Hatfield-McCoy Trails
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The Hatfield-McCoy Trails, located in West Virginia, is a nationally known trail system most popular for its off-highway vehicle trails. The trail system is a multi-county project, including West Virginia counties Logan, Kanawha, Wyoming, McDowell, Mercer, Wayne, Lincoln, Mingo, and Boone. The trails are managed by the Hatfield-McCoy Regional Recreation Authority, a legislatively created quasi-state agency and its paid staff. The Authority is governed by a multi-county board of directors.
The name was the trail system is derived from the names of two families (Hatfields and McCoys) who famously feuded near the West Virginia and Kentucky border, in the post-Civil War time period.
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[edit] Expansion
The trail system opened in October, 2000 with 300-miles of trail operations. In 2002 the trail system added an additional 100-miles of trails in Boone County, West Virginia. In 2004 the trail system again added 100 miles of trail to bring the trail system to 500 miles, making it the second largest off-highway vehicle trail in the world, second only to the Piute Trail.
Current trail system names (trailhead facility names in parenthesis) include: Browning Fork (Rockhouse), Dingess-Rum (Bearwallow), Pinnacle Creek (Castlerock), Little Coal River (Water Ways) and Buffalo Mountain (Matewan).
[edit] Uses
The trail system caters to ATV, UATV, and motorbikes (dirt bikes) for its motorized users. For the non-motorized user, hikers, mountain bikers, and equestrian users can also utilize the trail system.
The trail system staff not only markets the trail system globally (now with visitors from fifty states and nine countries), but also builds, maps, and maintains the trail system. Law enforcement officers patrol the trail to assure compliance with safety regulations. Motorized users of the trail system are required to wear a DOT-approved helmet and are prohibited from "doubling" or having a passenger as well as a host of other rules which have allowed the trail system to enjoy a quality safety record, despite an increase in ATV related injuries around the country.
[edit] Leadership history
The management of the trail system is directed by a Chief Executive Officer or Executive Director which is appointed by the Board of Directors. The first Executive Director was Leff Moore, one of the two men who created the idea of the trail system. Mr. Moore was the heart and soul of the trail system and made his dream a reality. Mr. Moore passed away in 2005, but not before he was able to see the fruits of his hard work, as by 2005 the trail system had become its own economic engine for the southern coalfields of West Virginia as a record number of tourists are visiting the trail system each year. Following Mr. Moore, Mr. Mike Whitt, a local Mingo County, West Virginia native who worked in coal related economic development projects, briefly served as the Executive Director of the trail system and is credited with opening the first 300 miles of trail. Mr. Whitt was succeeded by his brother, Mr. Mark Whitt. Whitt left the position in 2002 and the Board of Directors appointed a new director, Matthew Ballard.
Ballard, who had a background in organization management, public policy, and politics, is credited with catapulting the trail system into a nationally recognized and award winning trail system. Under his direction, the trail system expanded by 100 miles into Wyoming County, West Virginia as well as into the towns of Pineville in Wyoming County and Williamson and Delbarton in Mingo County. Ballard managed the trail system through its first significant growth period, during a time when efficient organizational change and an aggressive marketing campaign helped to double revenues for the trail system.
After three years of managing the trail system, Ballard moved on at which time the Board of Directors appointed Jeffrey T. Lusk as its Executive Director. Mr. Lusk currently serves as the Executive Director of the trail system and is working to expand the trail system into McDowell County West Virginia. Lusk has a strong academic and practical background in economic development having served for eleven years as the Economic Development Director of the Wyoming County Economic Development Authority. The current Deputy Executive Director is John Fekete, of Man, West Virginia.
