WILD BILL

Build The Corridor of Discovery Trail

By Bill Schneider, 12-22-05

For the last three weeks, we’ve had a lively debate about the right way to designate Wilderness and what vehicles should be allowed there, but I’ve sure you’ll be relieved to learn this column is not about Wilderness. It’s about money, keeping small rural communities alive, increasing property values, and economic development—all prime reasons to build the Corridor of Discovery Trail.

Right now, Corridor of Discovery is merely a good idea, not a trail. It’s a 94-mile, unused rail line between Great Falls and Helena on the east slope of the Continental Divide in central Montana. The rails haven’t had a train on them in about five years, and many Montanans now want to turn it into a tourism dollar magnet, a paved, non-motorized recreation trail, similar to the much-ballyhooed Trail of the Coeur d’Alenes in northern Idaho.

The plan has a tinge of intrastate rivalry. Right now, Idaho has it, and Montana wants it. Spurred on by the roaring economic success of the Trail of Coeur d’Alenes, Centennial Trail, and Hiawatha Trail, all in Idaho, Montanans want a share of this gold mine.

They say wealth follows beauty, which is what happened in Idaho, but the Montana route has plenty of potential wealth, too. From north to south, it meanders along a Mecca of fly casters—the Missouri River—for half its length, then along Little Prickly Pear Creek and through red-stoned Wolf Creek Canyon before dropping into the Helena Valley along Silver Creek to Helena. Lewis and Clark followed much of this route on their way West; hence the name.

Last year, I traveled to Idaho to ride the Hiawatha and Centennial Trails, and earlier this year, I had a fantastic two-day trip on the Trail of the Coeur d’Alenes. The Idaho trails are well worth the effort and expense, and bravo to Idaho for having the foresight to build them, but none of these routes have anything on the equally spectacular Corridor of Discovery.

I could write volumes about how great the Corridor of Discovery would be for cyclists and other non-motorized recreationists, but that’s a given. If that were the only issue, the trail would already be built. The real issue is how the trail would affect property owners and businesses along the route.

Anybody questioning the economic benefits of such trails should travel to Idaho and spend a few hours asking businesses along the Trail of the Coeur d’Alenes about the impact. I know what they will hear because I heard it when I was over there. The proprietor of the B&B I stayed in, for example, told me 85 percent of her business from the trail. Would that business have survived without the trail? There is no doubt that thousands of people will travel to Helena and Great Falls every year to ride the Corridor of Discovery Trail and leave many dollars behind in the two destination cities and in the small towns along the trail.

The Trail of the Coeur’d’Alenes route resembles the Corridor of Discovery in several ways, and one is the little towns along the way. In Idaho, it’s Plummer, Harrison, Cataldo, Kellogg, and Mullan. In Montana, it’s Ulm, Cascade, Hardy, Craig and Wolf Creek. Two decades ago, the economies of the Idaho towns depended on large mining operations, but those mines closed. Fortunately, a few years later, the Trail of the Coeur d’Alene came along and saved the day for the local economies. Now, hospitality business like restaurants, motels, B&Bs and pubs and service businesses like bike shops, gas stations and grocery stores benefit from the thousands of cyclists annually traveling to northern Idaho from all over the world to ride the trail.

After we rode the Trail of the Coeur d’Alenes this fall, we made a pact to go back every October. The Helena Bicycle Club also makes an annual sojourn to ride this trail, as do many other clubs. In short, the Idaho non-motorized trails attract tourists like “Free, Ice-cold Beer� signs on an August day in the desert. Montana will enjoy the same economic benefit.

Regrettably, a few Montana landowners oppose the abandonment or sale of the rail line and development of the trail, but I hope they will re-think this position because it could be the best thing that ever happened to them. Property values are a sacred Montana tradition. Thou shall not act to lower them. But alas, the Corridor of Discovery Trail will increase property values. It’s happened everywhere else such trails have been built. In fact, property values usually go up between 9-11 percent, according to research by a national coalition of bicycle manufacturers called Bikes Belong Coalition.

Nonetheless, even amid omnipresent hoopla and fanfare for such an attractive economic prospect, somebody’s ox will be gored. After I wrote my celebratory article on the Trail of the Coeur d’Alenes, I received a heartfelt e-mail from a resident along that trail. Toni and Roger Hardy were not happy my praise for the trail, claiming trail users disrupt their private life and fail to respect private property.

I confess to being in a quandary about how to respond to the Hardys. Their concerns matter, but what to do? Not build the Trail of the Coeur d’Alenes when the Union Pacific Railroad agrees to fork over $50 million for ii? I rode almost the entire 73-mile trail, and it does go in close proximity to a few residences, but not many, and many of those nicely screened with vegetation. Even so, it goes through a handful of backyards. The same will be true with the Corridor of Discovery, but yes, again, a handful of landowners might not consider the increase in property values worth the loss of solitude.

Again, this matters, but there may be no way to avoid it. The gains, especially the economic benefits, of building the Corridor of Discovery Trail will far, far outweigh any negative impact. Thousands will benefit, and dozens might not.

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