IN Peters Township August/September 2016 | Page 56

BY FOOT
OR BY BIKE
Peters Township residents
enjoy Arrowhead and
Montour trails.
BY JE NNI FE R BR OZAK

Peters Township volunteers at work on
the trail near Valley Brook Bridge #1.

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I

t’s been more than a century since
railroad cars transported coal and wood
on the Montour Railroad. The railroad,
which was built between 1877 and 1914 as
a way to connect Pittsburgh and Lake Erie
Railroad to local coal mines, closed in the
late 1970s and sat, unused, for more than a
decade.
In 1985, Peters Township purchased
100 acres of the railroad property. Like
other abandoned railroads throughout the
Pittsburgh area, a portion of the old corridor
soon found new life as a multi-purpose,
recreational “rail-trail” named Arrowhead
Trail. State funding enabled the township
to complete the first phase of development,
which was to build the trail and preserve its
natural surroundings by planting hundreds of
trees and wildflowers. Then, in 2002, thanks
to a grant from the Pennsylvania Department
of Conservation and Natural Resources, the
original 3.5-mile section of the Arrowhead
Trail was resurfaced and paved.
The Arrowhead Trail, which is maintained
by the Peters Township Parks and Recreation
Department, runs from Route 19 to Brush
Run Road and can be used for biking, walking
and nature appreciation. A dozen trailheads
along the Arrowhead Trail provide easy access
for the area’s pedestrians and cyclists.
“The trail definitely receives extensive use
from the community,” says Michele Harmel,
Parks and Recreation Director.
The Arrowhead Trail is a section of the
Montour Trail, which will eventually extend