Kewash Trail is ingrained in the community

The Kewash trail, stretching 14 miles from Keota to Washington, is a staple of the communities in connects in Washington County. The path has a rich history stretching back to long before its time as a nature trail.

“Pre-1989, Kewash Rail company had it operating as a railroad,” Washington County Conservation Director Zach Rozmus said. “There was a group called the Kewash Trail Association, that formed at that time, and really that organization really pushed the trail into what it is today. Between 1989 and 1992, that’s when the trail got converted from an old railroad right of way … there was a lot of work put into even establishing fencing, maintaining those rights of way, because a trail corridor is completely different from a railroad track.”

According to the organization’s record book, which is still kept in the county conservation office, a lot of that work was done at a grassroots level.

“That was really right at the beginning of years where … there weren’t individuals or entities that were putting significant amounts of funding into recreation specifically,” Rozmus said. “Hiking, biking wasn’t really catching on during that time and you definitely weren’t seeing entities like the city of Washington or County Conservation putting hundreds of thousands of dollars into a trail.”

Rozmus said the association called its shot.

“A lot of members that were on that early portion … were really entrepreneurs into the idea that this was going to catch on,” he said. “They really, quote on quote, paved the trail to be what it is today. We’re seeing record numbers out on the Kewash Trail like we’ve never seen before, and we’re seeing a lot more usage by different types of recreators, whether it’s by individuals on skateboards or bikes, with different means of mobility … that’s all because of that association at the very beginning having the idea that, ‘A trail’s going to work.’”

In more recent years, funding trail development has come down to convincing outside entities to pitch in. While the trail has benefited immensely from local groups like the Riverboat Foundation, the conservation board makes routine pitches to much bigger organizations.

“Although Riverboat has been really good to us, they actually haven’t been the biggest funding source,” Rozmus said. “We’ve used a lot of REAP grants associated with the Kewash, we’ve used a lot of Wellmark grants. We’ve used a federal grant from the Iowa DOT called a TAP grant. We’ve been very fortunate to leverage some of that money to go back to Riverboat or a different entity to say, ‘Hey, we’re halfway there, we need that second half.’”

In ‘92, the trail was purchased by the County Conservation Board, which oversees in management to this day.

“We’re putting effort into maintaining a consistent trail condition, that’s something that’s been a priority,” Rozmus said. “With it being 14 miles long, being the biggest property that we manage, that’s 14 miles of area where something can go wrong. A tree falls down, a groundhog goes out there and digs a hole … we are doing snow removal now, that opens the trail up at times where normally you might not use it.”

Vegetation management is perhaps the most labor-intensive aspect of that job.

“Any time that the wind gets above 30 miles per hour, my first thought is, ‘We’re going to have to clear the trail,’” Rozmus said. “Inevitably you’re going to have dead ones that fall down or you’re going to have a tree that’s compromised or something … that trail is not naturally occurring in nature, so naturally, what nature wants to do is take it back, so nature continues to encroach. That’s why we’ve got to make sure we’re staying on top of that.”

The trail is used by a wide variety of groups, each using it for a different degree of exercise, according to Rozmus.

“Every single day, I know several individuals that are riding from Washington to Keota and back,” he said. “They don’t necessarily want to ride on the side of the highway. When you have a trail that’s 14 miles long, you don’t have to worry about traffic … then you have young families where you have a mom walking with a stroller and a kid that’s riding a bike with training wheels. Having the hard surface trails, that’s a lot more accessible … we have the Kirkwood connection where we have students that can ride on the trail on a bike if they’re trying to catch a class, or they can come from living at HACAP.”

The trail’s local impact goes beyond the micro level. Rozmus said it was good for the community at large.

“Recreation is good for economics, good for other county entities,” he said. “The point we always come back to is that rural development matters.

Although Washington is growing, Kalona and Riverside are growing, we’re still rural Iowa, and we’re still a kind of community that will always be bedroom communities for Iowa City … just because we’re choosing to live in rural Iowa doesn’t mean we should be exempt from a lot of these opportunities that those other larger communities are throwing out there. I want individuals to live in Washington County and not have to leave Washington County for recreation.“

It’s also a boon for local economic development.

“One of the things that the YMCA has been doing a good job of is they have their half marathon … that’s bringing individuals in from outside this community,” Rozmus said. “They’re going to come into town, they’re going to go to Casey’s in the morning, and they’re going to run in the event and then go to a restaurant and then hopefully they’re going to stay somewhere.”

While the trail is straight and flat, Rozmus said its uniqueness came from its biodiversity.

“It’s pretty much a very straight line, but it’s completely different ecosystems throughout ,” he said. “We’ve done a prairie restoration … and there’s also habitats where it’s densely wooded. We have large white oaks through that area, a walnut oak, and hickories. It’s a really unique blend. From a natural resource component and as a natural trail, I think it’s untouched by any other.”

More than anything else, however, Rozmus said the Kewash’s importance to the community stemmed from its history.

“The railroad (is) something that’s engraved in Washington’s history,” he said. “If you lived in Washington or West Chester, you were familiar with that railroad … that’s part of our local history, the railroad itself. When the Kewash Trail Association were able to fight the fight to make that a trail, that kept that history and kept it local.”

Comments: Kalen.McCain@southeastiowaunion.com