The Shooting Star State Trail
Making connections in southern Minnesota by Jan Lasar “It’s been a long time. Here it goes!” Gerald Meier of the Prairie Visions group said and cut the ribbon to officially open the Shooting Star Trail’s link into Austin, MN. At the end of October last year a small crowd gathered near the Jay C. Hormel Nature Center to celebrate the realization of what’s been the dream of a handful of local residents in the southern Minnesota towns of LeRoy, Taopi, Adams, Rose Creek, Lyle and Austin. Meier has been part of Prairie Visions since 1993 and credits Mower County, the DNR and countless private individuals with the success of the project. “We had lots and lots of help, it was an unbelievable amount of people that helped”, he said. Although somewhat delayed from the group’s original estimates, he’s happy to see his years of volunteerism come to fruition. “We planned on being up here [in Austin] by 1995,” he said and chuckled. There were cheers from the crowd when the two ends of the cut ribbon fell on the freshly paved trail. Among those celebrating was Nancy Schnable, Executive Director of Discover Austin, the city’s Convention and Visitors Bureau. “This really opens up a gateway for us to be able to connect our 15 miles of city trails to the Shooting Star State Trail,” she said. With the new
extension added, the trail is now almost 30 miles long. It extends from Lake Louise State Park to Austin’s doorstep, just south of the Jay C. Hormel Nature Center, where it joins Austin’s network of city trails on the north side of I-90. Schnable hopes the resulting 45 miles of trail will be an attraction to locals and provide a boost for tourism in Southern Minnesota. The same goes for the Friends of the Shooting Star Trail. Sharon Jacobson, president of the group and member of the Friends of Lake Louise State Park, says they have been working tirelessly to promote the communities along the trail corridor since the beginning. Their signature event, the Shooting Star Trail Ride will be in its 22nd year in 2020. At first, locals were skeptical of the idea of turning an abandoned railroad grade into a recreational trail. She said the initial reaction was “Why would anyone come ride here and see corn and soybeans?” Now that the trail is almost complete it turns out that “People from the Cities like to see corn and soybeans, instead of skyscrapers and cars,” she said. And since the launch of a bike rental program in June of 2019 she’s also seen an increase in trail
Gerald Meier cuts the ribbon at the October 2019 connection of the Shooting Star Trail into Austin, MN. All photos by Jan Lasar
use by locals who like to connect with the outdoors. The annual ride draws up to 200 people to the towns of Rose Creek, Taopi, LeRoy, Adams and Austin and offers ride choices of 20 to 70 miles. The shorter routes are trail only while the longer ones explore the quiet country roads of the area. In 2020, new routes will take riders down Iowa’s Wapsi-Great Western Trail as well. “Ride volunteers are increasingly hard to come by these days,” she said, and credited the roughly 20 locals who help with rest stops and route planning with the event’s success. Some, like Jerry Utz from LeRoy, MN have been volunteering their time for 20 years. He enjoys meeting riders at the rest stop, finding out where they’re from and
Trail shelter built in the style of a Norwegian church near Adams, MN.
10 Summer 2020
Minnesota Trails
