Issue: The Tennessee New River Trail

PostedJanuary 24, 2025

UpdatedMay 29, 2026

Bybenwgarrett@gmail.com

The Tennessee New River Trail is a proposed recreational trail from Oneida, Tenn. to Fork Mountain, Tenn. that would be open for hikers and bicyclists. Proposed by Tennessee Citizens for Wilderness Planning (TCWP), the 42-mile trail would be located along the abandoned Tennessee Railroad, utilizing a process protected by federal law and court precedent that is broadly known as “rails to trails.”

How is it legal?

The owner of the Tennessee Railroad is R.J. Corman, a Kentucky-based railroad company. Corman purchased the railroad from National Coal Company in 2009 for a price of almost $3 million. However, Corman did not utilize the railroad for rail traffic, and the last trains ran the line that same year. In March 2020, Corman filed a notice of its intent to abandon the line with the Surface Transportation Board (STB).

A bid by an Oklahoma-based company for a hostile takeover of the line was rejected by the STB in 2021, clearing the way for Corman to follow through on its intent to abandon the railroad and take up the steel rails and wooden ties as salvage.

In the meantime, Tennessee Citizens for Wilderness Planning, an Oak Ridge-based non-profit conservation group, filed with STB what is known as a Notification of Interim Trail Use (NITU). Once granted by the STB, the NITU requires Corman to leave the railroad corridor intact, including the subgrade and all bridges.

This is a “railbanking” agreement that is protected under legislation passed by Congress in 1983 that is known as the “Rails to Trails Act.” In response to railroads being abandoned in the U.S., Congress passed a law that requires abandoned railroad corridors to be left intact for the possibility of future use. In the interim, they can be used as recreational trails — hence the term “railbanking.” The law was upheld as constitutional by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1989.

Some examples of rails-to-trails include the Virginia Creeper Trail near Abingdon, Va. and the Eureka Trail near McMinnville, Tenn.

Where things stand

As of April 2025, the STB vacated the NITU originally granted to Tennessee Citizens for Wilderness Planning in 2020, and issued a new NITU to Trust for Public Lands, a San Francisco-based company that has helped preserve more than four million acres of public lands nationwide. Trust for Public Lands has replaced TCWP as the sponsor of the effort to establish a recreational trail, and is negotiating a purchase of the railroad right-of-way with R.J. Corman. TCWP remains involved, as well.

In its April 2025 ruling, the Surface Transportation Board warned the organizations working to build a rail-trail that this will be the final extension granted. The NITU expires in April 2026.

Previously, TCWP approached officials in Scott County about the possibility of a rails-to-trails project on the Tennessee Railroad line. Among those they spoke to were Scott County Mayor Jerried Jeffers and Oneida Mayor Lori Phillips-Jones. In November 2024, TCWP and the TN Dept. of Tourism held a meeting at Timber Rock Lodge in Oneida to discuss the potential project.

Since that meeting at Timber Rock, an exploratory committee has been established by a group of 15 Scott County residents and property owners, including business owners, representatives of the Town of Oneida, and landowners along the railroad line. The committee, which held two meetings in December and one in January, describes itself as a neutral fact-gathering committee not yet committed to supporting a recreational trail along the railroad line. The committee has begun the process of acquiring barriers to place as public road crossings of the former railroad in an attempt to keep ATVs and other motorized vehicles off the rail bed.

Separately, a non-profit — Echoes of the Tennessee Rail Foundation — has been establish to potentially help make the rail-trail a reality, should it become reality. The president of that group is John McCracken, the secretary is Ralph Trieschmann, and the treasurer is Tommy Bell. All are members of the exploratory committee.

In January 2025, Scott County Commission voted 12-0 to draft a resolution of non-support for the proposed Tennessee New River Trail. That resolution was later put to record by the commission in February 2025. The Town of Huntsville has also gone on record in opposition to the proposed trail.

As part of its April 2025 ruling, the STB stated that TCWP has worked since December to gain support for the project from the Town of Oneida and Scott County. However, that is either a misstatement or inaccurate information has been presented to the STB, as Scott County’s official position is steadfastly against a rail-trail.

In August 2025, the Tennessee director of Trust for Public Lands, Noel Durant, met with Scott County Mayor Jerried Jeffers and requested to be placed on the agenda for County Commission’s October 2025 work session. Jeffers presented his request to commissioners at their Aug. 18, 2025 meeting. Commissioners declined the request.

In March 2026, the STB rejected TPL’s request for an additional one-year extension of the Notice of Interim Trail Use (NITU). TPL said that it had reached an agreement in principle with R.J. Corman and expected to close on the former railroad corridor in January. Weeks later, TPL and Corman announced they have finalized that agreement.

Issues

Those opposed to the proposed rail-trail include residents and landowners who own property adjacent to the railroad. They cite concerns of invasion of privacy, increased crime, ATV traffic and trespassers.

Separately, it’s not clear who would pay for the trail or where the money would come from.

There has also been concern among residents along the railroad corridor that meetings are being conducted in secret, without their input.

Invasion of Privacy

Perhaps the overriding issue, as far as residents along the railroad corridor are concerned, is that a rail-trail would allow hikers and cyclists to wander too close to their home. In many cases, residents own property on either side of the railroad. In some cases, homes are located close to the railroad — in isolated instances, literally feet away from it.

This is a concern that has not been addressed by proponents of the rail-trail, if only because there’s really no counterpoint to the argument.

Crime

Scott County Commissioner Sheila Buttram, who represents the 3rd District and lives adjacent to the railroad in the Paint Rock community east of Oneida, said in a commission meeting in December 2024 that she has found needles along the rail bed, purportedly left by users of illicit drugs. Others, including property owner Curtis Carson, have provided evidence of trash being left along the rail bed. And there have been multiple reports of thefts that have occurred with perpetrators gaining access to private property by driving along the rail bed after the rails were taken up. Residents fear that building a recreational trail along the railroad corridor will lead to a further increase in crime by allowing people with ill intent close access to homes and property along the corridor.

Proponents of the rail-trail have countered that the current crimes are being committed by people who are trespassing by merely being on the rail bed — which is privately owned by R.J. Corman and is not open for any type of vehicular or hiking use — and that those people are not tourists, but locals. The exploratory committee has pointed to comments from McMinn County, Tenn. Mayor John Gentry, who said the Eureka Trail actually discouraged vagrants and made the railroad corridor safer once the trail was built.

ATV traffic

There have been numerous reports of ATVs accessing the rail bed since the rails and timbers have been removed by salvage crews. National Salvage, the firm contracted by R.J. Corman to remove the rails and timbers, has identified a list of 64 crossings along the 41-mile route, including public road crossings and crossings that are located on private property. There’s also a concern — which has been expressed by Scott County Mayor Jerried Jeffers and Huntsville Mayor Dennis Jeffers — that it will be difficult to keep ATVs off the trail should the recreational trail become a reality. Separately, there’s a misunderstanding that persists within the community that the proposed trail would be open to ATVs.

Proponents of the rail-trail, including Tennessee Citizens for Wilderness Planning, Oneida Mayor Lori Phillips-Jones and the exploratory committee have all been steadfast in their insistence that ATVs will not be allowed on a recreational trail, should it come to fruition.

The exploratory committee, working with Phillips-Jones, has begun the process of acquiring barriers to block access points along the railroad in an attempt to keep ATVs off the rail bed in the interim.

Should the trail become a reality, it has not been made clear what policing of the trail would look like. In some other instances, rail-trails use volunteer security patrols to keep check on the trail. Regardless, security of the trail would require the cooperation of local law enforcement agencies and district attorneys general. Scott County Mayor Jerried Jeffers has opined that the Scott County Sheriff’s Department does not have the personnel to patrol the 27 miles of the railroad corridor that fall within Scott County. Solutions enacted by rails-to-trails managing entities in other locations would not require law enforcement to actively patrol the trail, but would require law enforcement to respond to reports of illegal use or other crimes.

Trespassers

Some residents along the railroad corridor — like Mike Keeton, who lives in the Tunnel Hill area east of Oneida — have reported trespassers who have ventured off the rail bed and onto their properties. There is concern among landowners that this trespassing will continue if a recreational trail becomes reality. In Keeton’s case, the perpetrator told Keeton that he was “exploring.”

Cost

So far, there have been no cost estimates presented to build or maintain a 41-mile recreation trail. There are grants available for the establishment of rail-trails, but maintenance represents a bigger financial hurdle.

Scott County Mayor Jerried Jeffers has said that he will not recommend spending county money to build or maintain the trail, which will almost certainly be Scott County Commission’s stance as well, given the January 2025 vote of non-support. It also seems likely that the Town of Huntsville will take a similar stance, leaving the Town of Oneida as the only government entity in Scott County that might be open to the idea of helping with financial support. The county governments of Campbell County and Anderson County have not indicated an intent to support the trail financially.

Developing a funding plan will likely be the biggest obstacle for proponents of the trail. For its part, the exploratory committee has said, “If the cost to build and maintain the trail is found to be too high to consider this project feasible, the Advisory Committee would likely recommend not going forward – but all options are still on the table until then.”

Secret meetings

The November 2024 meeting hosted by the TN Dept. of Tourism at Timber Rock Lodge in Oneida was not advertised publicly, though Scott County Mayor Jerried Jeffers was invited to attend and, in turn, invited the media to attend. Subsequently, the two December 2024 meetings of the exploratory committee — one at First Presbyterian Church in Huntsville and one at the Town of Oneida Municipal Services Building — were not publicly advertised, and Jeffers was also not invited to attend. Although the January 2025 meeting of the exploratory committee was not advertised, an opponent of the rail-trail used Facebook to provide notice of the meeting, and 45 people were in attendance at the Oneida Municipal Services Building. Huntsville Mayor Dennis Jeffers said he will make it a point to attend future meetings.

The relative secrecy of the meetings have led to accusations that proponents of the rail-trail are attempting to push it through without input from those who might be opposed to it.

Ralph Trieschmann, who serves as a spokesperson for the committee, told the Independent Herald that the committee’s next meeting — which will be held Feb. 16, 2025 at the Oneida Municipal Services Building — will be publicly advertised, as will any future town hall events.

Where they stand

Scott County Mayor Jerried Jeffers: “I’m very supportive of the landowners. I see exactly what they’re saying” … “I can’t justify putting county money towards this rails to trails when I’ve got roads that need attention more than a trail. Would I be supportive of putting money toward that? No” … “The pro supporters had meetings in December and January. We need to hear from property owners as well as people who are for it.”

Huntsville Mayor Dennis Jeffers: “The people who need to be making decisions about this are the property owners who are adjacent to it, who pay taxes on the property. It needs to be those people” … “The whole county needs to have a say in this process. There’s only about half a mile in Oneida. The rest goes through Winona, Huntsville, Buffalo and places like that.”

Mike Keeton, landowner: “As an adjoining landowner, I’d love to have the land back. But my ancestors sold the right of way in 1889, as did probably all landowners back then. Since the rails have been removed it’s become a steady stream of motorized traffic through there, and some have ventured off onto my land. I’m not against ATVs but to me, I’d rather have a walking and biking trail as opposed to ATV trails. That’s my personal opinion. A scenic railway would be nice as well.”

Marla Howard, landowner: “Everyone who jumped the gun on this didn’t consider one iota what people who are directly affected were thinking” … “I have heard grant money until I’m sick of hearing it. That’s still our tax dollars that will be dished out for something the majority who are affected don’t even want” … “Why are the landowners even having to find out who wants it or who is against it? Maybe local government should have started their own petition to see who was like minded in the matter whether for or against. Sometimes peace of mind comes at a high price. I truly hope everyone involved are much in prayer about this situation. The people this affects surely are.”

Lori Phillips-Jones, Oneida Mayor: “I just feel like if we don’t start this discussion and explore it, 10 years down the road we may feel like we missed an opportunity. Fifty years ago was when Sen. Baker was spearheading efforts to establish the Big South Fork. There were people at that point in time that weren’t happy. But when you look at it now you think, gosh, we were so lucky to get that established” … “(It) automatically piques my interest. Is this something we can do to support both tourism and recreation, and economic development?”