Little Soddy Creek Historic Coal Mining Loop

January 7 – 14, 2012. Students from the University of Kansas worked in the Soddy Gorge Segment in Hamilton County. The goal  was to create an interpretative loop trail through the Little Soddy Creek historic coal mining area. A brochure about this loop is available here. Under CTC supervision, students and other volunteers built the loop trail, picked up trash in the area, and marked the trail with yellow blazes. Volunteers donated 410 hours to complete this project.

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Students from U of Kansas first had to clear away trash before building the loop trail in the Little Soddy historic area.

U of Kansas students, January 8, 2012 on their way to the work site at Little Soddy Creek.

The creek crossing shown above was stabilized and turned into a step over rock crossing during the week.  Temperatures were in the 40’s and overcast.  Yes, the water was cold . . .

CTC staff begin planning for a rock hop crossing on Little Soddy Creek during Winter BreakAway 2012

University of Kansas students work next to Little Soddy Creek building the historic mining loop trail. January 2012

 

U of Kansas students build approach to rock crossing on Little Soddy Creek, January 2012.

University of Kansas Winter BreakAway students with CTC worker, Beau, (lower right). 2012 at Little Soddy Mining Loop Trail.

With any luck, these students will return one day with their families, point proudly and say, “I built that.”

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