OGDEN -- Near Fort Buenaventura, the first pioneer settlement in what is now Ogden, another milestone has been reached.
After 16 years of work, Weber County now has a continuous urban trail running from the mouth of Ogden Canyon to the south end of Riverdale.
The approximately 11-mile paved pathway, which snakes its way along the Ogden River, out around the 21st Street Pond to West Haven, then looping back around and continuing south past Fort Buenaventura up the Weber River into Riverdale, is an instant hit with local bikers and hikers.
"It's a great asset to the community," said Brandon Pearson, who has biked the Riverdale portion of the trail on numerous occasions. "It's really cool to have it all connected."
Much work remains to realize the long-term vision for the Centennial Trail system. When finished, a 31-mile loop of paved trail will be in place tying together the communities of Ogden, West Haven, Riverdale, Uintah, South Ogden, and others in Weber County, said Jay Lowder, public services director for Ogden City.
The finished system will run from the mouth of Ogden Canyon down the Ogden River to its confluence with the Weber River in West Haven, then up the Weber River to the mouth of Weber Canyon. From there, it will connect with the Bonneville Shoreline Trail all the way back to Ogden Canyon, creating a grand loop around Ogden while tying in outlying communities.
In the meantime, officials are happy to celebrate the completion of two underpasses they have been working for years to obtain under two separate Union Pacific rail lines. A ribbon cutting ceremony is planned for Thursday to celebrate the completion of the UP Hill Line and Main Line underpasses, crucial links in joining Ogden, West Haven and Riverdale with an uninterrupted travel corridor for non-motorized use.
The milestone represents the collaboration of many different entities, including local, state and federal government, as well as private business and property interests. Coordinating between the various interests have been groups such as Weber Pathways, Ogden Trails Network, and the committee in charge of Weber County's RAMP (recreation, arts, museums and parks) tax revenue.
Design and construction of the Ogden River Parkway began many years ago with the hope of tying into other community trail systems in order to give outdoor enthusiasts a readily available, beautiful and safe trail system.
The Centennial Trail project started gaining momentum in the years leading up to Utah's centennial statehood celebration in 1996.
In May 1994, former Ogden Mayor Glenn Mecham approached an assistant, Jay Hudson, for ideas regarding a project to celebrate the state centennial. Hudson suggested the Centennial Trail loop concept.
A steering committee consisting of various community leaders was formed, and met in June of that year to define and approve a project heading forward. The cities of Riverdale and West Haven also established trail committees in 1994, and the ball was officially rolling.
The first trails came along Ogden's east bench, with the 22nd Street, 29th Street 36th Street and Beus Canyon trailheads. In 1996, the first part of the urban pathway was completed, a one-mile stretch running from 24th Street south to Fort Buenaventura, funded with $33,000 donated from private parties, the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources, and Ogden city. The nonprofit Ogden Trails Network coordinated the effort, as it has on many subsequent projects.
"You treat it like a game of pool -- you take the easy shots first," Hudson said. "I hoped it would be a momentum-building trail, and it was."
It wasn't easy. Lowder and others spent years working with Union Pacific and the Utah Department of Transportation to get permission to build the railway underpasses, the most difficult part of linking the various cities' trail systems.
While Ogden was negotiating with railways and other issues, Riverdale and West Haven were busy working on their first trail segments. Riverdale completed its first one-mile section in 1998, while West Haven followed up with an unpaved section on both the Ogden and Weber rivers in 1999.
Nancy Brough, a former Riverdale city council member who is not on the board of trustees for Weber Pathways, ended up taking the lead on the project for her city.
"Knowing I would be jumping into something huge and hard, but being very intrigued, I raised my hand," Brough said. "Bit by bit, things happened. The bottom line is we've got a pretty nifty community amenity."
In West Haven, council member Charles McFarland was the catalyst for that city's trail system. McFarland took the lead in securing nearly $100,000 in federal grant funds, which were approved in November 1998 after nearly four years of waiting.
In 2005, the bridge spanning the Weber River near its confluence with the Ogden River was officially named the Charles R. McFarland Bridge in recognition of his key role in the trail system.
Fifteen years of efforts to establish urban trails in the county have resulted in dozens of grants, land swaps, donations and other cooperative efforts by the complex patchwork of entities involved, and now the big picture is really starting to show, Brough said.
"To me, this is a big, big deal to suddenly have everything connected," she said.
There are still challenges, such as the tendency of underpasses next to the rivers to flood when spring runoff peaks. That can shut down the underpass at 20th Street for up to two months out of the year, Hudson said. He hopes to see structures built to keep floodwaters out in the future.
There is still considerable work to be done to secure a path and complete the Weber River trail upstream to Weber Canyon, and connect it with the Bonneville Shoreline Trail system.
Still, the completion of the most difficult parts of the trail, and the connection of the Ogden and Riverdale sections, allows people to begin to focus more on how to tie a new kind of economic development into the trail system.
"Now the visionaries can start to think, 'now that it's there, how can we use it?'," Hudson said. "Other places around the country have already done this, and now we're at that point."
Efforts have also turned to working on the rivers themselves to curb stream bank erosion and improve recreation opportunities for fishermen and boaters.
In the 1970s, Ogden residents rejected a proposed property tax hike to pay for an urban trail. But attitudes gradually changed as more creative funding sources were identified, and in the 1980s and early 1990s, Ogden had the only urban trail system concept in the state.
"When we started Ogden Trails Network, we were way out in front of the rest of the state," Hudson said. "The idea is to protect our rivers, preserving our way of life, but also providing opportunities for the city to develop based on the proper usage of our natural resources."
Celebrate the trail
* Ogden city is planning a ribbon cutting at 10 a.m. Thursday on the Centennial Trail, near the Fisher King Wetlands area. For more information, call (801) 629-8271.
* A larger celebration is planned for 8-11 a.m. on June 5, National Trails Day, on the west side of the Weber River across from Fort Buenaventura. Weber Pathways and a host of other groups invite the public to enjoy free food, live music and activities. For more information, call (801) 393-2304.
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