Sakatah Singing Hills State Trail

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Sakatah Singing Hills State Trail is a 39-mile-long paved multi-use rail trail connecting Faribault and Mankato, Minnesota.

It is maintained by the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources, which converted it from a railroad line. The name comes from the Dakota people who lived in the region; "Sakatah" translates into "singing hills". The trail is shared by hikers, joggers, snowmobilers, and cross-country skiers. There are sections of parallel dirt trail for horseback riders but they are not continuous. The landscape is mostly cultivated land with remnant stands of prairie and Big Woods. The trail passes through Sakatah Lake State Park and runs through city streets in Waterville.

[edit] History

The rail line was surveyed in the late 1870s, though construction did not begin until 1882. The route from Faribault, Minnesota to Waterville, Minnesota was completed in 1882, and the route from Waterville to Mankato, Minnesota was completed in 1887. The Chicago Great Western Railway and later the Chicago and North Western Railway operated the line for many years, but abandoned it in the early 1970s. State acquisition of the route, with a view toward creating a rail trail, began in 1974, and Sakatah Singing Hills State Trail was officially dedicated in 1980. It was a dirt trail for its first decade; the entire length was paved between 1991 and 1995.