HUMBOLDT — With a break in the winter cold, construction of an arch at the south end of the Southwind Trail is underway.
Footings for the arch were dug and laced with reinforcing rebar ahead of concrete being poured late Wednesday afternoon.
The arch will be just north of the connecting road between U.S. 169 and Humboldt’s north edge, and will be a mirror image of the arch at the west edge of Iola, which is complete except for an “Iola” sign that will be put atop it. The south arch will have “Humboldt” at its top.
The arches, with a steel core and brick exterior, sit atop large concrete pads, which in Humboldt’s case required a pour of about 10 cubic yards.
Ryan Sigg, Darin Robertson and Melvin Smoot tended to preparations, and then tamped and soothed concrete as it was poured into sturdy forms.
Sigg said the concrete’s curing process would start immediately and not be hampered by overnight temperatures that stayed well above freezing. By the time frigid weather returns, it will not have an effect on the raw concrete.
Robertson and his father, Larry, both local masons, will add brick facades to the steel core of the arch as weather permits.
The trail was created by volunteers and contributions from supporters, with the crushed limestone surface coming with the assistance of Allen County’s Public Works Department.
In initial trail surveys in 2012 volunteers found the old Santa Fe Railroad right of way overgrown with vegetation. They spent 8,000 man-hours the past two years removing brush, fallen trees and debris and upgrading the ancient iron bridge over Elm Creek, at the southwest edge of Iola.
The result is today’s nearly seven-mile-long trail that during its first five months, according to Trail Manager David Fontaine, had about 10,000 unique users, hiking and biking on its smooth surface and enjoying what nature has to offer along the way.
An outcome has been some Humboldt and Iola residents working in one city or the other use the trail as an avenue to their jobs by bicycle. True to form, a B&W Trailer Hitches employee rode his bike onto the trail and set out for Iola while Sigg and his crew were tending to the arch’s construction.
The dreamscape is for the trail eventually to wind its way on to Chanute, and maybe beyond, just as the Prairie Spirit Trail, managed by the Kansas Department of Wildlife and Parks, is open from Iola to Ottawa, and connects to the Southwind Trail.
A route is marked along Humboldt streets from Southwind’s south end to the town’s new Neosho River Park. The hope is for a trail similar to Southwind to some day follow the old Katy Railroad right of way from the west edge of Humboldt to Chanute.
