Boone heralded a new state trail that is set to connect the downtown area with West Jefferson at a groundbreaking ceremony Friday.
The Northern Peaks State Trail, an approximated 40 miles long project starting from the Daniel Boone monument at Rivers House Park and stretching into Ashe County, by the Mount Jefferson State Natural Area. Construction is set to start this week and while there isn’t a scheduled end time, the portion that loops through downtown Boone is projected to end around late winter, said Jordan Sellers, Northern Peaks State Trail coordinator for the Blue Ride Conservancy.
“Instead of having to hop on a bus to go and get your car and then go hiking, you can just walk right down the hill from campus and get on a trail,” Sellers said.
The NPST was named a state trail in 2019 while funding for the project has been in the works since 2022, said Laney Wise, grants coordinator for the Town of Boone. Wise attributed the main grant-based funding to the North Carolina recreational trails program through the Division of Parks and Recreation under the North Carolina Department of Natural and Cultural Resources.
“It’s going to allow people from downtown who work and have an hour lunch break to actually come out and enjoy this piece of public property that we have, in a safe and fun manner,” Wise said.
Construction for a new parking lot and a public restroom next to the Rivers House started along with the trail. The house is a long-standing monument that was named a local historical landmark in 2024 and was built in 1929 by Robert Campbell Rivers, Jr.
The trail also reaches Baby, the champion sugar maple tree, know for its significance as one of the largest trees of its kind in North Carolina and an important landmark for the town of Boone.
“Incorporating the Rivers House which we’ve owned for a long time and Baby, the Champion Maple Tree, it really doesn’t get more exciting than this,” said Dalton George, mayor-elect for the Town of Boone.
While some of the technical aspects of the project are still in the works, ambitions are high for what the trail could be.
“We’ll obviously make it to standard, but try to make it our own Boone way,” George said. “Some of the state trail will be on the sidewalk right in downtown Boone and we’ll kind of work our way through there and then up towards Howard’s Knob.”
The ceremony concluded with the main forces behind the NPST — the town council and the conservancy — standing together with shovels to mark the start of construction.
“The great Northern Peaks Trail is more than just a trail, it’s a path forward,” said Tim Futrelle, mayor of Boone.
