For the first 40 years that Iola Industries owned the land surrounding the old Lehigh quarry, “we wondered what could possibly happen here that would be good,” John McRae, president of Iola Industries, is quoted in a Register story from 2016.
The land was overgrown with vines as big as your arm, the underbrush crawled with poison ivy and oak, and all kinds of trash from the abandoned cement plant littered the fields.
As a kid, I remember hearing the plant’s rail cars lumber along the tracks that lay just across Elm Creek, the train’s breaks shrieking with each demand.
We’d dig out the Huck Finn buried deep within each child and ignore the “keep out” signs to walk along the tracks — the only viable clearing in the dense woods. The biggest test was to cross the high trestle that spanned the creek. Looking down between the ties to the water far below made my stomach lurch.
When the cement plant closed in 1971, that tamed wilderness turned even more wild and woolly. Dark and foreboding. Definitely uninviting.
While Iola Industries was able to put other parts of the former Lehigh Portland property to good use, most notably the southern portion is now home to Gates Manufacturing, the quarry and its surrounding land was an “attractive nuisance,” according to Jim Gilpin, a longtime Iola Industries member, meaning the organization was ill-equipped to develop its possibilities.
As far as Lehigh quarry, once it filled with water from underground springs, members were content to lease it to the local Elks for $1 a year — an agreement that lasted 40 years.
SO WHAT CHANGED the scenario?
For starters, the debut of the Prairie Spirit Trail connecting Iola to Ottawa in 2008. The 51-mile trail opened up a whole new world for hikers, bikers, runners and wildlife enthusiasts. In no time, cars with license plates from across Kansas, Missouri and Arkansas began to appear at the trailheads in Colony, Carlyle and Iola.
The 7-mile Southwind Trail extension between Iola and Humboldt was completed in 2010 and increased the traffic.
While not as obvious, the 360 acres surrounding the quarry was the next target for trail enthusiasts, largely under the guidance of Randy Rasa, a Thrive Allen County board member.
This vast expanse was the perfect template for Rasa’s creativity, designing both wide walking trails and the more challenging single-tracks that twisted and curved along the creek banks and quarry shores.
In 2018, the Washington Street pedestrian bridge spanning Elm Creek was celebrated. The bridge connects Iola proper with the Lehigh Portland Trails complex as well as other points south.
What possible good could come of the land? McRae had wondered.
In just a decade, the Lehigh Portland complex had been transformed from a formidable tangle to a welcoming experience for all levels of outdoor enthusiasts.
