In the 1990s the Union Pacific and Chaparral companies railbanked the tracks between Farmersville to the west and New Boston to the east. This scenic 130-mile trailway stretches across seven counties and 19 rural towns and is the longest railbanked project in Texas. Trail enthusiasts can start their trip in downtown Mineral Wells and make their way to the scenic Mineral Wells State Park and on to Cartwright Park near Weatherford. The trailway has four trailheads, paved parking, drinking water, restrooms and wayfinding information. The grades are flat, with gentle curves making it a great trail for all ability levels. The 20-mile trailway has welcomed thousands of hikers, cyclists and equestrians since 1998. On June 6, 1998, Lake Mineral Wells State Trailway opened on National Trails Day, which was also the 75th celebration of Texas State Parks. Various segments of the line continued operation until insufficient traffic forced its closure in 1992, but that wasn’t the end of the story. The railroad changed hands several times until 1989, when the city of Mineral Wells purchased the line. The Weatherford, Mineral Wells & Northwestern Railway first carried passengers to the healing mineral wells in 1899.

Lake Mineral Wells State Park and Trailway Once the major eastbound rail route through the most densely developed area of Dallas, the 3.5-mile-long section of the line now provides recreation to the more than 300,000 nearby residents and adjacent neighborhoods. The greenbelt along the route was restored with county and state grants as well as public/private partnerships overseen by the aptly named Friends of the Katy Trail, a nonprofit founded in 1997. The abandoned right-of-way vacated in the 1980s was donated to the city of Dallas in 1993. The network of rails eventually grew to serve communities from Junction City, Kan., to Galveston. What began in 1865 as a southern branch of the Union Pacific Railway, the Missouri-Kansas-Texas (MK&T) became known as the “Katy” and was the first railroad to enter Texas from the north. In summer months, dusk tours allow visitors to watch bat flights from the Clarity Tunnel. The park offers regularly scheduled guided tours by a 15-passenger van. The trail is open to hikers, cyclists and horseback riders, perfect for exploring, day tripping or longer excursions. It spans three counties (Floyd, Briscoe and Hall), crosses 46 bridges and passes through Clarity Tunnel, one of the last active railroad tunnels in Texas. The 64-mile Caprock Canyons Trailway stretches from the west, at South Plains on top of the Caprock Escarpment, to the east at Estelline in the Red River Valley. For communities throughout the state, both rural and urban, these reclamation projects help restore economic prosperity to neighborhoods and underserved populations and preserve our railway heritage while promoting personal and environmental health to Texans far and wide.įor more rails-to-trails in Texas, visit Caprock Canyons Trailway Today the grassroots Rails-to-Trails Conservancy boasts a trail network of more than 22,000 miles, 300 of them in Texas, with more on the horizon. To protect these rail corridors, Congress amended the National Trails System Act in 1983 to preserve them for potential reactivation to rail service and allow them to be developed into trails for hiking and biking. As alternative methods of travel emerged, the railroad industry began to decline, and today approximately 233,000 miles of track remain in the United States, many of them abandoned.

Rails to trails