Going Places: Grassroots, Volunteerism Builds the Great American Rail-Trail

By Karen Rubin, Travel Features Syndicate, goingplacesfarandnear.com Within this one mile that cuts through Ohio forest, there are stories: reclusive Hellbender salamanders that grow to 28 inches long; a bridge where Abraham Lincoln nearly lost his life on the way to his inauguration; a rail tunnel, slightly askew, built by warring groups of Irish immigrants; a Ghost Wall, where they carved their initials that today appear, disappear and new initials reveal themselves. It’s only a mile long now slicing through Hellbender Preserve, but it is the first new mile of multi-use trail in Jefferson County; four more miles will soon be added. Ultimately, it will be part of a 15-mile connector along the Great American Rail-Trail, a 3,700-mile network of biking/walking trails across America, from Washington DC to Washington State. Even the story about how the Hellbender trail was re-discovered is worthy of a novel. This was the Old Panhandler Rail Line, but after they built a new route and by