Photo: AlphaBeta135 / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 4.0
A first draft of a county-wide trails plan went to the Wright County supervisors in June 2018.
Work on the plan started in March 2017, when Wright County Economic Development began working with the MIDAS Council of Governments. A trails committee of local residents and a few outside advisors formed that June.
The big goal was to connect the end of the Three Rivers Trail, just northwest of Eagle Grove, to the Franklin Grove Heritage Trail in Belmond. The plan breaks that into legs: Clarion and Belmond to Lake Cornelia, Eagle Grove to the Three Rivers Trail and to Clarion, and possibly spurs to the smaller towns, such as Goldfield to Eagle Grove, Woolstock to Eagle Grove and Clarion to Dows by way of Galt.
The map in the plan showed phases, not exact routes. Where trails actually go would depend on landowners willing to sell or donate ground.
Sara Sheller, the county’s marketing specialist, said economic development supported the plan as a way to bring visitors, and noted that studies link trails to higher nearby property values.
Jill Ostrander writes for Clarion News Online.