Lehigh Portland Trail

Lehigh Portland Trail April 23, 2016:

Look up Lehigh Portland Trail, and this is what you will find:

Lehigh Portland Trails

The Lehigh Portland Trails are being built on the site of a former cement plant and quarry, along the banks of Elm Creek in Iola, Kansas. The trails will feature both rail-trail-style gravel-surfaced trails and natural-surface trails for mountain biking, trail running, and nature hikes.
The Lehigh Portland Trails are being built by volunteers with Thrive Allen County, via a June 2014 Healthy Living grant from the Kansas Health Foundation, on land owned by Iola Industries, Inc. through an easement granted to theSunflower Rail-Trails Conservancy, Inc. The trail’s name pays homage to Allen County’s industrial past and specifically to the Lehigh Portland Cement Company, which purchased the Iola Portland Cement Company in 1917 and operated a major plant in Iola until 1970.
This new trail system will include walking and biking trails similar to the Prairie Spirit Trail and the Southwind Rail Trail, but will also include mountain bike trails and related amenities that are rare in this part of Kansas. The new trail system will be free and open to the general public year round.

Before I go any further, a very special thanks to Dave and his crew, and the City of Iola, for giving me this very special opportunity.

Notice the "are being built" and "when finished" parts. I had heard about this trail, and wanted to see if I could find a connector, so I cut short my ride north to Garnett and decided instead to head south through Iola and continue on south on the Southwind Rail Trail, hopefully to find some kind of connector link. Ask around to local residents and they will all tell you the same thing. "Well .....somebody may be planning something like that someday ..... but it's just not possible yet" ....... Oh ye of little faith .....My Fatbike makes anything possible. Read and see for yourself.  I did, just receive notification from Lehigh Portland Trails, that their Opening Day will be June 25th, 2016. Here's your chance to get in and do this while it's still new.

 Going south out of Iola, I soon came to the Elm Creek bridge. This is a very unusual bridge in it's construction using giant links. I detailed The bridge with photos in an earlier blog on this trail. The Southwind Rail Trail continues down to the town of Humboldt, Ks. but this wasn't my objective for the day. The bridge in the background is the highway, and the quaint little waterfall under it. From the look of the waterfall, I think it must have at one time been a "ford" for the roadway.

 This is the old rail bridge  over Elm Creek that you ride over on the Southwind Trail.

 I went on over the bridge, and kept on going south for a mile and a half or so looking for a connecting trail, but finding none. Right past the bridge (I took the picture looking the other way) was a pickup, and down along the banks of the river, I saw people working with chainsaws, but thought nothing of it when I went by. Coming back, one of those workers was up at the pickup, so I stopped to talk. We introduced ourselves, and I asked him if he knew anything about this "Lehigh Portland Trail" ..... and he replied .... "Yeah .... we're down there building it" ... We talked more about the trail, then the talk turned to bikes .... he owned a Surly ECR, and was an enthusiastic rider. I asked him when that trail would be finished, and he replied probably in a few months. I was really enthusiastic then, and told him I guess that would be a good excuse for me to come back up. He asked where I was from .... "Oklahoma", I said.
Now I know y'all know that I hate bragging on my Fatbike .... wait ....... no ...... actually I LOVE bragging on my Fatbike .... so here's a little more. Dave (the worker's name) was looking over my bike and said to me ..... "With that Fatbike, you could ride it" ... After a lot of discussion..... I accepted his generous offer. I told him I didn't want to get anyone in any trouble, or trespass on private property or anything, and he told me that the City owns all of it and they have permission. He gave me detailed directions, and off I went ..... only to meet up with a female worker walking back up, she was surprised to see a bicyclist coming down their roughed out "trail", so I hadn't gone 50 feet on the trail and stopped and talked to her. Another 150 feet, and I had met all the workers. Dave said I would be the very first bicyclist to use the new "Lehigh Portland Trail" ...... what an honor. I was so excited. The foreman of the job was there also by then .... Dave ....Dave .... and another Dave ... and many took photos of me and Fatbike. I was anxious to get on by that time, so thank you's were said, and off I went before I forgot all the directions. Under the highway bridge I went ......the very first cyclist to use the new Lehigh Portland Trail connector.... a privilege I wouldn't have had if I had been riding a "lesser" bike .... however, when one is riding the "Cat D-9" of the bicycling world .....anything is possible. Seriously, it would not have been a trail that my Quick CX bike would have been capable of negotiating. Dave did mention that he was hoping to be the first bicyclist with his ECR .... but instead, the honor went to an old man with his Fattie.  

Me, with some of the Lehigh Portland Trail volunteers, courtesy of Lehigh Portland Trail.

 

 Kids playing at the waterfall kind of reminded me of something like Tom Sawyer .... or me, when I was a kid....

 Across the park, and through the stone "gate" and then into the old cement plant. Lehigh Portland, in case you haven't realized, was a major cement manufacturer. At some point in their history, LaFarge (a French cement manufacturer) bought some or all of Lehigh.

 The old scale-house going into the plant. In my working career, I hauled many a load of cement from LaFarge and Lehigh plants, so naturally, I was really excited about this part.

 This was the old pumphouse, used for bringing water up out of Elm Creek  to the plant. If you look on top of the roof .... you'll see I have a welcoming committee. The buzzards were waiting!

The old bridge that you see next to the pumphouse came from down by Humboldt, and I believe Dave told me it was over 100 years old.

 The bridge will go on these newly poured abutments and span the little creek. If you look down at the bottom, you will see a small plank bridge that crosses the stream for now. Steep down and back up, I walked. Because these people were nice enough to let me back here before everything was finished, I sure wasn't going to take any chances. Enjoy my chance to ride this, without the risk of injury that might cause problems for others later.

 Here's "Fats" on the "bridge" .....

 After following the trail around the lake, (it got almost like a road after the bridge) I finally came to a great photo op of of the lake.  This "road" that I was following was not at all like a rail trail in that it followed the terrain instead of an established grade ..... there were hills!! A nice change from the railroad grade.  

 Look across the lake and remember the view, with the plant in the background. I placed a historical photo of the plant from about the same spot right below. The tall smokestack is missing in the modern photo, but the view is close to the same.The little "island" you see in the water was, I believe, the roof of a submerged building.

 In this historical image (below) the photo of the plant in the back is the same basic location as mine. There was no lake there then, only the quarry and haul road.

Another historical image showing the plant as it was when operating.

After following the trail for a ways, I finally came on a gate and a paved road beyond. I really had no idea where I was at that time, so, I turned around and backtracked. Besides, I wasn't ready to give up exploring quite yet. I was, however, getting close on water, and because there was none available where I was, it was going to limit my time spent here. So, instead of following around the lake shore to the south, I opted to turn around there and head back.
 On my way back, I found Mr and Mrs Canada  were leading their gosling family to safety in the woods. She was a bit nervous, but I tried not to crowd them. The poor little one in the back was having a terrible time with the rocks, and kept falling further and further behind. Mama finally came back, and coaxed him over to the dirt and then into the tall weeds on the side, all the while keeping a close eye on me. He made it okay.Just a day or so old and they already have to accept whatever life throws at them.

 Back through the plant for a quick tour.

 It's not every day, one gets to tour through a piece of history like this by yourself. I was very careful to take only pictures and leave only tireprints. Again, I was very conscious of the special permission I had been given. 

 Ah yes ....how well I remember signs like that, and the constant vigilance of the supervisors. But ...... I had my hard hat, okay .... ....cycling helmet .... and my steel cleated shoes .... and my dark riding glasses ..... so I'm okay! Yeah, boss!! 

 Okay, boss ..... me and fatty are ready to clear some trail!!

 And coming back out. The trail was roughed out and looks much better than it really was, but they will have this connector done before long ... they need to smooth it out, and put some aggregate down, and put some drainage under some of the low spots to let the water through. 

When this trail system is open, what a wonderful opportunity it will be for cyclists, walkers, and lovers of nature and the history of a town and area. 

Here's a bit of history to read on the plant. This was a reprint from the Iola Register April, 1938.

Cement Plant A Vital Cog in History of Iola

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This article is reprinted from the Iola Register, April 27, 1938, and discusses the early history of the Lehigh Portland Cement Plant (originally the Iola Portland Cement Plant):

Cement Plant A Vital Cog in History of Iola

Cement Goes Back to Prehistoric Times When Limestone and Shale Were Laid Down Here by the Ocean; Plant Has Operated Here Successfully for Forty Years; Manufacture Is an Involved and Lengthy Process
The history of Iola cement, the most modern and up-to-date construction material, dates back to the very dawn of time. Millions of years ago, when the great dinosaurs roamed through the lush vegetation that grew in the mud and ooze of the prehistoric earth, the seas covered southeast Kansas at various times. During one of these eras, which were thousands of years long, the ocean receded and deposited a layer of limestone covered with mud. These depositions hardened, after eons of time, into the rocks known today as the Iola limestone and the Iola shale.
Sometime in the last decade of the nineteenth century, geologists discovered these two ledges of rock relatively near the surface in Allen County, and industrial research chemists found that they were superior to any raw material for the manufacture of cement. In 1898 the Lehigh Construction company of Michigan began building a large cement plant for a company of men from Detroit and St. Louis, and in 1899 the first cement was manufactured in the plant which is now the Iola plant of the Lehigh Portland Cement Company. The original concern was called the Iola Portland Cement Company and its first president and manager was S. H. Bassett, after whom the suburb of Iola which grew up around the plant was named.
The fact that the shale and limestone, the two main ingredients of cement, and natural gas, fuel for the engines, were found abundantly in Iola, made Iola one of the most profitable locations in the country for a cement factory.
This was the first large cement plant west of the Mississippi river, and for many years was the largest west of Chicago. Some of the first shipments out of Iola went to the southern and the mountain states, and even as far west as California and Oregon. The power used at that time was natural gas, and the plant had a capacity of 6,000 barrels per day in the 22 kilns, each one of which was 80 feet long. Today the plant still uses natural gas in the kilns, but the power is furnished by oil burning Diesel engines, and the plant’s capacity is 4,000 barrels per day using only 6 kilns.
In 1915 the plant was changed from a dry process to a wet process factory. The change entailed the purchase of a considerable amount of new machinery and a reorganization of the processes of manufacture, but the owners felt that a better grade of cement could be manufactured by using the wet mix method. Their decision proved wise, for the Iola cement continues to this day to be second to none in the world. In 1917, the Lehigh Portland cement company of Allentown, Pa., purchased the plant. No radical changes were made in the personnel or the method of manufacture, but C. A. Swiggett, a relatively young man but with years of experience in cement manufacture, was placed in charge. The plant has enjoyed a continued success ever since that time. Even in the depths of the depression, the Iola Lehigh mill had surprisingly few periods when it was forced to shut down, and the seasonal layoff at the present time has been reduced to the minimum for plants of this size and scope.
There are at present 150 men directly employed at the large mill south of Iola. The mill grounds cover about 15 acres, but the company owns about 300 acres in the vicinity, to give it, as one of the executives expressed it, “plenty of elbow room.” The plant consists or several huge storage bins, an office building, garages, bath houses and change rooms for the employees, quarries, trackage for the shipping of the product, and the great crushing and mixing mill itself. It is obviously impossible, in a brief newspaper article, to give anything but a very sketchy description of the many involved steps through which the shale, limestone and gypsum rock are taken before they are mixed and sacked for sale as Lehigh Portland cement. The limestone rock and the shale are quarried separately and transported on the plant’s own railroad from the quarry, to the crushing hoppers where they are hammered into a powder by the giant jaws of the monster machines. When they have reached a certain degree of fineness, they are mixed, while wet, in the approximate percentage of 80 parts of limestone to 20 parts of shale. This wet mix is then burned in the huge kilns into the form known as the “clinker,” a small cinder which averages about an inch In diameter, and during this process, the gypsum is added to the clinker. The clinker is then ground into the final form, cement; and the powdery construction material is stored in the great bins to await packaging in barrels, cars, or paper and cloth sacks for shipment.

First Shipment Of Iola Cement Still Unpaid

There is an old legend at the Lehigh Portland cement plant here concerning the first batch of cement which was manufactured in the Iola plant, way hack in 1899. Samples were sent out from the first barrels of cement which were produced, and a New Orleans contractor, doing work on the levees in Louisiana, bought an entire train load of the product. Plant officials smiled as they saw the freight cars move out of Iola destined for New Orleans, and they made quick calculations in their mind concerning the size of the check which would be forthcoming in a few days. The cement found its way into the levees in Louisiana, but the check never found its way back to Iola. Something happened to the contractor after the work had been completed and accepted, and the Iola cement plant’s first shipment proved to be a bad account. The cement gave perfect satisfaction, but the bill was never paid.