John Wayne Trail grant draws local and state comment

Different stakeholders in the future of the John Wayne Trail spoke with the Gazette this week about the recent funding awarded to plan upgrades to the state-wide trail.

The Washington State Parks Department has been recently awarded a grant for $96,000 from the state’s Resource Conservation Office to write a plan for repairs and upgrades to the trail. The funding will help write plans for three trailheads to be built at Malden, Rosalia and Tekoa. The trailheads would include parking lots and restrooms.

Land-owner Gary Van Dyke owns roughly three miles of land along the trail, which crosses through north Whitman County through Malden, Rosalia and then Tekoa.

Van Dyke said he wants to learn more about the proposal, since it could impact his land.

“Landowners need to know the downside of what burdens will be placed upon us at these sites,” Van Dyke said.

He pointed out that in all his years of living along the trail, the only trail users he has seen are the John Wayne Pioneer Wagon Drivers and Riders. The group of 100 or so travels the trail each year and normally makes stops at Malden, Rosalia and Tekoa. They take part in the Rosalia Battle Days parade each year.

“That’s the only traffic we’ve seen,” he said.

Van Dyke questioned the use of the $96,000 to simply write a “plan” for a trail that sees so little use.

“The other thing I’d be concerned about is who will utilize these sites?”, he said.

Rosalia Mayor Jim Stenhouse said he would welcome a new trailhead in his town.

“It would be wonderful. It would be great. We look forward to those people showing up at Battle Days each year,” said Stenhouse.

While Stenhouse hadn’t heard the full details of the new state funding, he said he was willing to have the town of Rosalia partner with the John Wayne riders in making the improvements at Rosalia.

Tom Short of Woodinville, the current trail development coordinator for the John Wayne group, helped the state parks office write the grant proposal for the $96,000. He was elated to learn the grant had been awarded. Short rides the trail with the group every year.

The section of the trail that runs through the west side of the state sees frequent traffic, Short said. But the eastern half sees much less. With improved trailheads, the trail could see more traffic.

“The eastern portion of the trail is not very well used, one: because no one knows about it and two: it’s hard to use,” Short said.

The west end of the trail received a big boost last week with the re-opening of the two-mile Snoqualmie tunnel which has been closed since the start of 2009 because of chunks of concrete falling inside of the tunnel. The 11-month project, costing close to $700,000, installed a four-inch layer of concrete on a wire fabric lining.

The John Wayne Trail follows the former route of the Milwaukee Railroad which ran from Tacoma to Chicago. The state acquired the former right-of-way from trustees of the Milwaukee bankruptcy.

“Hopefully, they are going to be able to bring the eastern portion of the trail up to the standards of the western portion of the trail,” he added.

Tekoa Mayor John Jaeger said he would encourage the state study to include the high trestle bridge in Tekoa. The ends of the trestle have been blocked off at Tekoa since the trail was started. Jaeger noted Tekoa groups in the past have pushed to have the former trestle decked and fenced for trail use in a manner similar to the former Milwaukee concrete trestles just south of Rosalia.

Jaeger noted Tekoa in the past has also pushed for acquisition of the nine miles of former Milwaukee right-of-way in Idaho from the state line to Plummer. That would link the John Wayne Trail with the Trail of the Coeur d’Alenes and offer riders and hikers a route all the way from North Bend to Lookout Pass and the Trail of the Hiawatha, which is also on a portion of the former Milwaukee right-of-way. Total length of such a trail system would be over 400 miles.

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