The North Coast Inland Trail (often abbreviated as NCIT) is a work-in-process multipurpose trail project that currently consists of several separate portions, defined by their counties, in northern Ohio, United States. Affiliates with the trails have high hopes to connect all of these portions and to extend the trails into Indiana and Pennsylvania, two of Ohio's land-bordering states.
Railroad Beginnings
The North Coast Inland Trail primarily follows a route built by the Toledo, Norwalk, and Cleveland Railroad (TN&C) from 1851 to 1853. This line was built during an intense competition with the Junction Railroad to be the first to connect Toledo and Cleveland, and ultimately fill the last remaining railroad gap connecting Chicago to Buffalo. Executives of the TN&C made a decision to bypass Woodville and Perrysburg and forge a line straight through the Black Swamp from Fremont to Toledo, saving crucial time and money by shortening the distance by eleven miles. The towns of Lindsey, Elmore, Genoa, and Millbury sprung up along the line as a result of this time-saving decision.
Several mile markers are still visible on the trail with a large "C" or "B," along with a number indicating how many miles remain until Chicago or Buffalo, respectively. The Toledo, Norwalk, and Cleveland Railroad completed their line first, tow
Junction Railroad eventually completed their line, situated along Lake Erie, and in 1853 the two rival companies merged to form the Cleveland & Toledo Railroad. This operation became part of the Lake Shore and Michigan Southern Railway in 1869 and eventually the New York Central Railroad.
The Junction Railroad's line became known as the Northern Division, and the original TN&C's line became known as the Southern Division. The Northern Division gained favor over time due to its shorter distance and the Southern Route was eventually abandoned.
During the 1980s several park districts and counties began an effort to convert the abandoned Southern Division into a multi-use pedestrian path. The North Coast Inland Trail Conservancy was created by supporters in Genoa and Elmore.
In 1992, several park districts agreed to create a series of connecting trails across the state of Ohio. [1] The non-profit organization Firelands Rails to Trails, Inc. gave the project the collective name "North Coast Inland Trail" in 2000. [2]
In 2008, the NCIT was extended from Fremont to Lindsey and Elmore.
In 2021 the latest section of the North Coast Inland Trail was finished, extending the western terminus of the trail from Elmore, Ohio to Genoa, Ohio.
The North Coast Inland Trail is mostly funded by the federal government, but is also partially funded by private organizations and local governments. [1]
The trails are designed to cover many different landscapes, including farmland, urban areas, and forests. [3] Many of the trails follow railroads. Some of these trails are paved over abandoned railways, [1] [4] while others follow alongside active railroads. Because of road obstacles, the trails themselves sometimes cut off before large cities [5] and highways, and signs are placed throughout the open cities or areas, [6] leading the followers to the next segment of the trails, which, in some cases, can be slightly hazardous.
The trails are also designed to "allow people within [counties] to easily move from community to community" and to "connect people and neighborhoods," as stated by Jim Ziemnik, the director of the Lorain County Metro Parks district. [7] The convenience of the trails is also believed to help enhance the real estate appraisal of community homes near the trails. [8]
Because the North Coast Inland Trail is not yet complete, it is currently separated into several disconnected portions that are generally defined by specific counties. The North Coast Inland Trail also has many small and incomplete segments in many areas of northern Ohio besides in these four counties, such as in Wood County and Lucas County, which are planned to eventually be expanded and connected. [9] The following are the four prominent portions of the project:
The Huron County portion of the trails is about 20 miles long and extends from Bellevue, through Monroeville and Norwalk to Collins. [10] This portion is not completely paved; some parts are dirt trails. [11] This portion of the trail is constructed over what were several abandoned railways managed by several defunct railroad companies. [12] The Huron County portion was the first trail to be labeled as a part of the North Coast Inland Trail, and was established by and is maintained by the nonprofit organization Firelands Rails to Trails. [2]
The Lorain County portion of the trails is 13 miles long, is completely paved, and extends from Elyria to Kipton. The entire trail particularly follows several abandoned railways. [1] [11] [13] [14] This portion of the trails was established by and is managed by the park district Lorain County Metro Parks. [1]
The Sandusky County portion of the trails is 27 miles long, is completely paved, and extends from Bellevue to the Ottawa County city of Genoa. The segment of this trail that extends from Bellevue to Clyde was built in 2012. [11] Part of the Sandusky County trail follows an active railroad, and at one point also runs on a bridge across the Sandusky River in the city of Fremont. [15] This portion of the trails was established by and is managed by the Sandusky County Park District. [16]
The Ottawa County portion of the NCIT is about 6.5 miles long and extends from the county line through Elmore to Genoa, currently ending at the trailhead on Washington Street in Veterans Park. This portion is completely paved; however about 0.9 miles is a shared path along Martin-Williston Road in Clay Township, which is to be paved in 2024. The Park District of Ottawa County is working on extending the NCIT to Millbury in Wood County.
The project's eventual objective is to connect the state of Indiana to the state of Pennsylvania with a large bike trail, but the project has not at all yet extended to either of these states. However, users of the trails can also connect to one of these states if they take other nearby, unrelated trails. [11]
There are also many improvement and expansion plans for the current Ohio trails. The Lorain County Metro Parks district in Lorain County has done improvements to the Lorain County portion that costed hundreds of thousands of dollars, which Ziemnik said "was not a financial risk for [them]." [17]
An example of a recently added extension of the trails is the Huron County portion's extension, which leads through the entire city of Norwalk in order to eventually connect into a planned trail segment in Erie County. [18] [19] This portion is not a paved trail, but leads followers through the city using green-painted curbs, which is unique to any other segment of the project. [6]
The most recent extension to the trail project is a 1.8-mile gravel trail in Lorain County that follows an abandoned railroad, which is planned to later be paved over and connected to the prominent trail in Lorain County. [20]
The Ohio Department of Transportation has proposed that most of the trail be designated as a part of USBR 30, a federal bicycle route that will eventually span much of the Northern United States linking Ohio with the Northwestern United States and New England.
The trails are always open, and the trail regulations allow biking, walking, and inline skating. However, they do not allow motor vehicles, with the exception of staff, ranger, and handicap service vehicles. The regulations also do not allow skateboards. [21]
A yearly marathon is held exclusively in Elyria on the North Coast Inland Trail called the Inland Trail Marathon. [22] [23] The results of the marathon are split between male and female participants. [24]
In 2006, more than 150 cyclists took a 3-day bicycle trek starting from Williams County, Ohio near the Indiana borderline and ending at Oberlin, Ohio. One of the trails that this trek underwent was the Lorain County portion of the North Coast Inland Trail. [25]
In October 2014, a geocaching event was held in Lorain County. Some of the geocaches were hidden along the North Coast Inland Trail. [26]
Lorain County is a county in the northeastern part of the U.S. state of Ohio As of the 2020 census, the population was 312,964. Its county seat is Elyria, and its largest city is Lorain. The county was physically established in 1822, becoming judicially independent in 1824. Lorain County is part of the Cleveland, OH Metropolitan Statistical Area. The county is home to Oberlin College.
Norwalk is a city in and the county seat of Huron County, Ohio, United States. The population was 17,068 at the 2020 census. The city is the center of the Norwalk micropolitan area and part of the Cleveland–Akron–Canton combined statistical area. Norwalk is located approximately 10 miles (16 km) south of Lake Erie, 51 miles (82 km) west/southwest of Cleveland, 59 miles (95 km) southeast of Toledo, and 58 miles (93 km) west/northwest of Akron.
Lorain is a city in Lorain County, Ohio, United States. It is located in Northeast Ohio on Lake Erie at the mouth of the Black River, about 25 miles (40 km) west of Cleveland. As of the 2020 census, the city had a population of 65,211, making it Ohio's ninth-largest city, the third-largest in Greater Cleveland, and the largest in Lorain County by population.
The Lake Shore and Michigan Southern Railway, established in 1833, and sometimes referred to as the Lake Shore, was a major part of the New York Central Railroad's Water Level Route from Buffalo, New York, to Chicago, Illinois, primarily along the south shore of Lake Erie and across northern Indiana. The line's trackage remains a major rail transportation corridor used by Amtrak passenger trains and several freight lines; in 1998, its ownership was split at Cleveland, Ohio, between CSX Transportation to the east and Norfolk Southern Railway in the west.
The Lake Shore Electric Railway (LSE) was an interurban electric railway that ran primarily between Cleveland and Toledo, Ohio by way of Sandusky and Fremont. Through arrangements with connecting interurban lines, it also offered service from Fremont to Fostoria and Lima, Ohio, and at Toledo to Detroit and Cincinnati.
The West Shore Conference was a high school athletic conference located in northeast Ohio, with member schools stretched across Cuyahoga, Erie, and Lorain counties.
The Black River is a tributary of Lake Erie, about 12 mi (19 km) long, in northern Ohio in the United States. Via Lake Erie, the Niagara River and Lake Ontario, it is part of the watershed of the St. Lawrence River, which flows to the Atlantic Ocean. The Black drains an area of 470 mi² (1217 km²).
WLKR – branded 92.9 WLKR Classic – is a commercial daytime-only classic hits AM radio station licensed to serve Norwalk, Ohio, covering the Norwalk/Sandusky/Port Clinton market, including Erie and Huron counties. Owned by Elyria-Lorain Broadcasting Co., the WLKR studios are located in Milan, while the station transmitter resides near the intersection of Huber Road and Lamereaux Road just outside of Norwalk. In addition to a standard analog transmission, WLKR simulcasts over low-power analog Norwalk translator W225DG, and is also available online.
WLKR-FM – branded 95-3 WLKR – is a commercial adult album alternative radio station licensed to Norwalk, Ohio, serving the Norwalk/Sandusky/Port Clinton area, including Erie and Huron counties. Owned by the Elyria-Lorain Broadcasting Co., WLKR-FM serves as the local affiliate of the Cleveland Guardians Radio Network, the Ohio State Sports Network and Cavaliers AudioVerse. The station also airs coverage of local high school sports, including football, volleyball, basketball, wrestling, softball and baseball. The WLKR-FM studios are located in Milan, while the station transmitter resides near the intersection of Huber Road and Lamereaux Road just outside of Norwalk. In addition to a standard analog transmission, WLKR-FM is also available online.
BGSU Firelands is a satellite campus of Bowling Green State University in Huron, Ohio. BGSU Firelands is located near the shores of Lake Erie in Huron, Ohio, about 60 miles (97 km) east of Bowling Green, Ohio. It is a separate college of the Bowling Green State University system. BGSU Firelands has been a regional campus of BGSU since 1968, when the first building at the Huron location was opened. Before that, classes were held in Sandusky High School until this building was completed. The campus practices open admissions. BGSU Firelands had over 2,100 students enrolled as of fall 2019, 40% of whom were dual-enrolled high school students.
The Columbus, Delaware and Marion Electric Company or CD&M was an interurban electric railroad that operated passenger and freight service in northern Ohio from 1903 to 1933.
The 1924 Lorain–Sandusky tornado was a deadly F4 tornado which struck the towns of Sandusky and Lorain, Ohio on Saturday, June 28, 1924. It remains the deadliest single tornado ever recorded in Ohio history, killing more people than the infamous 1974 Xenia and 1985 Niles-Wheatland tornadoes combined.
U.S. Route 6 (US 6) is a part of the United States Numbered Highway System that runs from Bishop, California, to Provincetown, Massachusetts. In Ohio, the road runs west–east from the Indiana state line near Edgerton to the Pennsylvania state line near Andover. The 248.002 miles (399.121 km) that lie in Ohio are maintained by the Ohio Department of Transportation (ODOT). US 6 serves the major cities of Sandusky, Lorain, and Cleveland. The highway is also called the Grand Army of the Republic Highway to honor the Union forces of the U.S. Civil War. The alternate name was designated in 1953.
U.S. Route 20 (US 20) is a United States Numbered Highway that runs from Newport, Oregon, to Boston, Massachusetts. Within the state of Ohio, the route runs from the Indiana border near Edon to the Pennsylvania border at Conneaut. The route passes through rural areas west of Toledo and passes through Public Square in Cleveland. It is one of nine other routes to enter Downtown Cleveland at Public Square, and it serves some of Cleveland's northeastern suburbs.
The Patriot Athletic Conference (PAC-12) was an Ohio high school athletic league made up of 12 schools from around the Cleveland area that existed from 2005-2006 to the 2018-2019 school year. All member schools were also members of the Ohio High School Athletic Association.
The Wabash Cannonball Trail is a rail to trail conversion in northwestern Ohio, U.S. It is 63 miles (101 km) long. The North Fork of the Wabash Cannonball Trail is part of the North Coast Inland Trail, which plans to fully connect Indiana to Pennsylvania, and portions of the trail are included in the North Country National Scenic Trail.
This is a list of former high school athletic conferences in the Northeast Region of Ohio, as designated by the OHSAA. If a conference had members that span multiple regions, the conference is placed in the article of the region most of its former members hail from. Because the names of localities and their corresponding high schools do not always match and because there is often a possibility of ambiguity with respect to either the name of a locality or the name of a high school, the following table gives both in every case, with the locality name first, in plain type, and the high school name second in boldface type. The school's team nickname is given last.
This is a list of former high school athletic conferences in the Northwest Region of Ohio, as designated by the OHSAA. If a conference had members that span multiple regions, the conference is placed in the article of the region most of its former members hail from. Because the names of localities and their corresponding high schools do not always match and because there is often a possibility of ambiguity with respect to either the name of a locality or the name of a high school, the following table gives both in every case, with the locality name first, in plain type, and the high school name second in boldface type. The school's team nickname is given last.
The Lorain County League (LC8) is an Ohio high school athletic league that began with the 2019-20 school year and is made up of eight schools predominantly based in Lorain County, Ohio. All schools are members of the Ohio High School Athletic Association. Previous versions of a Lorain County League existed from 1924–61 and again from 1968-2005.
