CABIN THAT SITS ON A RAIL WON'T BE PART OF THE TRAIL
Sunday, March 19, 2000
By Donna Glenn
Dispatch Staff Reporter
LONDON, Ohio -- When someone suggested he open the front and back doors
of his cabin to give hikers and bicyclists a clear path, Jack Alcott
laughed.
His backwoods retreat sits smack in the middle of a railroad bridge
over Deer Creek. Although some folks would like to see the
trestle be part of a hiking trail, Alcott will share his unusual
getaway only with family and friends.
Last year, Alcott declined an offer from Rails-to-Trails to buy the 8
acres of railbed, including the trestle and cabin, and merge it with
the Ohio-to-Erie trail.
"I'll never sell,'' said Alcott, 42, who lives northwest of London.
The cabin was built on the bridge about 4 miles east of London nearly
18 years ago, he said. He bought the property in the early '90s.
A little larger than a one-car garage, the cabin -- a getaway for
friends who meet there to play cards or fish off the back patio -- is a
study in male bonding, said Alcott's wife, Julie.
"We call it the 'He-man women-hater's club,' '' she said, referring to
Spanky and Alfalfa's hideaway of Our Gang movie lore.
When he bought the cabin, Alcott spent many weekends there with his son
Josh, now 14. Now he takes his daughter, Jamie, 7, Mrs. Alcott said.
Ball caps and photographs of special gatherings line the walls. A few
old fishing rods dangle from wooden pegs, and a half-eaten jar of
peanuts adorns a table near the wood-burning stove. Well-worn chairs,
rockers, bunk beds and a cot fill the main room and a folded rollaway
bed peeks above the window of a storage room.
Rails-to-Trails, a nonprofit organization that helps local governments
and special-interest groups turn abandoned railroad tracks into
nonmotorized recreation trails, was eager to extend the Ohio-to-Erie
trail through Alcott's property. But Ed Honton, president of the
Ohio-to-Erie Trail fund, said the group won't ask that Alcott's land be
taken by eminent domain. Eminent domain is the right of a government to
take private property for public use.
"We only buy from willing sellers,'' Honton said. "The Madison County
commissioners won't do an eminent domain.''
Ohio has more than 300 miles of rail trails, which have been developed
as abandoned rail beds became available. Construction of the
Ohio-to-Erie section began in Cincinnati in the mid-1980s.
Honton's group recently bought 2 1/2 miles of abandoned railroad
between London and Spring Valley Road to donate to the city.
The trail eventually will extend east and north of Alcott's cabin,
along parts of the old Conrail line, and join the Heritage Trail
between Hilliard and Plain City in northern Madison County.
Eventually, trail users will enjoy the same woods that border Deer
Creek and surround Alcott's cabin. While they cruise past on bicycles,
skates and hiking boots, he'll watch from a chair on the deck, sipping
a beer and occasionally testing the fishing line he dangles in the
slow- moving waters 20 feet below.