01/22 by Scott Stark in America's Trails | Tagged with Featured Magazine Articles, Great American Rail-Trail, History Happened Here, Indiana

America’s greatest contribution to cultural history is its music, and no matter what kind of music you listen to, it’s been influenced directly by the records made by those artists of Gennett records.

Gov. Eric Holcomb at the Next Level Trails program announcement in 2019 | Courtesy Indiana Department of Natural Resources

A Conversation With the 2021 Rail-Trail Champion: Indiana Governor Eric Holcomb

Posted 01/25/22 by Brandi Horton, Cory Matteson in America's Trails | Tagged with Champions, Featured Magazine Articles, Great American Rail-Trail, Indiana, Rail-Trail Champion

The state’s Next Level Trails program, part of the broader Next Level Connections infrastructure directive pushed by Indiana Gov. Eric Holcomb, is investing millions to accelerate trail development across the state. The program, which levels the playing field for trail projects of all sizes and spreads investment to small towns, suburbs and urban hubs alike, could serve as a model for other states and is one reason that RTC is honoring Holcomb as the 2021 Doppelt Family Rail-Trail Champion.

Verna Volker | Photo by Jaylyn Gough, courtesy Hoka One One

Trail Moments | Native Women Running Founder Verna Volker Gets a Running Start on Social Change

Posted 12/06/21 by Laura Stark in America's Trails, Trail Use | Tagged with Encouraging Trail Use, Featured Magazine Articles, Health and Active Living, Trail Moments, Walkability and Bikeability, Why Use Trails?

Running is something that Volker picked up later in life, shortly after the birth of her third child. “I didn’t start until about 12 years ago, when I was at my heaviest, about 200 pounds. We had just moved from Nebraska to Minnesota, and I had a preschooler, a toddler and a newborn. But, in Minneapolis, I noticed that there was a really good trail and park system, so I saw people running a lot and thought, ‘I should try that.’ I started running, but I was so clueless. I didn’t even know how to shop for shoes, but I just kept running.”

Sheet music image | Courtesy University of Colorado, Music Library

Taters and Trains: The Great Big Baked Potato and the Northern Pacific Line

Posted 11/10/21 by Scott Stark in America's Trails | Tagged with Featured Magazine Articles, Great American Rail-Trail, History Happened Here, Tourism

The year was 1908; Hazen Titus was the new superintendent of dining cars for the now-defunct Northern Pacific (NP) Railway when he overheard a conversation between two passengers that would result in the NP’s dining cars catapulting ahead of the competition and cementing the railway in the public’s imagination.

Part of the developing Louisiana Bootlace Trail Network, New Orleans’ Wisner Trail is nestled between two popular recreational amenities: City Park and Bayou St. John. Photo by Jennifer Ruley, courtesy City of New Orleans.

Close Ties: Louisiana Bootlace Trail Network

Posted 10/26/21 by Chez Chesak in America's Trails | Tagged with Connected Systems, Featured Magazine Articles, Funding, Hall of Fame, Louisiana, Tourism , Trail Destinations

Trail advocates in Louisiana are coming together with a vision to create a 100-miles-plus trail network loop that will lace together a dozen parishes on a route connecting Baton Rouge and the Mississippi Gulf Coast.

Met Branch Trail | Photo by India Kea

Reimagining Public Spaces

Posted 10/12/21 by Ryan Chao in America's Trails | Tagged with COVID-19, Demand for Trails, Featured Magazine Articles, Health and Active Living, Mode Shift, Route of the Badger, Trail Moments, TrailNation, Walkability and Bikeability, Why Use Trails?

Last year, when the team at Rails-to-Trails Conservancy (RTC) was elbow deep in defining the elements of our next strategic plan, a global pandemic had upended the world, and calls for justice were bringing focus to the deep and far-reaching impact of racial inequities. In that moment, we explored the strengths of our movement, our role in bringing solutions to these significant social challenges and the opportunities ahead. What we found captured our imagination and brought reason for hope.

The Elwha River Bridge in Port Angeles along the Olympic Discovery Trail has two decks—one for vehicles and one (below it) for pedestrians and bicyclists. | Photo by John Gussman

Connections of Land, Sea and Sky: Olympic Discovery Trail

Posted 09/07/21 by Cory Matteson in America's Trails | Tagged with Featured Magazine Articles, Great American Rail-Trail, People with Disabilities, Tourism , Trail Businesses, Trail Destinations, Washington

Eventually stretching from Puget Sound to the Pacific Ocean, the Olympic Discovery Trail (ODT) is a showcase of some of the most renowned cultural and natural assets on the North Olympic Peninsula.

Volunteers participate in a sacred corn planting in 2019, sowing the seeds by hand. | Photo by Alex Matzke, courtesy Bold Nebraska

The Legacy of White Buffalo Girl, and the Resiliency of a People

Posted 06/04/21 by Scott Stark in America's Trails | Tagged with Featured Magazine Articles, Great American Rail-Trail, Heritage and Restoration, History Happened Here, Local Organizing, Nebraska

In Laurel Hill Cemetery just outside the town of Neligh, Nebraska, stands a gravestone. The gravesite represents grief, suffering and a historic injustice. This final resting place marked the end of a short life but the beginning of a generations-long story. Here lies White Buffalo Girl.

Along the Illinois Prairie Path in Warrenville | Photo by Beverly Horne/Daily Herald/dailyherald.com

American Icons: Rail-Trails That Helped Shape the National Landscape

Posted 01/22/21 by Amy Kapp in Policy, America's Trails, Building Trails | Tagged with Featured Magazine Articles, Federal, History Happened Here, Illinois, Recreational Trails Program, Transportation Alternatives

Over the last 60 years, rail-trails have gone from a quiet idea to pillars of America’s social, health, economic, environmental and transportation landscapes—with more than 2,200 rail-trails today encompassing some 24,000+ miles across the United States. Here, as Rails-to-Trails Conservancy celebrates its 35th anniversary this year, we take a closer look at some of the country’s earliest rail-trails, and how they helped inspire and build a nationwide movement.