- Sakatah Singing Hills State Trail
Sakatah Singing Hills State Trail is a 39-mile-long paved multi-use
rail trail connecting Faribault and Mankato,Minnesota .It is maintained by the
Minnesota Department of Natural Resources , which converted it from a railroad line. The name comes from the Dakota people who lived in the region; "Sakatah" translates into "singing hills". The trail is shared by hikers, joggers, snowmobilers, and cross-country skiers. There are sections of parallel dirt trail for horseback riders but they are not continuous. The landscape is mostly cultivated land with remnant stands ofprairie andBig Woods . The trail passes throughSakatah Lake State Park and runs through city streets in Waterville.History
The rail line was surveyed in the late 1870s, though construction did not begin until
1882 . The route fromFaribault, Minnesota toWaterville, Minnesota was completed in 1882, and the route from Waterville toMankato, Minnesota was completed in 1887. TheChicago Great Western Railway and later theChicago and North Western Railway operated the line for many years, but abandoned it in the early 1970s. State acquisition of the route, with a view toward creating a rail trail, began in 1974, and Sakatah Singing Hills State Trail was officially dedicated in 1980. It was a dirt trail for its first decade; the entire length was paved between 1991 and 1995.References
* "Sakatah Singing Hills State Trail" brochure. Southern Minnesota Lakes Region Association.
* [http://www.trainweb.org/cgw/history-bin/cgw_trails.html The Unofficial Chicago Great Western Page]External links
* [http://www.dnr.state.mn.us/state_trails/sakatah/index.html Sakatah Singing Hills State Trail official website]
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