Trail History
The following is provided courtesy of Craig Della Penna, in part from his book on rail trails in the region.
Typical of many New England towns, Easthampton, Massachusetts was a factory town with a large number of antediluvian mills—primarily textile mills. These complexes provided steady, well paying jobs for the residents. They also provided lucrative traffic to the railroad.
Easthampton’s industrial base was so extensive that it was served by two competing railroads—the New Haven Railroad’s Canal Division and the Mt. Tom branch of the Boston & Maine Railroad.
Prosperity reigned in Easthampton right up until the mid 1970s. In 1974, the PennCentral Railroad—successor of the New Haven Railroad—had over 4,000 cars a year terminating in Easthampton.
By the late 1970s, however, changes in environmental laws and relocation of businesses to places like North and South Carolina, brought about a shift that made the mill buildings in Easthampton largely dormant.
By the late 1980s, traffic was down to under 500 cars per year. By 1991, the Pioneer Valley Railroad (which had taken over all the trackage in town) instituted a several hundred dollar per-car surcharge on traffic terminating in Easthampton due to poor track conditions.
The last customer using the railroad in Easthampton was the W.R. Grace & Co.’s Zonolite plant and they too left town when the railroad wasn’t able to serve them at a price that worked for them. In 1992, the Pioneer Valley Railroad filed for abandonment of the approximately five miles of corridor in Easthampton.
By 1994, the idea of converting all the old trackage into a linear park or rail trail began to take hold. A local grassroots organization—the Friends of the Manhan Rail Trail—was created to help fundraise for the community’s portion of the cost to build and maintain the trail. In 1995, Town Meeting voted to support the acquisition from the Pioneer Valley Railroad. By 1999, the town had acquired the corridor and the tracks were removed.
Construction of the trail finally happened in 2003 and the trail’s “grand opening” was held in June of 2004. Now, as we head into the 5th year, we continue to work towards extending the trail south to the Southampton town line and north to Northampton.
- 1995-1996: Easthampton receives Federal Enhancements Award and Town Meeting votes to acquire the railroad property.
- 1997: Award for design of the Easthampton portion.
- 1999: Pioneer Valley Railroad removes track structure.
- 1999: Easthampton section design is 75% complete; MassHighway holds hearing.
- 2001: Rail trail from South St. to Fort Hill Rd. is cleared and graded.
- 2002: 100% design is completed and accepted by MassHighway. Project is put out to bid.
- 2002: Manhan Rail Trail Millenium Mural by Nora Valdez and community volunteers, is installed.
- 2003-2004: The Rail Trail is built by Lane Construction.
- June 19, 2004: Grand opening celebration is held for Phase 1!
