News

Ecusta Trail leaders unveil new logo, recount journey, eye finish line

Ken Shelton, a physician, exercise advocate and avid road biker, was an original member of the Friends of Ecusta Trail.

By Bill Moss, Published: November 20, 2024

On the cusp of success in a years’ long effort — a goal-line setback by Hurricane Helene notwithstanding — more than 80 supporters of the Ecusta trail gathered Saturday to look back at the past and celebrate the future.

They peeked at the new Ecusta Trail logo and website for the first time, heard surprisingly good news about the severity of Helene’s damage and listened as Ken Shelton tracked the long road to the finish line for the greenway.

Shelton, a physician, exercise advocate and avid road biker, took the audience at Trailside Brewing Co. through the history of the rail line and, in more detail, the trials, tribulations and triumphs of the trail’s originators, movers and pushers.

“My title,” he said, “is ‘Build it and they will come … to walk, ride, run, recreate and spend money.’ In the 1890s, there was a bold vision to provide huge economic and public benefits by building a rail line between Hendersonville and Lake Toxaway that would carry passengers and freight over those many miles to support local industry.”

Not long after the shutdown of the Ecusta paper mill idled the rail line in 2002, a core group of bicycle, jogging and outdoors enthusiasts began to dream of a grand repurposing.

“Fast forward to 2009 and a steering committee started meeting with the idea of using this unused rail line for a rail trail, and it would be protected by federal rail bank,” Shelton said.

In 2010, at the urging of Chuck McGrady, the steering committee incorporated as the Friends of Ecusta Trail, a nonprofit that could raise tax-deductible donations and function in a formal advocacy role.

“There were many efforts that went into the success of the Ecusta Trail but none were more critical than Chuck McGrady,” Shelton said of the county commissioner turned state representative turned state Transportation Board member who has been a key trail driver.

Public and political will

Some people ask “why it took so long.”

“The Friends have been asked, ‘What did you do for 15 years in your monthly meetings? I’ll answer the question with a question,” Shelton said. “Have you ever tried to talk to Norfolk Southern or get the Transylvania County commissioners to support this? It just doesn’t happen.”

Norfolk Southern scarcely responded to the Friends’ overtures to sell and Transylvania commissioners to this day remain stubbornly opposed to declaring support for the greenway.

“The real answer is that it takes time to develop the public and political will to do it,” he said. “The Friends were aware of the potential benefits to the community, to health, tourism, quality of life, along with connectivity to community, recreation and nature. We just had to convince others.”

In 2011, the Hendersonville City Council became the first local elected body to formally endorse the trail; the city also funded the economic impact study that led the following year to the Friends’ first public presentation. Since then, “we’ve had a series of public open meetings in different locations throughout our region,” Shelton explained. “We conducted many service group presentations, solicited letters of support, set up booths at local festivals and wrote op-ed columns in our papers. Politically, we interviewed every Henderson County commissioner and all candidates. We arranged for speakers before those commissioners. We sponsored many trips for public officials to see other successful rail trails like the Swamp Rabbit and Virginia Creeper. We worked with local governments actively developing bike, pedestrian and greenway plans.”

The stalemate over rail corridor acquisition broke in 2014 when Norfolk Southern sold the line to Watco, a Kansas-based short-line operator that was more open to railbanking. Watco’s five-year search for industrial cargo customers between Hendersonville and Brevard turned up none.

“So in 2017, then as a representative in our in the state and as a budget chair, Chuck McGrady explored state monies to acquire the right of way,” Shelton recounted. “The North Carolina Department of Transportation indicated that federal transportation monies could be used if they met rail banking requirements.”

Knowing the credibility and land acquisition savvy of Conserving Carolina, Rep. McGrady set the wheels in motion to engage the conservancy as the legal buyer of the rail corridor.

 “Meanwhile, behind the scenes, Chuck McGrady chaired a multi-governmental group with representatives from Henderson County, Hendersonville, Laurel Park, Brevard and Transylvania County, along with the Friends of Ecusta Trail and Conserving Carolina, and this morphed into a public-private partnership that had a common goal to build the Ecusta Trail and to create a seamless trail-user experience. Something was still missing — a little thing called money.”

Although the nonprofits launched a capital campaign that raised $3 million, that amount was a fraction of the $50 million or more needed to construct the trail.

Thanks to the work of McGrady and then-state Sen. Chuck Edwards, currently in Congress, Henderson County and Brevard received more than $60 million in state and federal grants to cover the construction cost.

Friends President Mark Tooley recognized and thanked the organization’s board members and saluted the partners that have supported the effort, including McGrady and Edwards, the cities of Laurel Park, Brevard and Hendersonville, the Land of Sky Regional Council, U.S. Forest Service, the National Park Service, Dogwood Health Trust and the tourism development authorities of both Henderson and Transylvania counties,which contributed more than $4 million.

Ecusta Trail swag

Friends Vice President Lynn Huffman introduced logo designer Matt Wagoner, senior art director for Boone-based Destination by Design, and Blue Ion owner Robert Prioleau, the Charleston, S.C.-based creator of the new website.

“We really feel like we hit the jackpot with two of the best creative agencies for outdoor industries in the Southeast,” Huffman said. No celebration would be complete without swag, she added, unveiling the new Ecusta Trail hats and T-shirts, made by Mast General store’s printer. The merchandise will be available at the Hendersonville Mast General Store and potentially online.

‘The future is bright’

If there were bumps in the road, a wrong turn or two, roadblocks and unexpected setbacks — a thousand-year storm, for one — Shelton said in a benediction that the work has at last been rewarded.

“In summary, our success involved many villages,” he said. “It involved an effective partnership and an overwhelming public and political will to build the Ecusta Trail.

“The trail will become a fabric in our community — serving as a new cultural Main Street — and will enhance community connections for people of all ages and abilities. The future is bright. … What is the Friends’ goal? The Ecusta Trail becomes a generational legacy and within its first decade is inducted into the National Rail Trail Hall of Fame.”