Joseph Branch Trail Plans Groundbreaking for Second Trailhead in Wallowa
By Shannon Weidemann (McKone) on Monday, September 23rd, 2024 in More Top Stories Northeastern Oregon News
ENTERPRISE– (Release from Joseph Branch Trail Consortium) The Joseph Branch Trail Consortium, the nonprofit establishing a 63-mile, nonmotorized trail-with-rail alongside the existing railroad tracks between Elgin and Joseph in northeast Oregon, will break ground on the project’s second trailhead with a public celebration in the City of Wallowa on Saturday, September 28th.
The event starts at 1 p.m. at the Dance Arbor on the Nez Perce Wallowa Homeland and will include complimentary lunch and beverages, project updates and pedal-powered railbike tours of a 1-mile section of the railroad corridor where the Wallowa trail segment will be built.
The trailhead, which will also serve as a pocket park is located on a parcel of land owned by the Nez Perce Wallowa Homeland that is directly across from the footbridge to the Homeland.
People interested in attending the groundbreaking celebration should RSVP via email to info@josephbranchtrail.org.
“We are very excited to see this project’s second trailhead taking shape, just a few weeks after the first trailhead and inaugural trail section were completed in Elgin,” said Gregg Kleiner, the project coordinator of the Joseph Branch Trail Consortium. “We’re grateful to the City of Wallowa and to the Homeland for their enthusiasm, support and partnership, because ultimately, this will be a safe, accessible community asset that offers local residents of all ages and abilities an easy way to get healthy outdoor recreation – from walking and bicycling, to horseback riding.”
Kleiner suggests people bring shovels and gloves to the September 28 event so everyone can help break ground. Construction of the trailhead has already started near a new basketball court that the Homeland has put in.
The Joseph Branch Trail will be a non-motorized, alternative transportation route to the ever-busier Oregon Highway 82. The trail will be located within the publicly owned, 100-ft.-wide railroad corridor that is operated by the Wallowa Union Railroad Authority (WURA), which is an intergovernmental agreement between Union and Wallowa counties.
“This trail project is a collaborative effort from the ground up that we want to work for everyone, so we welcome local residents and others to come with ideas, insights and concerns,” Kleiner said.
Last spring the group visited Wallowa schools to gain ideas and insights from students about what they want to see as part of the project.
The Wallowa trailhead will include an ADA parking space, a covered gazebo, ADA-compliant picnic tables and benches, a bicycle maintenance station, a water fountain and more. Interpretive signage will offer information about the area’s earliest inhabitants and more recent history.
The Joseph Branch Trail Consortium has recently been awarded a number of grants, including from Travel Oregon, the Wildhorse Foundation, and the Wallowa County Cultural Trust, which will help fund the construction of the Wallowa trailhead, as well as a 1.08-mile, in-city trail section, which will be an ADA compliant path.
Another grant from the Oregon Dept. of Transportation’s Transportation Growth Management program is supporting refinement planning, outreach and education for the 13-mile trail section from the City of Wallowa to Minam. Additional grants from the Oregon Community Foundation, the Lewis-Clark Valley Healthcare Foundation, the Roundhouse Foundation, the Schwemm Family Foundation, and Cycle Oregon are helping support the project.
Students enrolled in Eastern Oregon University’s Sustainable Rural Systems Program are helping research and develop other components of the project.
“These sorts of trail-with-rail projects take time to plan, fund and construct, and are usually build in short sections that are eventually joined together as people experience the benefits,” Kleiner said. “Our goal is to create a trail that will be enjoyed for generations to come.”
More information about supporting the Joseph Branch Trail Consortium can be found here: https://www.josephbranchtrail.org/membership.
