Malden, Rosalia, Tekoa: State lists John Wayne Trail for $331,000 in funding

The John Wayne Trail in Whitman County was among recipients of state Outdoor Recreation and Conservation grants totaling $86 million. The grant funding was announced last Wednesday by Governor Jay Inslee. The grants will fund projects in 34 of the state’s 39 counties.

The John Wayne Trail in Whitman County is listed for $100,000.

Washington State Parks will add $231,800 in cash donations through the state Non highway and Off-road Vehicle Activities program.

According to Nikki Fields, state parks design and land use planner in Olympia, part of the donated funding came from the estate of John Kono of Spokane. He bequeathed funds for the John Wayne Trail and the Columbia Plateau Trail, the former Spokane, Portland and Seattle route which crossed the northwest corner of the county at Lamont.

Most of the Columbia Plateau Trail development had been in the Cheney-Marshall-Spokane area.

The John Wayne Trail work in Whitman County will involve the nine-mile-segment between Malden and Rosalia. Improvements to the trail were discussed in public comment sessions in Malden, Rosalia and Tekoa in late 2011. The sessions were led by Bill Fraser, state parks planner from Wenatchee, and Mark Truitt, trails ranger at Washtucna who was in charge of upkeep on both trails.

Both Fraser and Truitt have now retired.

Jamie Van De Vanter, who succeeded Fraser in the Wenatchee parks planning office, said the key part of the funded project will be to grade down steep slopes at road intersections along the trail, most of them in the Rosalia area. The steep slopes were left when the Milwaukee Railroad trestles were removed and the railroad embankment remained at higher elevations.

Van De Vanter said the grades at five sites will be cut back to the 10 percent range. The project will include application of five-eighths surfacing gravel at the cutback locations.

Fields said the funding for the trail includes funds for acquisition of property for development of a trailhead at Tekoa. The purchase would be made on a willing seller basis, she added.

The Tekoa trailhead location was one of the topics discussed in the planning conducted by Fraser in November of 2011 at Tekoa City Hall.

One of the other topics at Tekoa was providing a surface for the high Milwaukee trestle which crosses Highway 27 in north Tekoa. The trestle has been blocked off because it remains in the railroad mode.

Fraser at the Tekoa session showed photos of a similar trestle in the Bickelton area which was resurfaced for approximately $300,000.

Fields said the Tekoa trestle funding had been proposed in a grant through the Scenic Byways program, but it failed to score high enough on the rating scale to qualify for funds.

Riders eastbound on the John Wayne Trail leave the trail at Lone Pine Road and descend down the grade to the former Union Pacific Railroad route which takes them under the trestle to the Tekoa Rodeo arena.

Riders can get back to the trail via the Washington Street hill on the north end of Tekoa. After crossing Washington Street, the trail continues to its end at the Washington-Idaho line in the Cove Road area.