Here’s how the next Carolina Thread Trail phase impacts York, Lancaster, Chester areas
Almost 200 more miles of Carolina Thread Trail might stretch even further, in broadening recreation options in York, Lancaster and Chester counties.
On Monday officials with the Charlotte regional trail network announced a five-year fundraising campaign for the next 191 miles of trail. It includes a $1 million gift from the David Belk Cannon Foundation. The campaign will put at least five miles of contiguous trail in each county within the Thread Trail footprint.
The new trail will generate extra returns where it can connect existing stretches for a broader network.
The Thread Trail today has more than 530 miles of trail open to the public. It spans 15 counties in North and South Carolina. York, Lancaster and Chester counties are included. There are greenways, or paved surface trails, and blueways with access points for paddlers along water. Trails include tens of thousands of open space acres.
More than 1,600 total miles of trail are planned.
South Carolina trails
York County has about 27 miles of existing trail. Total Thread Trail plans call for 128 miles. It’s similar in Lancaster County, where about 11 of the planned 110 miles are built. Chester County has about eight of 66 planned miles of trail built.
The Baxter Village Trail is more than three miles. More than a mile of Blue Star Trail at the Anne Springs Close Greenway is Thread Trail. Almost three miles of riverfront trail run through the Catawba Indian Nation Reservation. York County also has the more than two-mile Founders and Piedmont Medical Center trails connected to Riverwalk, the Hood Center Trail, Manchester Meadows trail and River Trail in Rock Hill, plus the Masons Bend Trail in Fort Mill and York Greenway trails.
Lancaster County has a mile in Andrew Jackson State Park. There’s a mile in Lancaster. There’s trail at Hanging Rock Battlefield, Lindsay Pettus Greenway and Twelve Mile Creek. Chester County has trail at Landsford Canal State Park and Wylie Park Trail.
The area also has a 30-mile stretch of blueway along the Catawba River, from the Lake Wylie dam to Landsford Canal State Park and Fishing Creek Reservoir. Lake Wylie is part of a separate 27-mile blueway that starts in North Carolina.
A map with the new campaign announcement shows two routes that run deep into the tri-county area. A 138-mile North-South Spine travels from Statesville, N.C., to Great Falls. It crosses into York County near Fort Mill and connects with some existing trails before heading south, roughly down the Lancaster and Chester counties border. A 118-mile Western Spine runs from Hickory, N.C., to Rock Hill. It comes through Lake Wylie, York and Rock Hill before meeting up with the North-South Spine.
The North-South and Western spines are corridors that will speed trail development in part through the coming campaign.
City, town, county help
The trail in many ways is a network of cities and towns with a shared goal of open space. There are 88 municipalities involved along with the 15 counties. Thread Trail executive director Bart Landess said private dollars are matched up to 20 times by local governments.
“The ones who are really making it all happen are our partners, the towns and counties who are part of the Carolina Thread Trail network,” Landess said.
Counties have adopted master plans. Some municipalities do too. This summer in Fort Mill, a partnership formed between Winthrop University, Fort Mill Economic Partners and the town to study how to connect the Annes Springs Close Greenway to the Catawba River through town, on to the Riverwalk trails in Rock Hill.
“The town continues to search for projects that will embrace and promote connecting people and places,” Mayor Guynn Savage said in July. “We are proud to be leading this effort for our community.”
For the trail system that began in 2007, recent community expansions abound. The COVID-19 pandemic brought visitor spikes to the Anne Springs Close Greenway, state parks and other outdoor places. Some Carolina Thread Trail sites saw usage increase up to 200%, said board chairperson Lat Purser.
“Greenways are wildly popular, and communities can’t seem to get them opened fast enough,” Purser said.
Tim Belk, capital campaign co-chair, said the trail network is a gift to children and grandchildren.
“Ensuring that everyone who lives here can have access to our beautiful landscapes and waterways is crucial to making sure the Charlotte area remains a great place to live, for generations to come,” Belk said.
This story was originally published December 13, 2021 at 11:48 AM.
