Bozeman Daily Chronicle: Yellowstone Shortline Trail Project receives grant to design and install interpretive signs
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Yellowstone Shortline Trail Project receives grant to design and install interpretive signs
By Helena Dore Chronicle Staff Writer
Jan 7, 2022
A project to build a path on an abandoned railroad bed from West Yellowstone to the Montana-Idaho border has just been awarded $78,900 for interpretive signage.
The Montana Department of Commerce’s Tourism Grant Program on Monday awarded the Yellowstone Historic Center with the money to design and install interpretive signs for the Yellowstone Shortline Trail.
Once complete, the multi-use pathway will follow the bed of the abandoned Oregon Shortline Railroad — a subsidiary of the Union Pacific Railroad — for about nine miles from the border of Yellowstone National Park to the Montana-Idaho border at Reas Pass.
The trail will wind along the South Fork of the Madison River and through the Custer Gallatin National Forest. Project leaders are hoping to break ground later this year, said Ellen Butler, Yellowstone Shortline Trail project coordinator.
“The Yellowstone Shortline Trail Committee and Yellowstone Historic Center are thrilled to have the Montana Department of Commerce’s support for the Yellowstone Shortline Trail through the Tourism Grant Program,” Butler said in a news release.
“Funds from the Tourism Grant Program will enable us to create a rolling, strolling museum along the rail trail through the development of professional interpretive signage that explores the unique history of the area, both natural and cultural,” she added.
A group of West Yellowstone residents, the Custer Gallatin National Forest and the Yellowstone Historic Center started tossing around the idea of building the Yellowstone Shortline Trail in 2019, then got to work on completing some preliminary work.
Fundraising to cover the costs of the trail’s gravel surface started in June 2020. In March, the Forest Service received funds from the Great American Outdoors Act to cover the costs of paving the trail, and now that work is in its early stages, Butler said.
Sea Reach has been hired to design the trail’s interpretive signage. The company created the signs at the Earthquake Lake auto tour about 10 miles north of West Yellowstone.
Butler said partners are hoping to have custom signs with details about the cultural and natural history of the area, including information about how and why the railroad was built through West Yellowstone and its connection to neighboring Yellowstone National Park.
“On those days when traffic is backed up so far that people are waiting hours to get into the park, they’ll have something they can do where they won’t have to wait in line,” she said. “The Custer Gallatin is full of opportunities, and this one is going to be unique.”
The Yellowstone Shortline Trail will be accessible for hikers of all skill levels and other users like mountain bikers and road bikers. While they move, visitors will get to learn about the history of the area in a fun and interactive way, Butler said.
Once the project’s pre-solicitation and solicitation stages end and a contract is awarded, partners are hopeful contractors will be ready to break ground in the spring, then work through the summer, Butler said.
“We’re hoping they can get at least a good chunk of it done this summer and wrap up next summer,” she said.