2009 Benefit Concert Aids Trail Expansion

Acclaimed artist, John McCutcheon presented a benefit concert for our trail last October which helped raise much needed funds to help pave more miles of the trail.  
$560,000 of local funds are needed to match the $1.3 million in grants available to help finish paving the last few miles of the present 18 miles of trail that reaches from Riceville northwest to the Iowa-Minnesota state line.  The next phase is to extend the trail southward toward the rest of the Iowa free trail system.  If anyone has ideas or would like to donate, please call 1-641-985-2621.

The Wapsi-Great Western Line Trail was founded in 1990 - ten years after the Chicago Great Western Railroad ran its last trains through the area. The railroad bed, upon which much of the 18 mile trail is built, runs along the headwaters of the storied Wapsipinicon River. You will ride or walk past a lake and through prairie, farmland, forests and marshland to the Minnesota border. The trailhead is in the charming rural community of Riceville, Iowa (featured in the Smithsonian Magazine) just West of US 63 on IA Hwy 9. You will also pass Amish and Mennonite farms and communities and giant wind turbines.

The Gateway to Iowa  --  The Gateway to Minnesota --  Join the Movement