EDITORIAL: On the trail of a legacy

It was a sad day for Ozaukee County in 1948 when the Interurban Electric Railway was shut down.

Residents lost a service that for decades invited them to step aboard clean, quiet rail cars in their hometowns and travel to Milwaukee or Sheboygan or to the communities between those larger cities.

It was progress in building better automobiles and highways that made the interurban rail service obsolete at the time, so it’s ironic in the age of climate change that the efficient public transit provided by the Interurban Electric Railway without burning fossil fuel would be right in step with these times.

A bit of nostalgia is all right, but there’s no need for lament because the railway left a legacy that today enriches life in Ozaukee County in more ways than any transportation system could. The legacy is the Ozaukee Interurban Trail created on the 30-mile length of the railway roadbed in the county.

The trail is a safe and quiet place for walking, running and cycling, but besides the opportunities for exercise it offers a delightful way to enjoy the sylvan side of Ozaukee County. Parts of the trail are corridors through dense growths of trees and vegetation that are habitats for birds and other wildlife. It can be said that the trail right of way itself is a nature preserve safe from development.

The trail was completed in 2002, and was impressive enough to win a state award. Twenty-two years later, it’s showing its age. Much of it is still in good shape, but in some sections crumbling pavement makes an unfriendly surface for trail users, especially bike riders.

Divided responsibility for trail upkeep contributes to the problem. The county takes care of the stretches of the trail in the towns of Port Washington, Grafton and Belgium. Municipalities are charged with responsibility of maintaining the sections within their borders.

There’s a better way. The county should take over the management of the entire length of the trail, and take care of it as though it were a county park.

The county government has the financial wherewithal and staff to do this, more so than the municipalities. Moreover, the success the county Planning and Parks Department has demonstrated in applying for grants related to parks and recreation suggests that some of the cost can be offset by state, federal and nonprofit grants. Grant applications are already in the works for maintenance and extending the trail in the Grafton area.

The many county residents who use it deserve a well maintained trail, and so too do the visitors, including birdwatchers and cyclists, it brings to Ozaukee County. The Ozaukee Interurban Trail is a bona fide tourist attraction, and is advertised as such by the county and some of the communities along the way. The trail is an economic asset to this area, just as was the railway that traveled daily on the same route.

The electric railway was a particularly important driver of commercial activity in Port Washington. Its tracks ran through the downtown, beside Grand Avenue, then along the harbor and through a tunnel in the five-story Wisconsin Chair Co. manufacturing plant located on the site now occupied by another formidable structure, the Inventors Brewpub building. Electricity for the train was produced in a power station next to the harbor where the Harborview Hotel is now located.

Decades later, the railway’s contribution to Port is a beautiful piece of the Ozaukee Interurban Trail, starting at the lakefront and winding through the Valley Creek Corridor, embraced by forests rich with flora and fauna and so protected by the shady, wind blocking growth around it that it sometimes seems to have it own climate.

It’s remarkable, but just one of many remarkable features of a legacy that should be respected with proper care.

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Ozaukee Press

Wisconsin’s largest paid circulation community weekly newspaper. Serving Port Washington, Saukville, Grafton, Fredonia, Belgium, as well as Ozaukee County government. Locally owned and printed in Port Washington, Wisconsin.

125 E. Main St.
Port Washington, WI 53074
(262) 284-3494
 

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