February 16, 2012
GARNA’S FEASIBILITY STUDY ON A SALIDA TO LEADVILLE TRAIL CORRIDOR NEARS COMPLETION
The local Leadville Stage Road Working Group, together with GARNA’s contracted professional trail planning firm Thomas and Thomas of Colorado Springs, is nearing completion of a grant-funded comprehensive study of the feasibility of celebrating and establishing a trail corridor from Salida to Leadville along historic routes of the stage road and Midland Railroad. In October, 2011 the team published an internal review document (see its cover to the left).
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Review was firstsolicited from a selected group of potential partners who would be most involved if the project moves forward to implementation: officials of Chaffee and Lake Counties, the towns of Salida, Buena Vista and Leadville, the Arkansas Headwaters Recreation Area (a state park), wildlife officers of the Colorado Division of Parks and Wildlife, the Bureau of Land Management, the US Forest Service, various federal agencies involved in fish and wildlife and river management, and a few key private landowners and the residents of Granite. During the month of February, 2012, the comments of these reviewers will be incorporated into a draft public review version to be made available by early March, both on-line and in selected offices as a printed copy.
Although the public review document won’t be available until March, here are a few observations and excerpts that the Team feels are ready to share.As an example of the scale and detail of the study, here are just two of the eight section maps which cover approximately 8 mile segments of the 64 mile long study corridor, along with the section maps’ legend.
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The Leadville Stage Road (here CR 163) passed through the modern AHRA recreation site at Big Bend, which was also the site of the
Christmas 1806 Camp of the Zebulon Pike Expedition.
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This first section - 2nd from the south end in Salida – covers the west side of Salida to Hecla Junction. The dashed yellow line is the approximate route of the Leadville Stage Road as it departed Salida. Although the actual stage roadalignment might have been somewhat different, the route to be celebrated, interpreted, and designated as a physical trail to be followed by hikers, cyclists and licensed vehicle drivers would follow these paved and unpaved low volume county roads. The study has uncovered little controversy concerning this section, primarily because all the roads are already open public routes, there are few safety issues and little potential to disturb wildlife and, at least until now, no expressions of concern from private landowners adjacent to the proposed route. It’s already used by cyclists from Salida although few of them realize its historical significance. A particular point of interpretive interest is at Big Bend, currently the site of an AHRA recreational facility, which the old stage road must have passed directly through. The very same site is the likely December 24 1806 Christmas camp of the Zebulon Pike Expedition. Further north the original route followed CR191 and CR260 which younger residents might be surprised to learn was the original auto route from Salida to Buena Vista before US Highway 285 was constructed over 50 years ago.
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The other example section, 2nd from the north end in Leadville, illustrates some of the more complicated and controversial issues the study has encountered. Again the yellow dashed line is the route of the old stage road from about the Lake County line northward to the Hayden Ranch. Although the route is easily visible for much of this distance and would be straightforward to physically reestablish there are lots of issues that need to be resolved before public use as a trail might become reality. For example, most of the land north of the county line up to Two Bit Gulch through which the stage line ran is private; the legal status of the old stage route as a Lake County public right of way all the way to the County line has been litigated in the county’s favor yet the county is not intending to open it as a vehicle-passable route south of Two Bit Gulch. Lake County may confine the public’s right of access south of there to a narrow pedestrian or biking trail, meaning those private lands would not be accessible except by foot. This raises the question whether a trail project would need to negotiate easements or if it could simply follow the legal right of way. North of Two Bit Gulch more of the private land is already developed and there is a history of landowner opposition to public access to the stage road. Also it’s important to recognize that quite a proportion of this distance the old route was and still is within the riparian (stream-side) zone of the Arkansas; the riparian zone is without question a very critical narrow piece of productive habitat of importance to local wildlife and birds and wildlife officers are extremely reluctant to support physical developments like a reopened trail unless there is assurance that it wouldn’t displace wildlife or interfere with natural processes like periodic flooding and sedimentation that are essential to riparian function and health.
Because of these complications, the study map show alternative routes that need to be retained under consideration, one north of Two Bit Gulch which would avoid private lands, and a much longer one that would utilize Hwy 24 and essentially stay off the historical stage route for 5-6 miles.
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The stage road south of Two Bit Gulch lies partly within the riparian zone of the Arkansas River and partly on more elevated benches;
it also crosses extensive private lands along the river.
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There are several other sections (not shown in this excerpt) where there are serious wildlife concerns, strong opposition by small town residents, and additional opposition from a few landowners along key sections which would be difficult and expensive to work around. Alternatives to try to address these concerns are also retained in the feasibility study for future consideration.
The major conclusions of the feasibility study are that yes, the concept of this long distance trail has substantial public support and it should move forward, but that there are definitely serious obstacles which need further examination to try to find acceptable solutions if a trail which can be physically Experienced/Exploredis to be established. Less controversial are the other major objectives of promoting Preservation and providing Interpretation of the stage road and Midland RR (suggested as part of the trail farther south) perhaps simply by increased interpretive signs and pullouts off the trail and by facilitating stabilization of crumbling retaining walls and other features along the route. A specific recommendation of the study is that the next step is to develop a detailed management or master plan which outlines specific actions and developments and identifies which public agency or entity would be responsible for development and maintenance of facilities and trail segments.With such a plan, upper management can then make policy and financial commitments, and the public can be further involved in deciding specific trail alternatives. No physical trail development or promotion, even on public lands, is recommended before the master plan is developed and approved.
Over the next few months this website will be updated with results and reactions from the public review of the full document, and announcements made as to the timing of grant applications to fund the master plan. |
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