LEXINGTON, KY - The first part of the Town Branch Trail was officially opened Sept.12 by Lexington Mayor Jim Newberry and many enthusiastic bicycle riders. They pedaled about 10 miles, from Cheapside Park out West Main Street onto the 1.8-mile section of trail and then looped back to downtown.
The trail showcases Lexington's earliest history, following the westward course of the Town Branch of Elkhorn Creek, on whose banks the town developed. Historical markers offer glimpses of Lexington's history and ecology as the trail passes by rare stands of cane and old trees.
The trail was created through the cooperative efforts and work of a number of people. The local nonprofit group, Town Branch Trail Inc., started in 2001 and headed by local architect Van Meter Pettit.
Pettit got the idea for a trail system for Lexington from a trail system in New Jersey that he enjoyed using while a student at Princeton University. "I thought it was the prettiest thing I had ever seen," he said.
While studying at the University of Texas, Pettit was impressed by the popularity of Austin's system of trails along its urban creeks. "It was a critical thing missing in our makeup as a college town," he said.
Pettit said that to create urban trail systems, "You have to create a community of support. This is a wonderful thing to have in Lexington, the architecture of community you have to create before you create the architecture of the project."
Portions of the trail are "right up against the Lexington - Ohio Rail Line. That was the first rail line of the western frontier," he said. "It's not just a trail corridor, it's the corridor of Lexington's foundation."
The next one-mile section of the trail is funded, with construction expected to be completed within a year. "In the best of all worlds, the Town Branch Trail will be finished in three to five years," Pettit said. The trail's sections "will be put in place in such a way that they'll be here 200 years from now," he added.
Now the Town Branch Trail is working with the Manchester Development Company to design the final miles of the trail, which will run along Manchester Street through the Distillery District. RJ Corman Railroad Group is also involved, as the Town Branch Trail hopes to build trails along rail lines that run through some of the prettiest land in the Bluegrass. Pettit said that feasibility studies are underway for 15 more miles of trail, either additions to the Town Branch Trail or associated with it.
Working with the Lexington-Fayette Urban County Government and local developer Dennis Anderson, the nonprofit group has written grants, raised funds of about $2 million, and secured land donations worth more than $1 million.
To learn more about the Town Branch Trail, see http://www.townbranch.org.