Why hall of fame came calling for Prairie Path

They were first.

A schoolteacher's idea, viewed as pie-in-the-sky by some, sparked a movement to create a 62-mile path of crushed limestone along the route of an abandoned railroad line. Its founders called the first-of-its-kind trail the Illinois Prairie Path - the first of many to follow.

Today, 45 years later, there are more than 1,500 such "rail trails" nationwide. The Prairie Path's success even helped spawn a national advocacy group, the Washington, D.C.-based Rails-to-Trails Conservancy.

Last week, the Conservancy tabbed the Prairie Path the sixth trail to be inducted into its hall of fame. That the Prairie Path wasn't the first is perhaps the tiniest of slights, but a Conservancy spokeswoman says they're choosing hall of famers in no particular order.

"We're still happy to be recognized," said Jean Mooring, an original Prairie Path caretaker.

"It's got such dedicated fans, it has to be a wonderful trail," said Conservancy spokeswoman Katie Test.

Indeed, the path draws an estimated 800,00 yearly users, and is maintained by a volunteer army of about 1,000.

Best of two worlds

After living along the Prairie Path for 19 years, the hall of fame honor comes as no shock to Aurora's Margaret Bennecke.

"We didn't buy our house because of the Prairie Path, but we have come to know what a joy it was to have it nearby," she said. "We have seen all sorts of activities on the Prairie Path. It gets a lot of use. All of it positive."

Dick Wilson has been around for all the honors bestowed on the Prairie Path. The former Lombard Boy Scout leader, now living in Des Plaines, was immediately recruited in 1963 to help clear the old railroad right-of-way when the idea of a trail was still thought of as a folly by many folks.

"It's been very rewarding to see how important the Prairie Path has become because trails weren't really a big deal when we got started," he said. "But nowadays it's extremely important in this age of air pollution and congestion and getting people around."

He puts the hall of fame induction up there with the Prairie Path being named a National Recreation Trail in 1971 by Congress.

For West Dundee cyclist John Vieceli, the Prairie Path provides the best of two worlds - nature and civilization.

"It's a great combination of those things," he said. "Just the other day I was riding and I had to stop because a fawn was nursing in the middle of the trail. Where else are you going to see that? And if I run out of water or an energy bar, I'll ride through a town a few miles later. It's just great."

Rail to trail

If not for the imagination of a schoolteacher, the Prairie Path might have become a series of parking lots or an expressway.

In September 1963, May Watts' letter to a newspaper pondered a future where the abandoned Chicago, Aurora and Elgin Railroad line would be preserved as a walking path since all the usable railroad equipment had been stripped of the right-of-way.

Watts did more than write letters; she also showed savvy at grass-roots politics, traveling from town-to-town with supporters to convince civic leaders that the Prairie Path would work. It took a few years of convincing various governmental bodies, but Watts' dream was soon realized. For those efforts, she came to be regarded as one of DuPage County's original and most vocal supporters of public natural green space.

"We started clearing wherever we could," Wilson said. "Some places were more accommodating."

The Illinois Prairie Path starts to the east in Maywood and runs to Wheaton where it forks into an Elgin Branch heading northwest and an Aurora branch to the southwest. A spur to Batavia from the Aurora branch came along later, as did a Geneva spur from the Elgin branch.

Volunteers cleared the path of abandoned cars, appliances and other garbage.

"May Watts spoke at my garden club shortly after the letter was published and she was getting a little famous from it," Jean Mooring said. "That's how we got involved."

Jean and Paul Mooring have helped maintain a segment of the path near their Glen Ellyn home since the 1960s and served on the oversight board since then as well.

"We never had a grand opening," she said. "We consider the publication of the letter the birth of the Prairie Path. That's when everyone started working on it anyway."

Initially, municipalities along the route were assured the path could be converted to a highway if it was ever needed. City leaders in Wheaton were some of the loudest opponents of the pedestrian path. They wanted the downtown land for parking. They eventually acquiesced, but put parking stalls on each side of the path.

The city's garden club took up the beautification of the muddy car-lined path as a challenge, raising $700 at a winter fundraiser in 1965 to help pay for plantings.

Even 10 years after the project was started, rumors arose of the path being converted to a highway. "A massive public protest quelled that," Wilson said.

Today, even Wheaton has come to embrace the Prairie Path, building Founder's Park along the trail as an homage to Watts.

Way of life

Libby Passiales works at Running Ambitions and Healthy U in downtown Wheaton selling fruit smoothies and athletic apparel to runners, walkers, bikers and other users of the Prairie Path.

She believes a sizable portion of the storefront's customer base comes from the Prairie Path.

"Word on the Prairie Path, maybe that's how they find us," she said. "We don't have really big signs, so I'd say the Prairie Path helps a lot."

In the end, what was once scoffed at by some has become a civic treasure - in many communities - and even a linchpin of development plans.

The Prairie Path is a vital cog in the DuPage County Forest Preserve District's connectivity plans. Already, several forest preserves can be accessed by traversing the Prairie Path, but officials are hopeful it can be maximized to link all forest preserves in the future.

"That's one of the long-term visions, if you will, of the forest preserve: to provide the linkage to the forest preserves and connectivity to the communities as well," said Bob Vick, the forest preserve's natural resources bureau director. "Right now you can go from a forest preserve in Elmhurst to one in Warrenville without ever going on roads - and the Prairie Path serves as that link."

A lifelong Wheaton resident, Passiales said she can't imagine the city without the Prairie Path.

"It's like its own world," she said. "They couldn't take it away now. It's too big a part of the city. It's that way for a lot of people."

The other five

... in the Rails-to-Trails Conservancy's Hall of Fame

Great Allegheny Passage

Location: Cumberland, Md., to McKeesport, Pa.

Length: 150 miles

Created: 2006

Inducted: July 2007

Railroad: Western Maryland Ry. and Pittsburgh & Lake Erie RR

Katy Trail

Location: St. Charles to Clinton, Mo.

Length: 225 miles

Created: 1982

Inducted: Sept. 2007

Railroad: Missouri-Kansas-Texas RR

Pinellas Trail

Location: Pinellas County, Fla.

Length: 34 miles

Created: 1990

Inducted: October 2007

Railroad: Orange Belt Ry.

Burke-Gilman Trail

Location: Seattle

Length: 27 miles

Created: 1978

Inducted: February 2008

Railroad: Seattle, Lake Shore & Eastern RR

Minuteman Bikeway

Location: Boston

Length: 10 miles

Created: 1992

Inducted: June 2008

Railroad: Lexington and West Cambridge RR

Source: Rails-to-Trails Conservancy