If you walk through downtown Saluda in Polk County or the nearby town of Tryon, you’ll see one storefront after another displaying signs supporting the Saluda Grade Trail.
The rails-to-trails project is inching closer to reality. Organizers recently shared the results of a major public engagement effort. More than 1,000 people weighed in on the long-anticipated project, which aims to turn an abandoned rail line into a walking and biking trail connecting North and South Carolina.
The trail is named after the Saluda Grade, a section of the former rail corridor that winds its way up the Blue Ridge Escarpment at the steepest incline of any standard-gauge railroad in the country.
Sixty-three percent of respondents said their top priority is for the trail to provide safe recreation options. Nearly all respondents said they support educational programming, including efforts to highlight the history of the communities the trail connects.
Economic growth is also a major concern: 86% of respondents said they support the anticipated growth the project will bring, although more than half said it must be managed carefully.
Kristin Cozza is trails and greenways manager for Conserving Carolina, one of the nonprofits leading the project. In an interview after a public forum at Polk County High School last month, she said it was important to hear from local business leaders and historical groups about their vision for the trail.
“It's more than just a 15-foot wide piece of asphalt on the ground that goes for 31 miles,” Cozza said. “It really is about the stories and the history and the way that we connect our communities together, and the opportunity that that brings for growing new businesses.”
One of the community leaders who spoke at the event was Cindy Tuttle, who heads the nonprofit Historic Saluda Inc., which has been collecting oral histories for years.
Tuttle told BPR the trail represents a huge opportunity for her group, which recently received the historic sanctuary of the Saluda Presbyterian Church as a gift and plans to turn it into a museum along the trail. The church closed in late 2024, more than 130 years after it was erected.
“So when you walk up the trail, you’re going to be able — we hope in different ways — to be able to share the stories of those people that lived in those mountains before the train came up the grade in 1878,” Tuttle said.
While it’s still years away from completion, the trail from Inman, South Carolina, to Zirconia, North Carolina, is expected to bring up to $22 million in visitor spending annually.
On the South Carolina side, organizers have secured $6 million for the project’s design. Equipment removal along the old rail line is already taking place. On the North Carolina side, organizers are still working on funding for two priority segments, with news on grant applications expected in late summer.
