Sixteen-year dream of Twin Lakes Trail is a reality
-
Sun November 25 2007
-
Posted Nov 25, 2007
- 7,164
Final concrete segment complete
By JO VETTER, Messenger Correspondent
TWIN LAKES — The Twin Lakes Trail project in Calhoun County has been completed.
After 16 years of dreaming, planning, writing grants, negotiating land sales and overcoming obstacles, the Calhoun County Conservation Department and innumerable volunteers can celebrate, according to Katherine Linder, Twin Lakes Trail volunteer.
Seven miles of 10-foot-wide concrete trail now winds through trees, across prairie, and next to farmland.
It skirts right along the edge of North Twin Lake in some places and crosses the road to find its way along residents’ back yards in other places.
According to Linder, the trail connects five parks, including Featherstone Park on the north end of the lake and Twin Lakes State Park on the east.
In addition, the trail connects to South Twin Lakes Road and has a spur going east through the woods as well as a spur to the west.
While taking her first walk on the final section of the trail to be completed, Linder stopped now and then to remove twigs and occasional clumps of black Iowa dirt that had been left behind by construction.
She said, ‘‘It’s not just one person or one organization’’ that made the trail a success.
Although the Twin Lakes Trail began in the late 1980s as the project of a small committee called the Twin Lakes Restoration Association, actual construction didn’t begin for some time, Linder said.
The early years were full of disappointment, according to Linder, ‘‘Between 1991 and 1998, I wrote five or six grants and got nothing,’’ she said.
Keith Roos, Calhoun County Conservation director said, ‘‘It was pretty tough sometimes.’’
Linder, the only member of the original committee still working on the trail, said she kept going through those years of discouragement in part because of the words of another original committee member, Charles Petersen of Twin Lakes.
Petersen is now deceased, but Linder said he told her years ago, ‘‘You just don’t give up.’’
‘‘‘If it’s worthwhile, you keep working,’ he told me,’’ Linder said.
Ten years passed before Linder saw the dream start to become a reality.
Private donations and a grant of $356,000 from the Iowa Department of Natural Resources had made it possible to acquire and restore Gutz Prairie.
The cropland was taken out of production, thereby improving water quality in the lake, according to Linder.
The first section of the Twin Lakes Trail, one-third of a mile of asphalt, was built through the prairie on the northwest side of north Twin Lake in the year 2000.
It was at that time that Leonard Woodruff of Woodruff Construction in Fort Dodge became involved.
According to Linder, the Woodruff family donated the funds to build a small covered bridge over a creek on the edge of Gutz Prairie.
‘‘I thought it would be nice to have a little covered bridge,’’ Woodruff said. ‘‘It could also be a shelter.’’
Although the bridge eventually connected the prairie to the northernmost part of the trail through Featherstone Park, in 2000 it was ‘‘sort of a bridge to nowhere’’ according to Linder.
Demonstrating the commitment of the volunteers, Woodruff said, ‘‘We knew there’d be a trail.’’
‘‘Federal funds became available for trails,’’ Roos said. ‘‘We were lucky enough to get funding for three sections.’’
According to Linder, this grant money came in the form of Federal Highway Enhancement Funds. Slowly, piece by piece, the Twin Lakes Trail took shape.
According to Linder and Roos, not everyone was in favor of building the trail. Various landowners had different wants and needs for their properties.
‘‘People had concerns,’’ Linder said, referring to what she called legitimate worries about traffic, trash and possible damage to property.
‘‘As sections (of the trail) opened up, the usage increased,’’ Roos said. However, he said he thinks that landowners began to see that just as in other areas where trails were being put in, property values also increased.
In addition to the work done by the Calhoun County Conservation Department, a large network of volunteers continues to help beautify and maintain the trail, according to Linder. She said that volunteers pick up trash, mow, and even tend to little oases that are located all along the trail.
Two volunteers found hard at work on the last day of trail construction, were Bill Crouse and Pat Minnick, both retirees who have devoted considerable hours to the project.
Minnick found his niche in the project planting trees — 430 of them to be exact. Between the years 2005 and 2007, Trees Forever donated nearly $10,000 and Mid-American Energy contributed another $3,000 for a wide variety of trees.
Minnick said, ‘‘In case another disease comes through, like the one that got the ash trees, we’ll always have diversity.’’
Crouse donated supplies, use of equipment, and space in a large building he owns. Additionally his expertise in running a crane was used when the trail bridge on South Twin Lake was constructed.
‘‘Hundreds of people have given time and money,’’ Minnick said.
In fact, according to Linder, of the $2.5 million dollars that went into the Twin Lakes Trail, more than $1,033,000 was privately donated money or land.
‘‘Additionally, Vision Iowa provided $300,000, as did Calhoun County,’’ said Linder.
‘‘In the end it was a real group effort,’’ Roos said. ‘‘It was a long process, but we’re finally done.’’
‘‘We’re not 100 percent done,’’ Woodruff said. ‘‘We do have concrete all around the lake.’’
Crouse, Minnick, Woodruff and Linder all acknowledged that their volunteering days aren’t over. Each of them talked of tasks to be completed from signs on the trail to drainage that will be attended to in 2008.
However, the concrete trail is done. The trail is now host to functions such as a mini-triathalon and fundraisers like Ride for Hospice House in Fort Dodge.
‘‘More of the campers who use Featherstone are showing up with bikes on their vehicles,’’ Roos said.
Glenn Holland, a regular trail user who lives at Twin lakes, says he sees more cars from town showing up with bikes on them.
The public can walk or bike in safety as they take in the beauty of the prairie, a sunrise over a farm, or a quiet moment looking down into the creek flowing below a bridge.
Thinking back over the 16-year journey that included so many volunteers Linder said, ‘‘It’s just amazing!’’
Contact Jo Vetter at (515) 573-2141 or editor@messengernews.net
- Source:
- Author:
- Posted By: