[ Birds chirping ] ♪ >> From shady, leafy lanes beneath lofty green canopies, and rocky tracks through forested ravines, to smooth asphalt routes crossing the scenic rural countryside, to linear paved lanes passing through abandoned industrial corridors, bustling urban business districts and quiet residential neighborhoods, Indiana boasts a wide range of recreational trails.

The Hoosier state has nearly 4,000 miles of hiking, pedestrian and biking trails within its borders, most of them built within the last 25 years.

And year after year, more are being added.

♪ Across the country and within the state, unused railroad corridors are being converted to public multi-use trails.

Indiana towns and cities, small and large, are dedicating funds, space and precious resources toward paved recreational routes for residents and guests to enjoy.

And Indiana's extensive state parks and dedicated nature preserves are home to some of the state's finest outdoor nature trails for hiking and mountain biking, revealing the beauty and wonder of our unique natural habitats.

♪ From the expansive rolling wilderness of Hoosier National Forest, to the sandy paths and reed-filled marshes of Indiana Dunes along the Lake Michigan shoreline, to the paved rail line conversion of Indianapolis' Monon Trail, and a growing number of rail trails across the state, Indiana's trails boast a rich array of terrain, flora, fauna and history.

♪ These scenic, winding trails embody the Midwestern experience, a wandering mix of exploration, adventure, love of nature and serenity.

In Indiana, trails aren't simply a means for reaching a destination.

Here, the journey is the destination.

It's the Hoosier way.

>> Support for "The Hoosier Way: Trails of Indiana" provided by: IU Credit Union, offering mobile access to IU Credit Union accounts.

Helping account holders check balances, transfer funds and pay bills through their mobile devices.

Available through the IU Credit Union apps for iPhone and Android devices.

JL Waters, helping people fulfill adventures in the great outdoors with advice, gear, and more.

JL Waters, located on the square in downtown Bloomington.

And by WTIU members.

Thank you!

♪ >> There's way more beauty than people outside of the state would ever give us credit for.

A lot of people don't realize how hilly Southern Indiana can be.

This part of western Indiana has got really unique topography and canyons.

The Dunes.

Nobody imagines Indiana having a lakeshore.

And even in the flatter parts of the state, there's a lot of beauty to be found, even if it's a flat woodland.

♪ >> The diversity of trails within Indiana is amazing, just because our topography is so different.

You can have really nice, flat trails up north, but have amazing views over prairie lands.

You can be in canyons at places like Turkey Run where you are in these just amazing -- like, you feel like you're out west hiking through a canyon.

And then we have parks that have caves.

You can go inside of a cave on a hike.

We just have this amazing diversity of topography that creates these opportunities for hiking through just a plethora of environments.

>> You don't need a bag.

You don't need a North Face jacket.

You need a bottle of water and some ambition, and you can see some amazing things in Indiana.

♪ You see this view of this giant rock with all of this greenery, and then maybe a little waterfall tricking down.

You're, like, man I want to get there.

I want to take my family to this place, and there are places like that all over Indiana I had no idea existed.

♪ >> Long a source of solace and inspiration, nature's physical, spiritual and emotional benefits are constantly being re-discovered.

Even as technology and man-made development encroaches, trails provide ready access.

♪ >> We all know the power of nature to help us to recenter our lives, to be inspired, and trails are obviously one of the most readily accessible ways to do that.

They're close to where we live, and yet it's a different environment.

>> Every trail has a story, and the story is what you see, it's what you feel or smell.

There's sights.

There's hearing.

There's animals to see, and there's your exercise.

>> You don't have to have any special equipment.

You don't have to have really any special knowledge, just as long as you have a map so you kind of know where you're going.

It's a great way to get outside, get fresh air, feel better about yourself, about nature, and reconnect with the out of doors.

>> I love the way trails are able to get people off the roadway grid.

Every one of us lives within only a few hundred feet of a road, and we work a few hundred feet.

Everything we do is within the roadway grid.

And all of a sudden, you're on this trail and you break away from that.

You see your community, you see your environment in a whole different light, and it gives you a much deeper respect for where you live.

♪ >> Nature trails have been around for as long as there's been nature.

Rustic, natural surface pathways through native landscapes are nothing new.

other types of dedicated recreational trails are a relatively recent concept.

Within the last 40 years, greenways and urban trails have sprung up across the nation and the Hoosier state.

And despite a sluggish start in their early decades, these dedicated non-motorized trails have gained widespread appeal, as local, regional, and even national networks of trails are beginning to be interconnected.

♪ Urban trails sprung up with a growing recognition of how urban planning methods over the last century has decimated city green spaces and narrowed transit options.

These urban trails expand transportation options, and serve as connective public pathways through densely-populated cities and towns.

Other types of greenways bridge the gap between nature trail and urban trail, serving as connective conservation corridors, linking urban and suburban neighborhoods, schools, parks and communities through vegetated, but typically paved linear parks.

Rail Trails are greenways converted from discontinued rail line corridors.

These former railroad routes offer ready-made connectivity and safe green spaces for multi-use pathways.

Sidepaths run along road right-of-ways, but remain separated from vehicle traffic, as opposed to bike lanes which share the pavement with automobiles in designated lanes.

All these various types of pathways can connect and interconnect, and form a network of nonmotorized, multi-use trails across Indiana and ultimately, the nation.

The Hoosier state's earliest networks of trails were utilitarian rather than recreational, with many paths used by Indigenous peoples following the natural routes forged by larger animals.

>> One of the great animal trails was the buffalo trail to get from Vincennes to New Albany, and then across the shallowest part of the Ohio River into Kentucky, and then they would come back, the Buffalo Trace.

>> Native people used these trails for hunting, trade, warfare, and ceremonial purposes.

>> There were trapper trails and animal trails, and then there were pioneer trails, and military trails.

>> When Europeans arrived on North America's eastern shores and began their westward migration across the continent, these trails became migration routes, some of which were widened from footpaths into cart paths, many of which became permanent roads.

♪ Decade upon decade, a network of roads and railroad lines followed, connecting towns and cities.

And the wild American wilderness began to be domesticated.

♪ Until the mid-1800s, America was largely rural.

Walking and nature were a part of daily life.

But with increasing industrialization, a walk in the countryside became a luxury for many, and the once endless American wilderness began to disappear.

♪ In response, recreational tourist trails began to spring up around America's scenic destinations.

These trails served to allow sightseers to reach, witness and experience the wonders of the great American landscape.

While nationally, places like Wyoming's Yellowstone region, California's Yosemite Valley and Arizona's Grand Canyon became tourist destinations, in Indiana, scenic areas like Turkey Run, McCormick's Creek, Clifty Falls and Indiana Dunes became local destinations.

Networks of trails allowed guests the chance to experience and immerse themselves in the Hoosier state's natural beauty and discover for themselves the essential pleasures of wandering through nature.

Soon, many of these scenic areas became hotbeds for enterprising individuals who set up resorts and sanitariums, touting the health benefits of these wellness destinations.

>> They would drink the mineral water.

So they were getting hydrated, but they thought the mineral water had extra curative properties.

They relaxed, and they spent time in nature.

And come to find out, that makes you feel better.

♪ [ Sawing ] [ Tree cracking and falling ] ♪ >> A conservationist movement swept the nation in the late 1800s, and in 1891, Congress passed the Forest Reserve Act, which allowed the President of the United States to set aside forest lands on public domain.

The president at the time was Indiana native Benjamin Harrison.

>> That was a big time of, like, conservation ideas.

This idea of conservation was just sort of booming at that time.

>> And you had this unique new group that had the idea that was kind of wild at the time, and that was to conserve places.

Maybe we don't use up everything that we have.

>> Among Indiana's earliest proponents for the preservation of nature was Richard Lieber, an Indianapolis businessman and German immigrant.

Widely considered the father of Indiana's State Parks system, Lieber became an early proponent for conservation and the preservation of natural resources after touring Yosemite National Park in 1900.

>> He had seen out west how quickly land was deforested, developed, farmed or turned into commercial areas, and he wanted to hang onto what he called the part of the original domain.

>> With the approach of Indiana's centennial in 1916, Lieber advocated that the state needed a state-wide public parks system.

He was appointed the chairman of the State Parks Committee, and oversaw the founding of McCormick's Creek and Turkey Run as Indiana's first state parks in 1916, the same year the National Parks Service was just getting its start.

>> He really knew what he wanted, and he even had outlined a system of oversight for the new state park system, much of which is still in use today.

>> While Lieber originally eyed the Turkey Run area for the first state park, delays in property acquisition and the public donation of residents of Owen County helped establish McCormick's Creek as Indiana's first state park on July 4, 1916.

>> The people of Owen County liked to come here and hike already.

So when they brought Richard Lieber here, it was the Sunday School clubs that took Colonel Lieber on some of the early hikes here to show him the property and how pretty it was.

>> Originally a little more than 350 acres in size, McCormick's Creek State Park now covers more than 1,900 acres of wooded hills near Spencer, Indiana, with a canyon and waterfall at its heart.

Sinkholes, caves, and natural rock bridges can be reached by more than 10 miles of trails.

Many of the park's early trails were designed by Purdue civil engineering students shortly after the state park designation.

>> They came here to the park for five years in the summer.

And their job during the summer was to start to survey the park in depth and also to design an early trail system.

We have a portion of their early map.

They called it the "We All Saw It Trail," which really hearkens to, I think, youth and the fun attitude that college students have when they're doing their work.

>> A popular McCormick's Creek destination is Wolf Cave, with a low entrance that permits narrow passage through 300 feet of water-carved limestone.

>> Generations of families have crawled through that cave.

Kids crawl through it today.

It's probably the number one thing to see at McCormick's Creek.

♪ Opened in November of 1916, Indiana's second state park, Turkey Run, has gained renown for its wide variety of natural geologic wonders.

A network of more than 14 miles of trails allow hikers to trek beneath lofty stands of aged forests, explore deep sandstone ravines, hop across rippling creek beds, and reach scenic overlooks.

A wide creek bisects the park, dividing the shelters and park amenities on one side from the wilds of the Rocky Hollow Falls Canyon Nature Preserve on the other.

An iconic 200-foot long suspension bridge provides hikers access to the six designated trails within the Nature Preserve.

A unique feature of Turkey Run's Trail 3 here is a series of heavy, wooden plank ladders offering passage between ridge and ravine.

Other trails skirt steep cliffs, and pass through one of the few areas of the state containing old growth stands of virgin forest.

♪ >> Two years after the initial tandem of state parks, Clifty Falls become Indiana's third state park in 1920.

High above the Ohio River overlooking the river town of Madison, Clifty Falls' namesake waterfalls tumble 60 feet over limestone ledges to the rocky shambles below.

♪ The foundation for parts of the park's trail system were forged by an unlikely source for a state park nature trail.

>> Back in the early 1840s, they were working on the Madison-Indianapolis Railroad, and part of their proposed path was to come through what is now the park.

And if you hike some of our trails, you'll find the path that the railroad was supposed to take.

There's an old railroad tunnel that they excavated, and there's all kinds of bridge abutments, and things like that, that you can find.

So they actually kinda started helping create our trails before this was even a park.

This project was never completed.

So they went bankrupt about two weeks before they were ever to lay track.

So they excavated a lot of the path.

They made the tunnel, but then they ran out of funding to actually lay the track.

♪ >> From one corner of the state to another, two parks could not be more different.

In the northwestern corner of Indiana, along Indiana's 45 miles of sandy Lake Michigan shoreline and within view of the distant Chicago skyline, lies the Indiana Dunes.

>> The Indiana Dunes are unlike any other park in that all of our trails you're gonna run into sand.

♪ >> That wealth of rare, fine Midwestern sand was endangered at the turn of the 20th century.

Glassmakers at the time discovered that the sand in the dunes was perfect for making glass.

Due to the magnesium content in the sand, glass produced from it had a distinctive blue hue and became of highly valued by glassmakers.

More than 13 million tons of Indiana Dunes sand was shipped from the area to glassmakers in nearby cities.

The largest dune along Lake Michigan's shoreline, the 200-foot tall Hoosier Slide, had already been gradually leveled for commercial interests by 1920.

The disappearance of the iconic landmark sparked a movement to Save the Dunes.

Indiana Dunes State Park was officially designated as a state park in 1925.

Some of the lands surrounding the state park became Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore in 1966, before gaining National Park status in 2019.

>> We have almost every habitat represented just within our park.

We have bogs.

We have fens.

We have marshes.

We have savannahs.

We have the dunes.

We have a large freshwater lake.

When you're hiking our trails, you really get to experience all those different habitats, and that makes it really unique and exciting because we have over 1,200 different plants you could come across.

In any season you're going to see that beauty in all of these different habitats.

Underneath this organic soil layer, there is lots of sand.

So because sand is so easily erodible, really quickly our habitats and our plants can be destroyed from walking continuously off trail.

And so at the dunes, it's really, really important to stay on marked trails.

>> The Indiana Dunes State Park and National Parks have a combined 70 miles of trails crossing more than 17,000 acres of woodlands, dunes, prairies, and wetlands.

Richard Lieber oversaw the creation of 10 state parks by the time he resigned his post as the first director of Indiana's Department of Conservation in 1933.

Recreational trail development within the state parks flourished in the 1930s.

In response to the stock market crash of 1929 and the economic depression that followed, President Franklin D. Roosevelt established the Civilian Conservation Corps as part of his New Deal legislation to help combat widespread unemployment.

Combining Roosevelt's interests in conservation and universal service for youth, the CCC was a voluntary public work relief program for unemployed, single men between the ages of 17 and 28.

During the program's 9-year run between 1933 and 1942, more than 3 million young men served in the CCC, performing manual labor on federal, state and local government projects.

In Indiana, the CCC helped develop many of our state parks, blazing trails and building bridges, fire towers, campgrounds and shelters, many of which are still widely used today.

>> What we really celebrate is the CCC's involvement with the parks because it so furthered what the parks could do.

Up until the three C's came, we had the Department of Conservation which was totally reliant, of course, on state dollars and the user fees to develop the parks.

When Roosevelt's program came into the parks and the young men built their camps, they stayed here anywhere from two years and beyond in a park, they planted trees, they built buildings, they built bridges, they were overseen by the Army.

They were highly regimented.

They also could take classes.

They bettered themselves as young men, and they certainly bettered the parks.

♪ >> Established in 1929, Brown County State Park is Indiana's largest state park covering nearly 16,000 acres.

The park has 21 miles of easy-to-rugged hiking trails, and more than 37 miles of mountain biking trails, ranging from easy to extremely difficult, with 400 feet of elevation change.

>> Brown County State Park is just an absolute world-class destination.

It is our mountain biking mecca here in the Midwest.

>> Brown County is trails.

Trails are Brown County.

I mean, they go hand in hand.

Because we're so large, you can really get out.

You can really go on a complete all-day hike, never get in your car, leave in one spot, connect to different trails and have an all-day out hiking.

>> The CCC crew here was unique.

>> Our camps were two veterans camps.

So they were veterans of World War I.

So there were older guys.

They were craftsmen.

So they had gotten out of the military, had trades jobs before The Great Depression happened.

So when they came to work here, they were highly skilled.

So we have these amazing structures built by them that are these almost works of art.

♪ ♪ >> Trails within these parks follow routes designed to offer users access to the park's prime points of interest.

Occasionally, natural barriers, like extreme elevation changes or water obstacles, exist in the route.

To overcome these obstacles, trail designers create manmade structures for easier passage, designing them from native materials like wood and stone to be natural parts of the landscape, and minimizing both environmental impacts and maintenance costs.

Occasionally, trails need cleared, and manmade structures need repaired.

>> How in the world do you maintain all of this?

It's challenging.

It's a lot of carrying stuff out to places using equipment to get your supplies as far out as you can, and then a lot of carrying stuff to that site.

>> You've got to get it all out there.

So you're talking ATVs, UTVs, trying to get the equipment out.

Lots of electric drills, right?

[ Laughter ] >> Today, there are 24 state parks within Indiana's state parks system, covering more than 70,000 acres.

>> There is an Indiana State Park within an hour's drive of everybody that lives in the state of Indiana.

>> From north to south, east to west, Indiana truly is the crossroads of America.

We have a lot of different types of state parks.

Every state park's got its own unique feel to it, and every state park's got something unique that you can only do there, but there's a lot of overlap in some activities.

>> There are more than 700 miles of recreational nature trails in Indiana's state parks, state forests, and nature preserves.

Indiana's longest footpath is the Knobstone Trail, a challenging, 44-mile backcountry hiking trail passing through two southern Indiana state forests.

Following the rugged Knobstone Escarpment, the trail winds along high forested ridges, dips into wide valleys, and climbs steep knobs along the rugged route.

It connects with three other sections, the Pioneer, Hoosier National Forest and Tecumseh trails, occasionally crossing county roads, state highways and narrow country lanes along the way.

♪ ♪ >> You're at your house, that's an island.

You go to work, that's an island.

You go to the store, that's an island.

In between, it was just a road and highway, and you're just trying to get through it.

When you travel by bicycle, especially on trails, you're experiencing the whole continuum between them.

It becomes the whole community you're familiar with, not just these little islands of places.

♪ It's a much more intimate connection with the community.

♪ In the past, just getting up in the morning to get ready for a commute to drive in, you know, a half hour to work, dealing with traffic and all that was a bit of a struggle.

When I started bicycling to work, I was waking up in the morning to go for a bike ride.

I wasn't getting up in the morning to go for a commute, a drive commute.

And so it actually made it easier to get to work, even though it takes longer, it was easier to actually get up and do that because you are going for a bike ride, as opposed to a drive.

♪ >> Railroads helped build Indiana, along with the rest of the nation.

Beginning in the mid-1800s, railways connected people, communities and industry, and served to bridge distances, both physical and logistical.

Within a few short decades, a vast network of rail lines crisscrossed the Hoosier state with main routes and trunk lines connecting national cities and small towns, earning Indiana the Crossroads of America designation.

But within a century, as primary transportation modes shifted from locomotive to automotive, many of these rail lines fell into disuse.

During the 1980s, between 4,000 and 8,000 miles of rail line were abandoned every year.

As many abandoned rail corridors laid dormant, the idea of converting them into multi-use public paths for walking and cycling was sparked.

>> They're contiguous.

They're cutting through a community off the roadway grid.

They're away from the road.

They're safe.

Most of these corridors were populated with trees, and all sorts of environmental amenities that were just ready for a new trail development.

>> Most parks are square or there's some finite, you know, shape, and people have to travel to get to that park.

This is a long skinny trail that -- that makes itself available to a lot more people than just a confined park would do.

>> The idea of re-purposing these abandoned rail corridors wasn't always met agreeably.

>> Some places, they repudiated trails.

They didn't want them at all.

The story of rape, robbery, pillage and murder 30 years ago.

>> Well, The opposition was saying that it would just be a magnet for crime, vandalism, littering, wild parties, anything you can imagine, drug dealing, all of these things would be attracted to trails for some reason.

>> Rail trail development in Indiana was a slow, decade-long process in its infancy in the 1990s.

Among its neighboring Midwestern states, Indiana trailed woefully behind on the construction of rail trails.

It didn't help that property ownership disputes between derelict, sometimes defunct railroad companies, municipalities, and adjacent property owners were and are common with abandoned railway corridors.

>> Trail development is very tricky in the sense of how you get the land assembled to make it work.

Of course, building it is not exactly complicated.

You usually have 10 to 12 feet of asphalt.

Okay.

That's pretty simple to involve, but then you have to keep in mind the land underneath it has a myriad of title work, especially old railroads.

And we have to find out who the original owner was, maybe all the way back to the 1800s.

That takes a lot of work.

Of course, when you're going through urban areas and you're trying to snake a trail through there, there's other issues to keep in mind, right-of-way, where are the private properties that we have to deal with as well.

So the challenges are quite substantial when it comes to just assembling the land.

>> Beyond property ownership issues, steep costs for trail construction and maintenance can also be challenging.

The Pumpkinvine Nature Trail in the Goshen-Elkhart area is a prime example of the challenges faced by early rail trail development.

>> In 1989, I went out and walked on the trail with a friend to see whether or not it was actually still viable as a trail.

We hacked our way through tremendous overgrowth.

There were trees that were 20, 30 feet high blocking where the trail had been.

We got together around the kitchen table, five of us, and we decided we'd see what was possible.

♪ >> Four years after that initial kitchen table meeting, the group had secured enough funds to approach the railroad with an offer to purchase the land along the rail corridor.

>> They asked $600,000, and we started out with $40,000.

We had a big gap to close.

Eventually, we got them down to $100,000.

Nine years after the initial kitchen table meeting, and a couple lawsuits to settle ownership disputes later, the Pumpkinvine was able to open one small section of trail.

>> We were able to develop 150 feet of trail as an example to the community.

And then, the Goshen Park Department was able to put in the 1.7 miles as a demonstration section.

That was the key.

To be able to have something on the ground to show people that it wasn't this terrible thing that everybody said it was going to be, but it was actually very pleasant, very enjoyable.

People could go out and have fun.

That was the key.

>> Today, the Pumpkinvine spans 17 miles between Goshen and Shipshewanna.

The challenges experienced with the Pumpkinvine Nature Trail are similar to those of many rail trail developers within the state.

But as more public, multi-use trails began getting built in Indiana, reviving the state's once neglected railway corridors, more often than not, many of the original opponents of rail trail projects were eventually won over.

>> The trail system was, at the time newer, and, you know, they weren't sure really how -- what it was going to be.

It was maybe at their backyard.

So, you know, they were really worried.

But we've kind of over time helped ease those fears.

A lot of the naysayers from the early days are now my best volunteers.

You know, they adopt the trailheads by their houses or they work for Cardinal Greenway.

So, you know, we've turned the table, and they've seen for themselves that trails are a positive impact.

>> At 62 miles in length, the Muncie-based Cardinal Greenway is Indiana's longest rail trail, connecting Marion and Richmond, and touching five counties along the way.

Named for the Cardinal, the last regular passenger train service on the line, the trail's non-profit administrative organization based its headquarters in one of the railroad's old depots in Muncie.

An adjacent rail line remains operational.

>> We had federal dollars come in to build the trail system, but, you know, once our pavement is down, once the trail is down, then it's up to us, our staff and our board, to raise money to keep the trail in place.

>> While financing trail construction can be a challenge, so can funding the ongoing upkeep and maintenance.

>> Our projection is by 2040, should we have to restore and replace our whole 62 miles of trail, it's gonna be to the tune of $22 million that we need to raise.

So it's just like that's -- when you think those numbers, it just keeps you up at night, because we want the trail to be here for the next generation.

>> Building and maintaining recreational trails come at a cost of funds, of space, and of municipal resources.

Yet cities and towns continue to make the investment, viewing trails, like parks, as an invaluable asset that increases recreational opportunities, helps attract and retain businesses and residents, and improves the health and quality of life of its residents.

>> Many times parks and roadways and even transit systems throughout communities, they won't pay for themselves, but they are very necessary for our community to function and improving their quality of life overall, and trails falls squarely into that.

>> If a community wants to grow in this day and age, it has to offer certain things to be able to attract residential people.

We know that we need a number of things to be able to entice families to come here.

We're looking at expanding this town and putting in residential developments.

And not only do we need things like high-speed internet, safety, but we need the amenities for families to be able to get out and enjoy themselves.

And that's something that a bike trail can do.

It's just one of those things, one of those components that you need to be able to make a town seem complete.

>> It is an investment.

It's an investment for all of the very generous contributors that we have that have supported both the construction, the future construction, but also the ongoing long-term sustainable maintenance.

The return on that investment is really just a better connected community, a place that is a part of community building.

It's a part of healthier, more vibrant city.

It's a part of attracting and retaining residents and attracting and retaining companies.

>> Recreational trails provide a shared, public asset, offering free and easy access for the broadest spectrum of people.

>> Not everybody swims.

Not everybody can hike.

Not everybody mountain climb, but everybody can walk.

Almost everybody can ride a bike.

And even if you can't walk, if you can roll in a wheelchair, that's possible too.

So it's a very low threshold to be able to get into the trail situation.

>> It's all ages, people on bicycles, people walking, people jogging, people just carrying their coffees, you know.

When it's in town, you can pick up a coffee at the coffee shop, and get right back on the trail and keep walking.

It's a wonderful activity.

And just like our trails here in nature, it doesn't really cost anything.

They're maintained.

They're safe.

They're easy to use.

You don't need special gear, and they're really open for all abilities of people to use.

>> Trail development can be funded any number of ways, including through federal, state, and local government funding mechanisms, as well as grants, partnerships, or through other local creative fund-raising methods.

>> Most of the funds historically have come from either federal grants or state grants.

I suppose the largest amount of money has come from federal grants but they always require a 20% local match.

So the trail organization either has to raise a substantial amount of money in private funds or get other grants from either state or counties or local entities that might offer grants to provide the money to match the federal money.

We are always working at fund-raising.

Much of it is raising local funds in order to provide the match for larger grants.

>> As part of a broader state infrastructure program, Indiana Governor Eric Holcomb committed $90 million in state funds towards expanded trail development within Indiana in 2021.

>> We're well on our way to building one of the most trail-friendly states in America, which is the kind of amenity that keeps people coming to explore Indiana.

>> The state's Next Level Trails program is designed to incentivize collaborative trail connection efforts within the Hoosier state.

>> I think the state has just been seeing that trails are incredibly popular.

There was a lot of bipartisan, bicameral support for trails in the legislature, but we also saw those local units of government and communities really wanting them.

Building that quality of life, and making sure that people want to be here.

Trails is an important part of making our community a place that people want to be.

>> Beginning in 1853, the Monon Railroad operated for more than a century, running the length of Indiana, linking Chicago, Indianapolis, Louisville and smaller towns and cities along the way.

During the Civil War, the rail line was used to carry Union troops, food, medicine and ammunition.

And through much of the 20th century, it carried college students to their schools along the line.

Today, the Monon trail, between downtown Indianapolis and Carmel, spans some of the same terrain as its steam, coal and diesel-powered predecessors, running more than 25 miles through city neighborhoods, bustling business districts, wooded greenways, and residential and industrial neighborhoods.

Galleries, shops, and restaurants, murals and sculptures, line parts of the path.

>> It really does tell you the value of trails for an urban environment.

People really love it.

And what I find inspiring too is the fact that people are building apartments along the trail, just because they can be close to the trail.

>> More than a million users take to the trail every year.

♪ >> At the center of the state, encircling Indianapolis' bustling downtown area, is the Indianapolis Cultural Trail, an 8-mile loop encompassing the heart of the Circle City.

Linking six cultural districts along its route, the Indianapolis Cultural Trail connects with theaters, museums, parks and plazas, public art installations, sporting venues, and signature landmarks and attractions.

>> The cultural districts are where we have art galleries, where we have museums, where we have theaters, and really where you find the heart and soul of downtown Indianapolis.

The cultural districts and the culture of our city are really what makes our city so unique.

>> Combining public and private funds, spurred by an initial donation of $15 million by Gene and Marilyn Glick, the Indianapolis Cultural Trail was opened in 2013 at a cost of $63 million.

>> That includes the art, the gardens, and it also includes a maintenance endowment, which is really important as we think about the long-term sustainability of the cultural trail.

>> Much of the path of the Indianapolis Cultural Trail uses former vehicle right-of-ways, replacing some of downtown Indy's former city streets.

>> Indianapolis is a designed city, and we really grew up around the automobile.

And so, therefore, we had really wide streets.

And so there was actually, from a traffic and engineering perspective, there was more roadway than that was needed.

There was a lot of room to give from a roadway standpoint.

And so the trail is actually built all along city right-of-way.

Where we are standing right now, we are actually in the middle of a road.

We are in a boulevard section of the cultural trail.

And in most places along the trail, the city gave up a lane of vehicle traffic or a lane of parking to make way for the cultural trail.

So really giving the public space back to pedestrians and bikes, and doing it in a way that, again, encourages people to bike and walk, and encourages you to really feel comfortable and safe moving around Indianapolis without a vehicle.

♪ >> Indiana also plays a role in a larger national trails movement.

Hoosier state trailways are part of two major coast-to-coast trail initiatives: The Great American Rail Trail and the American Discovery Trail.

The proposed Great American Rail Trail would span the nation, stretching for 3,700-miles between Washington, DC, and Washington state, completely off the roadway grid, incorporating many existing trails along its route.

Spearheaded by the Rails-to-Trails Conservancy, a Washington, DC-based nonprofit, the proposed course crosses 12 states, including Indiana, where it would run through Richmond, Muncie, Peru, and Crown Point.

>> The Great American is supposed to be a dedicated actual off-road trail, and that's exciting a lot of communities and helping to spur investments within those communities in Indiana.

>> The American Discovery Trail is a system of linked recreational trails and roads which collectively form a coast-to-coast hiking and biking route across middle America, crossing Indiana in both its northern and southern alternative routes, and connecting Delaware's Atlantic Coastline with northern California's Pacific Coast.

In Indiana, the trail's 4,800-mile northern route passes through Richmond, Muncie, Peru, and Crown Point.

While it's 5,000-mile southern alternate runs along the Ohio River, through Lawrenceburg, Madison, Corydon and Evansville.

♪ Across Indiana, a growing network of trails is expanding across the state, connecting and interconnecting to form a vast recreational and alternative transportation system, linking cities, towns and suburbs.

>> There's all these things coming together to really build momentum here in the state for improving our trail system around the state.

>> Developing trails is almost exactly like developing the roads.

We get on a road and we think, well, we drive to South Bend but it's taken 100 years to get 31 and its other streets and connections made into the unified road that it is today.

And trails are that way.

We are only 30 years into a 100-year development.

>> It's really an incredible feat to see where we've come and how far we're going now.

The work that is being done in the world of trail development, especially in Indiana, it's absolutely incredible, and it will definitely leave a legacy.

>> I think it's that experience here in Indiana.

When you come to visit any one of our, you know, longer distance trails and you are looking for an experience, you do get that Hoosier hospitality, right?

You also get that history here.

So if you are on some of our long-distance rail trails, you get those really cool depots and bridges and that kind of stuff.

And you get to experience that, and you get to experience everything from urban cities to rural farm fields here on those trail systems.

And then our natural surface trails have everything from world-class mountain biking to pristine nature preserves.

So it's just a variety here in Indiana.

♪ >> Seeing how trails can bring out the best in people is why I believe we are on the cusp of something very special.

We might be living in kind of a golden age of trail development in Indiana.

>> From small towns to state parks, city neighborhoods to quiet countryside, this expanding trails network is allowing Hoosiers to explore the beauty and wonder of our Indiana home.

♪ Along Indiana's trails, the journey is the destination.

It's the Hoosier Way.

♪ >> Support for "The Hoosier Way: Trails of Indiana" provided by: IU Credit Union, offering mobile access to IU Credit Union accounts.

Helping account holders check balances, transfer funds and pay bills through their mobile devices.

Available through the IU Credit Union apps for iPhone and Android devices.

JL Waters, helping people fulfill adventures in the great outdoors with advice, gear, and more.

JL Waters, located on the square in downtown Bloomington.

And by WTIU members.

Thank you!