Illinois Prairie Path honored...

... by Rails-to-Trails Conservancy (of which I am a long-time member) as a "Hall of Fame" trail, and rightly so, since it started the rail-to-trail movement. Back in 1963, schoolteacher May Watts wrote a letter to a Chicago paper proposing preserving the abandoned Chicago, Aurora, Elgin Railroad line as a trail, and she also spearheaded a grass-roots effort to see it accomplished. Now, 45 years later, it extends 62 miles from Maywood to Wheaton, and then sends 4 spurs west to Aurora, Batavia, Geneva, and Elgin, and conencts to numerous other trails, including the Great Western and The Fox River Trails. Over 80,000 use the trail each year and about 1000 volunteer to maintain it through the auspices of the non-profit Illinois Prairie Path Corporation. And though it was the first such trail, over 2200 rails-to-trails now dot the country. Photos and more info are available on my site and also using the links above. 

 The other trails in the Hall of Fame can be found here.