It was in September of 1973 that the City of Troy completed a project on MCD property, with funding assistance from The Troy Foundation to build a mile-long trail atop the flood levees from the Westbrook neighborhood to downtown Troy. In September 2023 a good sized crowd of advocates, community leaders, trail users and trail managers gathered at the Adams Street Bridge to mark the 50th Anniversary of that first mile of trail in what has become the Miami Valley Trails network. Joining MVRPC Executive Director Brian Martin in speaking at the event were MCD General Manager MaryLynn Lodor, Melissa Kleptz, President and CEO of The Troy Foundation, and Troy Mayor Robin Oda.
This Troy Daily News article from 1973 touts the trail’s route as connecting Hobart facilities and residential neighborhoods to downtown, Hobart Arena, and Community Park. So from the beginning, this was a transportation and commuter corridor serving mobility for the residents of Troy. We don't assume that the folks involved in getting this mile of trail built imagined that one day this trail would connect to dozens of other cities in the Miami Valley, but over time that is what happened.
Today this mile of trail is one of 93 miles of the Great Miami River Trail, which stretches from Piqua in the North to Trenton in the south. Additional pieces of the GMR Trail are built in Hamilton-Fairfield and in Sidney. Today the 330+ miles of the Miami Valley Trails connect Miami Valley residents to jobs, parks, schools, amenities and nature across 10 counties.
The event was a wonderful celebration of what the Region has achieved in 50 Years, and a call to continue the work to build out the trails network in the future.
