Greenway Trail featured in national magazine

Stretching 43 miles from Warren to Ashtabula, the Western Reserve Greenway Trail is featured in a national magazine, celebrating the 50th anniversary of the National Trails System Act.

Rails to Trails, 2018 winter edition, features the trail and scenic photographs.

“Even the national media has discovered our precious Western Reserve Greenway Trail,” said State Rep. John Patterson, D-Jefferson. “Kudos to our local park system.”

The magazine, published by the Rails-to-Trails Conservancy in Washington, D.C., describes the trail’s 12 Underground Railroad markers along the 27 miles of its route in Ashtabula County. Sites highlighted include the Hubbard House on Walnut Boulevard in Ashtabula, which was once a safe house and northern terminus crossing point to Canada.

“Listed on the National Register of Historic Places, it is now a museum dedicated to the area’s Underground Railroad network,” according to the magazine article.

Larry Frimerman, executive director of the Ashtabula County MetroParks, said he was “pleasantly surprised” and excited when he heard about it. There’s an electronic copy of the magazine available at www.railstotrails.org/magazine.

Personally, Frimerman said he enjoys the historical aspects of the trail, the new picnic shelter at Old Austinburg Road and the trestle bridge in Rock Creek.

The magazine’s winter edition also features rail-trails in Colorado and the 225-mile Miami LOOP connecting landmarks in Miami-Dade County in Florida.