Dorothy Schneider has an article on North Central Health Services, Inc.’s efforts to acquire land so that it can be used consistently with the plans of the Wabash River Enhancement Corporation. NCHS is one of those organizations that provides vital support to the Lafayette area. It started as a holding corporation for Lafayette Home Hospital but sold that interest to the Sisters of St. Francis. The resulting money has been used by corporation to help the community, generally by assisting community organizations.
The WREC was formed as a non-profit organization by Purdue, Lafayette, West Lafayette, and Tippecanoe County. It was initially funded with a grant from the NCHS.
Since 2005, the Wabash River Enhancement Corporation has been making an effort to improve life along the Wabash River. Our efforts have included designation of a portion of River Road as a scenic by-way, floodplain mapping throught Tippecanoe County, and urban corridor master planning within Lafayette and West Lafayette. Our newest endeavor targets water quality improvement within the Wabash River.
Most recently, NCHS has acquired a five acre parcel near a larger parcel it had previously acquired along the Wabash River. The goal is “to create a more river-focused community, possibly adding pedestrian bridges, a riverfront promenade and expanded trails to the Lafayette and West Lafayette banks in the years to come.”
We’re lucky to have the Wabash River as a resource, funding from NCHS and other community minded people and organizations, politicians and community leaders with the foresight to take care of our resources, and citizens willing to put forth the effort on this project. The pedestrian foot bridge and the Wabash Heritage Trail already form the nucleus of something special for the area. One day, maybe we’ll have something instrumental to the increased prosperity and well-being of the community.
I once accidentally walked the entire length out and back of the Wabash Heritage Trail during my time at Purdue (roughly six years ago).
I’m a fairly well-traveled hiker and backpacker, and I can say unequivocally that the WHT–especially the portion south of Burnett’s Creek–was the trashiest and least-identifiable trail of any significant length that I have ever been on.
Has it been improved any since then?
I haven’t made it south of Burnett’s Creek. I’ve been there with my (small) children and only made it maybe a mile or so south from the trail head at Battle Ground (or maybe a mile or so north, running, from the pedestrian foot bridge downtown.)
So, I haven’t walked the four miles or so in the middle. The trail seems to cross Burnett’s Creek about 1.8 miles from the trail head.
I didn’t realize it was that bad, comparatively. My other trail experience has mainly been out west in the mountains, and I just can’t compare the two regions.
At least when I was up there, there were junked cars all along the trail, as well as assorted other garbage pits and piles of rusting metal…there were areas where the trail just disappeared into a huge sandpit with no marking–and you couldn’t see where it ended at the end of the sandpit because of vegetation…in some spots, it ran right along the riverbank and most of the trail was washed away and it was heel-toe walking because I didn’t want to trample all over the beanfield that was on the other side of the trail…the trail completely disappears for about half a mile south of the US231 bridge, as you approach Ft. Ouiatenon.
It was a mess.
Any trail recommendations for the region of the state around Lafayette?
There’s the Thorntown Kewasakee Trail, which I believe is being expanded into a complex that will run from Lafayette to Lebanon, and hook directly on to the WHT.
There’s also the Sugar Creek Trail in Crawfordsville, built on an old rail bed…unfortunately it doesn’t take you to Turkey Run or Shades, but it’s a beautiful 4 1/2 mile stretch nonetheless.
Thanks!