Trails Across America Historical Marker Program
Brandon Bridge along the Cedar Valley Nature Trail in Iowa | Photo courtesy Black Hawk County Conservation
RTC and the William G. Pomeroy Foundation are pleased to present Trails Across America, designed to celebrate and preserve history along America’s multiuse trails. Through the program, we are collaborating with communities across the nation to select, develop and install premium cast-aluminum historical markers featuring unique places, people and history along greenways, canal towpaths and rail-trails—linking communities while honoring their pasts.
Markers
George Washington Land Tract – Montour Trail
In 1774, George Washington accepted a 2,813-acre piece of land in what is now southwest Pennsylvania, near Pittsburgh, as payment for a debt owed by a neighbor. Believing it to be a good investment—and always thinking of the future—Washington did not anticipate that, during his time serving in the Revolution—13 families would take up residence on the land. The families had established productive farms, but to Washington, they were squatters.
Read more about the land dispute on the TrailBlog.
Learn more on the Historic Fort Cherry website.
Marker Location: 4 Kler St., Southview, PA 15361 (40.32829, -80.25591)
Acknowledgments:
Dayton-Kettering Connector – Capt. Don Gentile
“The air to me was what being on the ground was to other people,” wrote Capt. Dominic Salvatore ‘Don’ Gentile in his 1944 autobiography.
Marker Location: 915 Peach Orchard Road, Kettering, OH 45419 (Gentile Nature Park—near the park’s trail entrance)
An Eagle Squadron pilot and American flying ace in World War II—Dominic Salvatore “Don” Gentile would go on to be a decorated fighter pilot, downing or destroying more than 27 enemy planes and earning 13 war decorations. While presenting Gentile with the Distinguished Service Cross, Gen. Dwight Eisenhower dubbed him a “one-man air force.” A Piqua, Ohio, native, he is commemorated now along the Dayton-Kettering Connector at Gentile Nature Park.
Read more about the WWII air ace on the TrailBlog.
Acknowledgements:
Sacajawea and the Corps of Discovery | Montana’s Headwaters Trail System
In 1805, a young Lemhi Shoshone woman named Sacajawea made history by navigating 40 men—led by Meriwether Lewis and William Clark—through difficult terrain as they made their way westward through Montana along the Missouri River—searching for its “origins.” Today, Sacajawea’s critical contributions to the Corps of Discovery expedition are celebrated in Three Forks along the Headwaters Trail System.
Learn more about Sacajawea’s contributions to the nation on the TrailBlog.
Marker Location: A marker will be installed in the near future at Talc Road (just south of US2) in Three Forks, Montana (45.898444, -111.534528) in the near future!
Acknowledgments:
- Headwaters Trail System
- Three Forks Area Historical Society
- American Philosophical Society
- Newberry Library (Chicago)
Since its inception in 2005, the Pomeroy Foundation has funding more than 2,000 signs and roadside markers across the United States, all the way to Alaska. Learn more about its partner programs.
