Moonville Rail-Trail

King Switch Tunnel

The Moonville Rail-Trail is a sixteen-mile (25 kilometer) rail-trail in southeast Ohio, located in Vinton and Athens Counties. It is largely embedded in the Zaleski State Forest and passes close to Lake Hope State Park. 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 part of the Marietta and Cincinnati Railroad, 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 Railroads, which was then merged into CSX Transportation. CSX abandoned parts and sold parts the old M&C line in stages in 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 and Zaleski) to Mineral 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 Athens to join with the Hockhocking Adena Bikeway.

Location

West terminus at Zaleski: 39°17′10″N 82°23′24″W / 39.286232°N 82.390138°W / 39.286232; -82.390138
East terminus at Mineral: 39°19′29″N 82°15′54″W / 39.324751°N 82.265112°W / 39.324751; -82.265112

External links

Moonville Rail-Trail, Inc.

Protected areas of Ohio

Federal

National parks	Cuyahoga Valley

National historical parks and sites	Dayton Aviation Heritage NHP First Ladies NHS Hopewell Culture NHP James A. Garfield NHS William Howard Taft NHS

National Monuments	Charles Young Buffalo Soldiers

National memorials	David Berger Perry's Victory and International Peace Memorial

National trails	North Country Trail

National forests	Wayne

National wildlife refuges	Cedar Point Ottawa West Sister Island

National estuarine research reserve	Old Woman Creek

National Natural Landmarks	Brown's Lake Bog Cedar Bog Dysart Woods Fort Hill State Memorial Glen Helen Nature Preserve Tinkers Creek Gorge

State

State parks	Adams Lake Alum Creek A. W. Marion Barkcamp Beaver Creek Blue Rock Buck Creek Buckeye Lake Burr Oak Caesar Creek Catawba Island Cleveland Lakefront Cowan Lake Deer Creek Delaware Dillon East Fork East Harbor Findley Forked Run Geneva Grand Lake St. Marys Great Seal Guilford Lake Harrison Lake Headlands Beach Hocking Hills Hueston Woods Independence Dam Indian Lake Jackson Lake Jefferson Lake John Bryan Kelleys Island Kiser Lake Lake Alma Lake Hope Lake Logan Lake Loramie Lake Milton Lake White Little Miami Madison Lake Malabar Farm Marblehead Lighthouse Mary Jane Thurston Middle Bass Island Maumee Bay Mohican Mosquito Lake Mt. Gilead Muskingum River Nelson Kennedy Ledges Paint Creek Pike Lake Portage Lakes Punderson Pymatuning Quail Hollow Rocky Fork Salt Fork Scioto Trail Shawnee South Bass Island Stonelick Strouds Run Sycamore Tar Hollow Tinkers Creek Van Buren West Branch Wingfoot Lake Wolf Run

State forests	Beaver Creek Blue Rock Brush Creek Dean Fernwood Gifford Harrison Hocking Maumee Mohican-Memorial Perry Pike Richland Furnace Scioto Trail Shade River Shawnee Sunfish Creek Tar Hollow Yellow Creek Zaleski

State nature preserves	Acadia Cliffs Adams Lake Prairie Audubon Islands Augusta-Anne Olsen Aurora Sanctuary Baker Woods Evans Beck Memorial Betsch Fen Bigelow Cemetery Blackhand Gorge Bonnet Pond Boord Brown's Lake Bog Burton Wetlands Caesar Creek Gorge Lou Campbell Carmean Woods Cedar Bog Chaparral Prairie Christmas Rocks Clear Creek Clear Fork Gorge Clifton Gorge Howard Collier Compass Plant Prairie Conkle's Hollow Copperrider-Kent Bog Crabill Fen Cranberry Bog Crane Hollow Crooked Run Culberson Woods Davey Woods Davis Memorial Marie J. Desonier Drew Woods Dupont Marsh Eagle Creek Emerald Hills Erie Sand Barrens Etawah Woods Flatiron Lake Bog Fowler Woods Frame Lake Fen Gahanna Woods Gallagher/Springfield Fen Goll Woods Goode Prairie Gott Fen Greenbelt Greenville Falls Gross Memorial Woods Hatch-Otis Halls Creek Headlands Dunes Hueston Woods Hutchins (Highland) Irwin Prairie Jackson Bog Johnson Ridge Johnson Woods Karlo Fen Kendrick Woods Kessler Swamp Kiser Lake Wetlands Kitty Todd Knox Woods Kyle Woods Ladd Natural Bridge Lake Katharine Lakeside Daisy Lawrence Woods Little Rocky Hollow Mantua Bog Marsh Wetlands McCracken Fen Mentor Marsh Milford Center Railroad Prairie Miller Morris Woods Mud Lake Bog Myersville Newberry North Pond North Shore Alvar Novak Sanctuary Old Woman Creek Owens/Liberty Fen Pallister Pickerington Ponds Portage Lakes Wetland Prairie Road Fen William C. McCoy Raven Rock Rhododendeon Cove Rockbridge Rome Rothenbuhler Woods Saltpetre Cave Sears Woods Seymour Woods Shallenberger Sharon Woods Gorge Sheepskin Hollow Sheick Hollow Sheldon Marsh Shoemaker Siegenthaler-Kaestner Esker Smith Cemetery Spring Beauty Dell Spring Brook Sanctuary Springville Marsh Stage's Pond Strait Creek Prairie Stratford Woods Swamp Cottonwood Edward Thomas Tinker's Creek Travertine Fen Triangle Lake Bog Trillium Trails Walter Tucker Tummonds Warder-Perkins Whipple White Pine Bog Forest Zimmerman Prairie

State scenic rivers	Big Darby Creek Chagrin River Conneaut Creek Cuyahoga River Grand River Greenville Creek Kokosing River Little Beaver Creek Little Darby Creek Little Miami River Maumee River Mohican River Olentangy River Sandusky River Stillwater River

Regional

Metro Parks	Ashtabula County Metroparks Cleveland Metroparks Columbus Metro Parks Erie MetroParks Five Rivers MetroParks Geauga Park District Hamilton County Park District Johnny Appleseed Metro Parks Lake Metroparks Lorain County Metro Parks Metroparks of Butler County Metro Parks, Serving Summit County Metroparks of the Toledo Area Mill Creek MetroParks Trumbull County MetroParks

Ohio Department of Natural Resources (web)

Hiking trails in Ohio

American Discovery Buckeye Camp Chase Conotton Creek Hockhocking Adena Kokosing Gap Lebanon Countryside Little Miami Loveland Moonville North Country Ohio & Erie Canal Towpath Ohio to Erie Roberts Pass Scioto Greenway University/Parks Wabash Cannonball

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