1980

10 miles

On January 23, 1980 the Interstate Commerce Commission authorized the abandonment of a little-used section of the Soo Line Railway on the condition that any future use be publicly accessible. A local community group now known as the Gateway Trail Association quickly formed and began working with the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources (DNR) and the Minnesota State Legislature to convert the railway into a recreational trail.

It didn’t take long before several abutting property owners organized in opposition to the trail and engaged the state in a bidding war for the purchase of the abandoned railway. Recognizing that the state was legally bound to pay only the appraised value for land, the small group of property owners raised its bid beyond what the state could offer.

Faced with the reality that the public was about to lose access to this critical right-of-way, the Parks & Trails Council of Minnesota (then known as the Minnesota Parks Foundation) agreed to donate the money necessary to match the opposition’s bid. Members of the Parks & Trails Council’s board simultaneously began meeting with Soo Line executives, who eventually agreed to sell to the state because they were convinced that the public’s interest in the line for recreational purposes was paramount. But the battle didn’t end here as the opposition group of property owners filed a lawsuit claiming that the land abandoned by Soo Line belonged to them. The lawsuit eventually made its way to the Minnesota Supreme Court, resulting in a landmark ruling that the original land easement that made the railway possible was for public travel and still held, even if the public travel was no longer by train. This ruling allowed the disputed section of Soo Line Railway to become part of the 18.3-mile Gateway State Trail linking the City of St. Paul to Pine Point Park five miles north of Stillwater. The ruling also set a nationwide precedent on the issue of converting rails to trails.