Plan for John Wayne Trail headed for state parks board vote

This conceptual plan for a trailhead at Tekoa is among illustrations on the “Iron Horse Palouse” plan which will be presented to the State Parks and Recreation Board at its March meeting.

Washington Street in north Tekoa separates the two segments of the trailhead.

Each is illustrated with a turn loop at the end.

The John Wayne Trail, the former Milwaukee railroad right-of-way, runs along the bottom of the trailhead sketch.

Plans for this site have been questioned because the Tekoa trestle, located to the left, has been barricaded because it lacks trail surfacing.

Tekoa’s Iron Horse riding arena, located on the former UP right-of-way, has served for years as the unofficial trailhead for the trail at Tekoa.

A plan for development of most of the John Wayne Trail across the north section of Whitman County will be on the formal agenda of the state Parks and Recreation Commission March 27 in Chehalis. The planning project began in the late fall of 2011 with hearings at Malden, Rosalia and Tekoa, all towns which are located along the trail which was formerly the Milwaukee Railroad.

The project, listed as Iron Horse Palouse, is included on the state parks agenda as updating the Iron Horse Master Plan which refers to the name of the trail on the west side of the state from North Bend to Ellensburg and the Columbia River at Beverly.

The plan here involves 34 miles on the eastern end of the trail from the Idaho state line west through Tekoa, Rosalia and Malden.

Bill Fraser, state parks planner located at East Wenatchee, conducted the three hearings along the trail late in 2011 for the project. Aimed at getting ideas from residents on development of the trail, the hearings also provided an opportunity for neighbors of the trail to vent some of their frustrations and objections for the trail.

Fraser is now semi-retired, and the trail planning project was handed off to Jamie Van de Vanter, a state parks planner who has since re-located from the East Wenatchee office to the state parks office in Burlington.

Van de Vanter said his last major work on the plan involved conducting an inventory of the 34-mile segment. He noted the project remained on a shelf for about a year after it was assigned to him.

Van de Vanter said Fraser opted to use a planning grant which was issued through the state Recreation and Conservation Office on the 34 miles on this end of the trail because the right-of-way was all owned by state parks.

Some Milwaukee segments along Rock Lake and in Adams County are now privately owned.

The state purchased the Milwaukee right-of-way from the trustee for the railroad’s bankruptcy in 1981, but the privately-owned segments evolved from a lengthy suit in Whitman County Superior Court. Under the court ruling, some property owners adjoining the trail were allowed ownership of the railroad land under reversion clauses in the original right-of-way agreements granted to Milwaukee by property owners when the railroad was built.

Van de Vanter said one of the features in the plan is the development of trailheads along the trail for parking vehicles and horse trailers. The trail now lacks places where hikers, horse riders and bicycle riders can park vehicles when they commute to the trail.

Fraser’s plan located trailhead sites for parking at Malden, Rosalia, Pandora and Tekoa.

One of the topics from the hearing at Tekoa was the need for a deck for the high Milwaukee trestle which crosses Highway 27 at the north end of the bridge. The trestle crossing was barricaded at both ends and railroad ties removed.

Eastbound riders on the trail now detour around the high trestle via the Lone Pine Road which intersects with the former UP railroad right-of-way along Highway 27. The UP right-of-way allows riders to go under the high trestle and arrive at the Iron Horse riding arena which has served as an unofficial trailhead at Tekoa for years.

Fraser in the hearing at Tekoa noted the state has accomplished a decking operation on a trestle in a similar situation on the Bickleton Trail, but the cost of such a project is prohibitive for present day park budgets.

Development of a trailhead at the riding arena at Tekoa was also discussed. Fraser later told the Gazette obtaining ownership of the arena property was complicated by its one-time use by the railroad.

Van de Vanter last week said the plan for the trailhead at Tekoa now calls for acquisition of property east of the trestle. A concept drawing of the trailhead includes development on each side of Washington Street.

Riders on the trail now use Washington Street to get back on the trail after making a stop at the riding arena on the lower UP route.

Tekoa Mayor John Jaeger last week noted a plan for a state trailhead on Washington Street should also be combined with a plan to cover the trestle so riders could remain on grade going either direction.

If the Washington trailhead gets developed and the trestle remains closed, riders would have to go past the Iron Horse Arena.

Jaeger added one hang up with the Iron Horse site is possible contamination on the ground when the site years ago was the location of UP shops.

Two projects for the trail have been funded in the state parks’ present two-year budget. One is a $331,000 sum for gravel surfacing of nine miles of the trail between Malden and Rosalia. That will involve placing rock gravel on the trail over the rock ballast which was under the railroad.

Also included in the project will be grading down the ends of the trail at road crossings in five locations. The steep trail grades remain at crossings where railroad trestles, which took the railroad over the roads, were removed. Trail users now normally use informal side roads off the railroad grades to drop to the level of the roads grade on each side.

The concept for the Rosalia trailhead will be along the trail on the west side of town between Gashous Road and Seventh Street. The plan there calls for grading the trail banks where former railroad crossings were removed.

The trailhead plan for Malden locates the trailhead at the former Milwaukee site off Railroad Street.

Part of the plan involves “phasing” in the projects for funding in the state budget. The Malden-Rosalia project and acquisition of property for the Tekoa trailhead are in the present two-year state budget.

Van de Vanter said the Malden and Rosalia trailhead plans have been recommended for earlier phases for funding in the trail plan. Development of the trailhead at Tekoa has been moved to a later phase pending completion of acquisition from present funds.

The state web site for the plan lists letters and comments on the plan. Included are letters of concerns. Among the letters are those from Rosalia Mayor Nan Konishi, the Back Country Horsemen of Washington and the John Wayne Pioneer Wagons and Riders Association, the group which annually makes a ride on the trail and appears in the Rosalia Battle Days parade.

Among random comments include a request that the state spend money on highway plans and let trail riders “rough it like the pioneers did.”

Another comment from a trail neighbor notes not very many people ride it, and another “hell no” comment said money should be spent on Whitman County’s gravel roads.