New trails in Rossville are connecting and invigorating this Shawnee County community
ROSSVILLE — New trails are creating buzz in Rossville.
Phase 1 of the new Rossville Community Trail, a quarter-mile stretch of concrete, starts at the Rossville Fire Department just south of US-24 highway and circles around the nearby high school to the east. Phases 2 and 3 are expected to complete the nearly 1.5-mile route by next year.
To the west of the new concrete paths are another first for the town: a natural surface trail spanning about 0.65 of a mile that was completed earlier this year.
The two new trails are just the beginning for the Shawnee County community looking to give alternative routes for its residents.
"This is a good opportunity for not only for economic development, but primarily for community health and public health," Myron Leinwetter, with Rossville Community Foundation, told The Capital-Journal.
Rural trails are growing in Kansas
Kansas has a long history of trails, with early pioneers crossing the plains by way of the Santa Fe and Oregon trails, to name two.
A webinar by the Sunflower Foundation and Kansas State Research and Extension brought a new focus to trails in rural communities in 2021 when it highlighted the work done in Ottawa and other communities where trails are being put to the forefront.
Cherie Riffey, the recreational trails coordinator with Kansas Department of Wildlife and Parks, says creating trails in rural communities has a big benefit, not only for public health, but as an economic driver as well.
"We're seeing a big group of people putting in like Airbnbs to get people in to come stay and then get on the trail and then maybe they'll go down to a local coffee shop or if there's a brewery," Riffey said. "There's a lot of people that are traveling trails that way."
In Ottawa, two large trails — the Flint Hills and Prairie Spirit — cross in town and provide those looking for long distance journeys to hop on or off at their leisure.
Riffey mentioned most of the trails are toward the northeastern and eastern parts of the state, where populations are larger, but she is moving initiatives to promote more trails out west as well.
"One of our biggest mountain biking trails, of course, is Wilson (State Lake)," she said. "The landscape is just great for that."
Through her position at KDWP, she helps fulfill grants and says more requests are coming in to create trails like that.
It takes a village
No trail is possible without a lot of work and partnerships. About 10 organizations, businesses and initiatives were recognized Wednesday in Rossville as helping to create the community trail.
"It's just unbelievable the support we've had and the number of people have been involved in the project,” Leinwetter said.
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The trails project was the second largest to be completed in Rossville, behind the community pool that opened in 2007.
Sen. Kristen O'Shea, R-Topeka, helped connect the Rossville Community Foundation with finding help at the state level.
"One of my favorite parts about living here are the trails," O'Shea said. "I think it takes the community working together to reach out to these different resources and grants and put the work in to bring the funding in."
For Shawnee County Commissioner Bill Riphahn, more trails are a good thing.
As a former parks planner in Topeka, Riphahn is well versed in what it takes to create new pathways.
"You know, a lot of these little towns, and I'm working with Silver Lake on a trail that we just got started, they don't have much in the way of sidewalks," he said. "So to have a continuous run of concrete, or even if it's a single track trail, that's kind of a new feature for your town."
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The thought of connecting communities through trails is one that has gained more attention after Shawnee County created the trail atop the Kansas River levee to the west of downtown Topeka.
Riphahn is quick to point out it isn't easy to make the connections. The balance of using private and public land is often difficult to navigate and overcoming such barriers as a river or busy highway also must be considered.
The new Rossville Community Trail was created on land owned by Kaw Valley Unified School District 321 while the nearby Toadstrangler is on private land but registered as a place for agritourism activities.
Riphahn said communities looking to build new trails should look into road or highway construction projects as one example.
"Anything like that is a potential not only an opportunity to get a trail in there," he said. "It might be part of the project so funding may be available as part of the project."
This article originally appeared on Topeka Capital-Journal: New trails are connecting and invigorating Rossville community
