By Jerry Curry, Staff Writer

The Monon South Trail is underway with Phase 1. This includes construction schedules, design standards, and interpretive programs.

The ribbon cutting for the project was held Tuesday, July 16, at Borden Community Park, as a crowd of about 100 looked on.

There was a Community Upgrade Meeting here in Salem on Wednesday, July 17, at the Monon Railroad Museum, 206 S. College Avenue.

Facilitating the meeting were members of Clark Dietz Inc. (Ryan Hughes), Radius Indiana (Jeff Quyle) and Taylor Siefker Williams (Ron Taylor), who each talked about their role in this project. They want to keep the Monon experience alive, Hoosier physical surroundings and Hoosier agriculture intact. Many Monon landmarks will be left as is to keep the railroad theme alive.

The Monon South Trail is a proposed 57-mile trail between Mitchell and Borden, and on to New Albany. This trail will connect eight local communities in the Lawrence, Orange, Washington, and Clark counties in southern Indiana.

The trail continues south through to New Albany. The city of New Albany is in charge of that section and will receive a portion of the Indiana state and government grants which totals $29.5 million. The trail will connect the Louisville loop and Ohio River Greenway trail.

The groups are seeking private funds as well. Right now, the grant will only pay for twenty miles of construction on the trail. This will include trail heads which will have rest rooms, shelters and parking. The rural and urban trailheads will vary in composite. Some of the trail heads will be asphalt and some consisting of limestone aggregate. The design includes rest areas.

The trail is definitely a tourist attraction.  It goes through Mitchell, Orleans, Leipsic, Saltillo, Campbellsburg, Salem, New Pekin, Borden and down to New Albany in that order. The group is working on consistency of signage along the trail. 

The Orleans trail has a hard dead line of August 25. This was perceived to be easiest and will be the example for others to come. The old rails and ties were removed leaving the rock.

The Salem Trailhead will start at the intersection of South Main and West Small streets. Presently at that site is an CSX building and a large boxcar. The group said the railroad forgot about the boxcar and sent them a quick claim deal. It is being restored and now has a coat of red primer. This part of the trail will be 18 miles long and is a part of Segment One. It will run from Salem through New Pekin to Borden. The trail runs across two bodies of water, the Middle Fork Blue River and the South Fork Blue River at New Pekin. No completion date is given. One obstacle is the bridges. The floor must be removed and a new floor installed and, of course, inspected.

There are many websites and a Facebook page for more information.

The trail at this point is not open to the public.

Staff photos by Jerry Curry