Rural Missouri - April 2021 - 16

photo below courtesy Jagged Axe Trail Designs

protect it from clear-cutting and has been looking for a good
use for it ever since says the town's mayor. " I've been mayor
since 2013, " Bob says. " That was one of my first objectives, to
use our assets without destroying them. I looked at Shepherd
Mountain and said, 'What a great asset.' So, we started
looking at ways to utilize it. We had been known for a long
time for mining. Now our economy is kind of depressed. We've
been looking for economic development. This seems to be it. "
He says the community rallied behind the idea because it
has the potential to help not just Ironton and its sister cities
of Arcadia and Pilot Knob, but the entire region. Case in point,
one meeting held in the summer of 2020 attracted tourism
and economic development professionals from as far away as
Perryville. So many people showed up the meeting had to be
moved to the high school gym.
With the ball officially rolling, area leaders formed the Valley
Growth Initiative. The group researched other communities
that had transformed their economy thanks to mountain
biking. They read studies that showed the economic impact of
a bike park.
They compiled this research into a grant proposal and
took it to the Iron County Economic Partnership, which
administers money from the settlement made after the Taum
Sauk Reservoir burst in 2005.
" It was a long process getting approval, " Klinton says. " We
did tons of research. We used tons of studies that we found on
mountain biking and its impact on a region. But they agreed. "
With nearly $500,000 in hand, the group hired Jagged Axe
Trail Designs, an Arkansas-based company, to build the park.
That would pay huge dividends later as it turned out.
" We said if you are going to do this you need to hire the
most creative trail builder that we know of for this kind of
riding, " Klinton says. " We made it clear that if you just build
mellow trails right off the bat you are not going to draw people
from very far away. Because we have hundreds of miles of that
already. "
In fact, communities all over Missouri - including St.
James, Neosho, Poplar Bluff, Stockton, Trenton and Warsaw,
to name a few - have cross-country style trails. What the
GORC advisors were calling for is highly technical, fast, rock
strewn, black-diamond trails that strike terror into the average
rider - along with green (novice) and blue (intermediate)
downhill runs for those still honing their skills.
" They took every piece of advice we gave them and never
argued, " Klinton says. " They said from the start that if they
were going to do this, they were going to do it absolutely right. "
Half of the money went to building five trails, while the rest
went to the infrastructure that makes this unlike any other
cycling destination in the state. A building was remodeled to
house shuttle ticket sales, a shower and bike wash. A pavilion
gives riders a chance to unwind. Two Army-surplus Humvees,
a truck and bike trailers were added to haul bikes and riders
up the steep mountain.
Meanwhile GORC showed it had skin in the game by
building the 2.3-mile climb trail, designed for riders who want
to " earn their turn " and ride up to the trailhead instead of
Top: Jagged Axe Trail Designs trail builder Morgan Barkley uses a backhoe
to rough in a section of trail. Center: Two Army-surplus Humvees and a
truck will shuttle riders and their bikes 600 feet to the top of the mountain.
Bottom: This steep drop-in is one of several features on the expert's only
black-diamond trail.

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RURAL MISSOURI | APRIL 2021

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Rural Missouri - April 2021

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