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By: Robert Janis
U.S. Forest Service
Leads Diverse Groups in Converting Railroad
Route into Multi-Use Trails
Hiawatha Bridge |
The high land area in Montana near the Idaho
border where the Lolo National Forest is located
is territory that features an amazing and
diverse range of scenery. There are abundant
numbers of larch trees that actually turn gold
in the fall. Then there is remote country that
serves as home for deer, elk, moose, and wolves.
As the terrain swings down toward Interstate 90,
you come upon the St. Regis River, then
cottonwood flats that feature a number of small
towns. The land rises again into the mountains
as you head toward the Montana town of St. Regis
where the route comes upon a fairly open valley
where the St. Regis River meets the Clark Fork
River in Montana. A mere description of the
place using just words doesn’t do it justice. In
short, it is one of the prettiest scenic areas
in all of the west.
The United States Forest Service has been, and
is still involved with managing the area for
multiple use recreation from bicycle riding and
hiking to motorized vehicles including ATVs and
pickups.
To say the least, it has not been an easy
endeavor, and the tough work continues. Two
railroads, the Milwaukee and the Northern
Pacific, once had rails there. Moreover, the
Milwaukee route still includes railroad trestles
and tunnels. “The Milwaukee Railroad ran from
Chicago to the Puget Sound in Washington,”
explained Beth Kennedy, resource district staff
for the Lolo National Forest Superior Ranger
District. “The Milwaukee started to crumple in
the late 1960s and early 70s, and it soon fell
into bankruptcy. Some of the line was pulled out
and taken by other rail companies. Other
parts were salvaged and sold to deal with the
bankruptcy, and a rail bed was left.”
The Milwaukee Railroad was not a land grant
enterprise. Instead, it was privately owned. So,
when it abandoned the area, a fair amount of the
property went to adjacent private land owners.
The Lolo National Forest surrounds much of the
area, which includes the Taft or St. Paul Pass
Tunnel that runs from Montana to Idaho. The
tunnel is more than a mile long. Kennedy noted
that some projects to convert the land into
trail were begun on the Idaho side. However,
before the process could begin, most of the land
fell under private ownership.
“Various groups got together who were interested
in using that area for recreation,” explained
Kennedy. “And some land was purchased. First, a
little over 17 miles of the old railroad grade
was bought primarily by the U.S. Forest Service
and that process took quite a few years. This
section has multiple tunnels and trestles that
were brought up to standard and became part of
the Route of the Hiawatha.” Bicycles ride the
trail today, but developing the area into trail
took a lot of time and an amazing amount of
effort by the Forest Service.
Kennedy explained that the work to create the
Route of the Olympian trail started in the late
1990s. The route extends from Taft to St. Regis.
“The Forest Service owned pieces of it, but not
a long enough piece that could be used on any
kind of recreational system,” said Kennedy. “In
that 30 mile stretch there were 15 private
parcels and most of those parcels cut off access
to the public land. A lot of landowners didn’t
really make an effort to keep people off. So use
got established, although a lot of that was
trespassing. All the private parcels except one
were up for sale, and on other sections we lost
a lot of access because private citizens bought
the land and constructed houses on it. As
we watched, a lot of land was lost, and we
didn’t want to lose much more. So, we worked
with Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks
Recreational Program, and a private organization
called Five Valleys Land Trust. Over a period
of seven years we together were able to purchase
13 of the 15 parcels.” The Forest Service, the
Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks, and the Five
Valleys Trust funded the purchases.
Hiawatha Bridge |
Part of that land is not useable, but it also
includes the railroad that was built in 1910.
“The trestles and tunnels are one hundred years
old and the concrete is in poor shape. So, when
we received the land, we proceeded to do the
long and expensive process of bringing the
tunnels and trestles and small bridges up to
standard,” said Kennedy. Funding for the
construction work came from a variety of
sources. Money from the American Recovery
and Reinvestment Act (ARRA), also known as the
Obama Stimulus program, funded the work done on
the Dominion Tunnel and Trestle project. A
county funding source called the Resource
Advisory Committee (RAC) is providing money for
work on other sections. And RAC has matched
funding from the Forest Service for work on
smaller bridges.
According to Kennedy, the Dominion Construction
project started in 2010 and is almost complete.
The project was offered for competitive bidding
and a company that is familiar with bringing
trestles and bridges up to standard and who
already has special equipment to do the work was
selected. Local engineers are doing the work on
the smaller projects.
“The Dominion construction is hard to do because
the trestles are so high,” explained Kennedy.
“It is quite complex. The Dominion Tunnel and
Trestle are 50 yards of open space from each
other. The tunnel is over 400 feet long, and the
trestle is about 775 feet long. They both curve
right at the head of the Dominion Creek
Drainage. The tunnel is lined fully in concrete
that was starting to peel off. The engineers
said that in some places the concrete was the
consistency of a shortbread cookie. You could
chip the concrete away with a screwdriver. The
trestle is quite high and has iron framework.
Both the tunnel and trestle had to be closed off
since the 1970s for safety reasons. We never had
funding to do anything with it until the
stimulus program offered the money. It was a
miracle that we could get enough money to do
something with these two things.” Now the
construction is nearly done, and they will be
safe for trail users.
The tunnel and trestle are located on a very
narrow piece of land. So the construction crew
is small. Kennedy said that a crew of six worked
the area at any given moment depending on what
stage of work they were in.
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