Events

On April 2, 1994, The first segment of the Wabash Cannonball Trail was opened to the public beginning in Colton, Ohio. On March 23, 2024, the Northwestern Ohio Rails-to-Trails Association (NORTA) will celebrate the trail’s 30-year anniversary with a party in the center of Colton.

Thirty years ago, in 1994, the Wabash Cannonball Trail was born. Representatives of Norfolk and Western Railway and the six purchasing partners (Toledo Metroparks, Lucas County, Maumee, Whitehouse, Wauseon, and NORTA) gathered in a room at TMACOG offices in Toledo, to sign the massive volumes of paperwork needed to transfer ownership of 64 miles of the former railroad corridor property. Northwestern Ohio Rails-to-Trails Association (NORTA) needed only two days to clean up 2.5 miles on the South Fork in order to declare that section of trail open for business!  A ceremonial ribbon cutting was held on April 2, 1994, at that site in Colton, Ohio.