King Switch Tunnel The Moonville Rail-Trail is a sixteen-mile (25 kilometer)

rail-trail A rail trail is a shared-use path on railway right of way. Rail trails are typically constructed after a railway has been abandoned and the track has been removed, but may also share the right of way with active railways, light rail, or streetcar ...

in southeast Ohio, located in Vinton and

Athens Athens ( ; el, Αθήνα, Athína ; grc, Ἀθῆναι, Athênai (pl.) ) is both the capital and largest city of Greece. With a population close to four million, it is also the seventh largest city in the European Union. Athens dominates ...

Counties. It is largely embedded in the

Zaleski State Forest Zaleski State Forest is a state forest in the U.S. state of Ohio, located primarily in Vinton County, with areas in Athens County as well. The 28,000 acre (110 km²) forest surrounds Lake Hope State Park in Vinton County, and borders the ...

and passes close to

Lake Hope State Park Lake Hope State Park is a public recreation area encompassing within Zaleski State Forest, located northeast of Zaleski in Vinton County, Ohio. The state park is centered on Lake Hope, a impoundment on Big Sandy Run. History The park and l ...

. The trail is named after the Moonville Tunnel through which it passes. The trail is built on the grade of a railroad originally built as part of the

Marietta and Cincinnati Railroad The Marietta and Cincinnati (M&C) was one of five important east-west railroads of southern Ohio; it was later absorbed by the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad (B&O). Its original route ran from Marietta through Vincent, Athens, Hamden, Chillicothe, ...

, which ran between its namesake cities. The M&C was acquired by the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad becoming its Southwestern Division. The B&O was merged into the

Chessie System Chessie System, Inc. was a holding company that owned the Chesapeake and Ohio Railway (C&O), the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad (B&O), the Western Maryland Railway (WM), and Baltimore and Ohio Chicago Terminal Railroad (B&OCT). Trains operated unde ...

Railroads, which was then merged into CSX Transportation. CSX abandoned parts and sold parts of the old M&C line in stages during the late 1980s. Track was removed from the abandoned sections. The section of the railroad grade (with track removed) from the Red Diamond Powder Plant on the west end (between

McArthur McArthur may refer to: People * McArthur (surname) Geography * McArthur, Arkansas, an unincorporated town in Desha County * McArthur, California, in Shasta County * McArthur, Modoc County, California * McArthur, Ohio * McArthur Basin, a large int ...

and Zaleski) to

Mineral In geology and mineralogy, a mineral or mineral species is, broadly speaking, a solid chemical compound with a fairly well-defined chemical composition and a specific crystal structure that occurs naturally in pure form.John P. Rafferty, ed. (2 ...

on the east end was acquired by the respective county governments through Clean Ohio Conservation Fund grants. The underlying property is owned by the Athens County Commissioners in Athens County, and by the Vinton County Commissioners in Vinton County. The rail trail runs from Zaleski to Mineral. The rail remains intact from the Diamond Powder Plant westward nearly to Chillicothe. The track from Mineral eastward is abandoned through Athens and to Belpre. This rail-trail is open to hikers, horse riders, and bicyclists. It has a gravel/dirt surface and has many stream crossings where the railroad bridges were removed during the dismantling of the track. Work to restore the many bridges in order to make the entire stretch passable is underway. The trail features two tunnels: the Moonville Tunnel, a masonry tunnel in Vinton County that is reputed to be haunted, and the King Switch Tunnel, a timber tunnel in Athens County. The governing organization of the trail, Moonville Rail-Trail, Inc., hopes to eventually extend the trail eastward to New Marshfield then to

to join with the Hockhocking Adena Bikeway.

Location

*West terminus at Zaleski: *East terminus at Mineral:

References

External links

Moonville Rail-Trail, Inc.
{{Ohio hiking trails Transportation in Athens County, Ohio Bike paths in Ohio Rail trails in Ohio Transportation in Vinton County, Ohio Protected areas of Athens County, Ohio Protected areas of Vinton County, Ohio