The Plank Road Trail in beautiful Downtown Frankfort, Illinois. The trail really worked out well. The conversion of the old Penn Central railroad right of way was proposed before 1974. The abandoned rail right of way crossed the southern part of Cook County and the eastern part of Will County. We incorporated the idea of conversion to a trail in the Will County Forest Preserve District Plan in 1975, and part of the Will County General Plan in 1976.
But little progress was made. In 1981 Bob Sullivan and I wrote a pro Bono plan calling the trail the Plank Road Trail. The right of way had originally been acquired to build a plank road tollroad. It was never built as a plank road, but changed to a railroad. The name, the Old Plank Road Trail was a much better marketing name to gain support of the trail. https://plankroadtrail.blogspot.com/.
There was a great deal of opposition. Some people were convinced that criminals would walk from Joliet and Chicago Heights. Eventually, after 17 years, the State Department of Transportation, the Forest Preserve Districts, and the villages and cities along the trail worked to build the trail. It traversed the downtowns of Matteson and Frankfort, and goes through Chicago Heights, Park Forest, New Lenox, and Joliet.
The trail becomes a part of the fabric of the developments along the trail, with numerous connections and parks along the trail. It is a lineal park.
The Trail is part of the American Discovery Trail which cross the entire United States - a seriously long walk.
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