Four Iowa trails make millennium list

One quarter of the trails selected by the White House Millennium Council as”National Millennium Trails” run through Iowa. The designations wereannounced Monday afternoon by the U.S. secretary of transportation. IowaNational Heritage Foundation spokesperson Cathy Engstrom says thedesignation is an effort to highlight trails nationwide.Missouri is the only other state to have four trails named to the list.Engstrom says that speaks well for the work done to preserve trails in Iowa.The trails selected in Iowa include the Underground Railroad, theMississippi River trail, the American Discovery trail and the Lewis andClark National Historic trail. Engstrom says the term trail is misleadingbecause in some cases the trails represent only an historic route.The Lewis and Clark Historic trail is an example of a route being honored.The American Discovery trail stretches across the country and is not yetcompletly connected. In Iowa it features the Cedar Valley Nature trailrunning from Evansdale to Hiawatha, the Cedar Valley Lakes trail inWaterloo, the Pioneer trail from Holland to Reinbeck, the Comet trail fromBeamann to Grundy Center, the Heart of Iowa Nature trail between Slater andRhodes, the Wabash Trace Nature Trail from Council Bluff to Shenandoah andthe T-bond trail from Atlantic to Audubon. The Mississppi River trail runsfrom New Orleans to St. Louis including parts of Iowa. Engstrom hopes allthe Millennium trails are featured in a national guide.For more information visit the Millennium Trails homepage at:www.millenniumtrails.org.