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Rocky
outcroppings run along the trail that runs high
above the Middle Fork of Little Beaver Creek and
down by the water. There's plenty of history along
the trail, too.
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LISBON, Ohio — The trail
is billed as one of the coolest in all of Ohio.
The Little Beaver Creek
Greenway Trail might just be one of the most
temperature-friendly rail trails in Ohio. Most rail trails
are wide open and sunny, very hot in July and August. But
the Greenway Trail is heavy on trees, so it's five to 10
degrees cooler in the shade on summer days.
The trail — 10 feet wide
and paved with asphalt — stretches 10 miles from the
village of Lisbon north to the village of Leetonia in
eastern Ohio's Columbiana County.
It follows the route of the
old Erie Lackawanna Railroad. The line was previously used
by the Erie Railroad and the Mahoning Valley Railway.
The trail goes along the
very pretty Middle Fork of Little Beaver Creek, a federal
and state wild/scenic stream, in a mini-valley that the
creek has cut.
It's one of three Ohio
streams in the federal system, along with the Little Miami
River and the Big Darby-Little Darby creeks. It was the
first stream designated for the state system. Thirty-six
miles of stream were honored for wild or scenic
attributes.
The rail trail — it is
managed by the Columbiana County Park District — passes
farms, fields, heavy forests, backyards with caged rabbits
and chained dogs. There are 30-foot-high sandstone cliffs
and wild-looking gorges.
At times, you are 100 feet
above Little Beaver Creek. At other times, you are
pedaling at stream level.
You can even hop off the
trail to visit a historic covered bridge. The Centennial
bridge on Eagleton Road at Teegarden was built in 1875 and
used until 1992. It is 67 feet long and built of white
oak. It is one of five remaining covered bridges in
Columbiana County.
You also pedal past a small
wooden building that was the Sheldon's Grove ticket
station back in railroad days.
Closer to Lisbon, you will
pass the McKinley House where President William McKinley's
grandparents once lived. It is off Logtown Road.
At Leetonia, you can visit
the old beehive coke ovens that were used from 1866 to the
1930s to produce steel. The complex, with 200 old ovens,
was built by the Leetonia Iron and Coal Co. and later run
by the Cherry Valley Iron and Coal Co.
The facility, one of the
largest of its kind in the country, is maintained by local
Boy Scouts. It is off Logtown Road.
Lisbon is a pretty,
historic place. It was founded in 1803 and is the second
oldest town in Ohio. Its downtown buildings date to the
early 1800s and represent Federal, Empire and Victorian
styles.
There are five trailheads:
—On state Route 164 at
South Lincoln Avenue in Lisbon.
—West of Lisbon on St.
Jacob-Logtown Road. It can be reached off Lincoln Way
(U.S. 30).
—Off Eagleton Road north
of Lisbon. Take state Route 45 north from Lisbon for five
miles. Turn left (west) on Teegarden Road. Proceed two
miles. Turn left on Eagleton.
—Off state Route 558 near
Old Route 344 at New Franklin and just south of Leetonia.
—Off state Route 344 in
Leetonia.
Amenities along the
Greenway Trail are limited: a few benches and picnic
tables, portable toilets and a handful of interpretive
signs.
In fact, the trail goes on
the road for a short stretch near Lisbon and a directional
sign or paint on the pavement would have been helpful to
point bicyclists in the right direction.
Trail users are fenced in
for long sections — sometimes on one side of the trail
only and sometimes on both.
Helmets are recommended. No
pets or horses are allowed, and do not trespass on the
private property on both sides of the trail.
The Little Beaver Creek
Greenway Trail was in the discussion stages starting in
1990. Construction began in late 1999 and the trail opened
in 2000.
For information about the
Greenway Trail, contact the Columbia County Park District
at 130 Maple St., Lisbon 44432, 330-424-9078. You can also
check out http://www.bicycletrail.com/gwt-home.htm. Nearby
is Guilford Lake State Park, which has an interesting
history.
Today there is a 396-acre
lake, but the park about seven miles west of Lisbon off
state Route 172 started out as a swamp and then became a
canal reservoir. It was later drained by farmers.
The lake was originally
created in 1834 to provide water for the Sandy &
Beaver Canal.
That canal ran 73.5 miles
from Bolivar in northern Tuscarawas County east to East
Liverpool on the Ohio River. It connected to the Ohio
& Erie Canal at Bolivar. It included 30 dams, 90
locks, two tunnels and a 400-foot-long aqueduct.
E.H. Gill was the chief
engineer for the canal and a town was named in his honor.
He built a road through the wetland that was known as
Gill's Ford.
But when the town in 1874
applied for a Grange charter, its name was misspelled as
Guilford. Rather than wait for a corrected charter, the
locals simply accepted the new name.
The canal went bankrupt.
The lake was drained and farmers used the bottomlands.
The state acquired the site
on the West Fork of Little Beaver Creek in 1927 and
rebuilt the dam in 1932. It became a state park in 1949.
The park has day-use areas
and a campground with 41 sites around the lake. There is a
600-foot-long sandy beach on the northwest side of the
lake. There is also picnicking.
For park information,
contact Guilford Lake State Park at 6835 East Lake Road,
Lisbon 44432, 330-222-1712. Or go to http://www.ohiodnr.com.
Six miles south of Lisbon off state Route 518, you will
find the monument that marks the surrender site of
Confederate Gen. John Hunt Morgan.
Morgan and his cavalry
surrendered on July 26, 1863, after a daring raid that
marked the Confederates' northernmost strike during the
Civil War.
If you are looking for
another pedaling spot east of Akron, head for the Mill
Creek MetroParks Bikeway in Mahoning County.
The 11-mile paved bikeway
is on the same abandoned railroad as the Greenway Trail in
Columbiana County. The two trails are eight miles apart.
The Mahoning trail runs
from Western Reserve Road in Canfield Township to the
Mahoning-Trumbull County line in Austintown Township.
You can hop on at
trailheads at the MetroParks farm in Canfield Township,
and at Kirk Road and Mahoning Avenue, both in Austintown
Township.
The line was built in the
1860s as the Niles and Lisbon Branch of the Erie Railroad
Co. and served as a key link between Cleveland and
Pittsburgh.
Passenger service was
discontinued in the 1930s. The tracks and ties were
removed in 1989.
The north-south bikeway,
built with federal and state grants, opened in 2000.
It is popular with
bicyclists, walkers and in-line skaters.
Surrounded by suburban
development, it doesn't have the same rustic feel as the
Columbiana County trail.
Sites along the trail
include the 154-acre Sawmill Creek Preserve and the
402-acre MetroParks Farm in Canfield, with classrooms,
displays and agricultural exhibits.
The Columbiana and Mahoning
trails are part of the 100-mile Great Ohio Lake to River
Greenway that will link Lake Erie to the Ohio River when
it is completed.
For information, contact
Mill Creek MetroParks at P.O. Box 596, Canfield, OH 44406,
330-702-3000. You can also check out http://www.millcreekmetroparks.com.
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