The Raccoon River Valley Trail Association
aims to make this trail one of America’s best!

A new organization was formed in early 2006 to market and promote the Raccoon River Valley Trail in west central Iowa.

The Raccoon River Valley Trail Association, a non-profit membership group, will also facilitate tourism and economic development initiatives up and down the 56-mile-long paved trail, the first parts of which were constructed and opened in 1989. The trail now stretches from Jefferson on the north, to the Des Moines metro area on the southeast. A 33-mile north loop through Perry will likely be completed by 2007 or ’08, then making the RRVT, at 89 miles, the longest trail in Iowa and one of the longest in the nation.

The association has grown out of a task force of about 10 members that worked for 16 months on several trail-related projects. Those include a specially-designed and coordinated new signage system, which is scheduled to be completed and in place by the summer of 2007, as well as encouraging the development of permanent restroom facilities and overnight accommodations in all the towns along the trail – even the smallest of them

“We think our association might be the first ever formed in the state to promote one specific trail,” said Carla Offenburger, of Cooper, president of the new group. “You can think of it like a Chamber of Commerce for the whole Raccoon River Valley Trail.”

With the completion of the trail system into Des Moines during 2006, the number of annual users on the RRVT is expected to mushroom from the 70,000 of recent years.
“One of the things we’ve done is study other trails around the nation, to determine what kind of amenities the trail users really want,” said Offenburger. “The one we’ve really modeled most of our ideas from is the Root River State Trail in southeast Minnesota, which is the economic engine that has built a $25 million per year tourism industry in Fillmore County – and that’s a rural area in that state.”

The RRVT is owned and managed by the Conservation Boards in Greene, Guthrie and Dallas Counties, and that will continue to be the case. The three county conservation directors – Dan Towers in Greene, Joe Hanner in Guthrie and Mike Wallace in Dallas – will serve as ex-officio members of the new RRVT Association board of directors.

Other founding board members are trails advocates Carla and Chuck Offenburger, of Cooper; Kevin Wilbeck, of Rippey; Trisha Easton, of Bagley; Bill Wright, of Panora; Jim Rose, of Jefferson; Butch Niebuhr and Mark Powell, of Perry, and Julie Bailey, of Adel. Three additional board members have been added since the founding -- Cindy Jensen of West Des Moines and Panora; Jim Miller, of rural Waukee, and Bob German, of Dallas Center.

Two others who serve as advisors are Chris Whitaker, of Carroll, who works with the Region XII Council of Governments, and Cheri Ure, of Jefferson, who teaches at the Iowa State University College of Design.

Clark Smith, of Des Moines, who worked in economic development for 20-plus years with the State of Iowa and the utility Aquila, Inc., has been contracted to serve as the non-profit association’s executive director and consultant. Clark and his wife Lauren Kernan Smith operate the Butler House on Grand Bed & Breakfast on the west side of Des Moines, and it will be near the metro extension of the RRVT.

The association launched this Internet site www.RaccoonRiverValleyTrail.org on May 1, 2006, with information and features about the trail itself, as well as attractions and businesses in the communities located on and near the trail. The association hired David Harrenstein, of Lanesboro Web Management Group in Lanesboro, Minnesota, to develop the site. Harrenstein, a native Iowan, is webmaster of several sites affiliated with the Root River State Trail in Minnesota as well as RAGBRAI’s site on the ’Net.

The RRVT Association has been started with $3,000 in donations arranged by the conservation directors of the three counties along the trail.

“We’re now going to be working with communities all along the trail in the three counties, helping them to develop new businesses and attractions that will interest trail users and other tourists,” said Carla Offenburger. “At the same time, we’ll be promoting the trail with bicyclists and other recreation enthusiasts across the nation and around the world. We want to make it a real destination for trail users.”

She said the association “is focused on maintaining an energetic and fast-moving pace, to get many of our ideas and plans in place for the 2006 biking season.” She called it “a fun project that is a win-win situation for all who want to be a part of it.”

And, please, share your ideas with us for improving the trail and the amenities along the way.