‘The Beautiful Cover Up’

TORRINGTON – Tuesday, three local entities came together to cut the ribbon for the Grassroots Trail – an event more than 45 years in the making.
Grassroots Trail, also known as “The Beautiful Cover Up,” is a paved walking path stretching approximately 1.25 miles across the city of Torrington.
While Tuesday’s occasion was a happy one, featuring representatives from the Grassroots Gals Garden Club, the city and Goshen County Economic Development Corporation, the project grew, in part, following a series of tragedies and near-death experiences.
Before it was a walking path, Grassroots Trail was a 13-block open irrigation canal running through the heart of the city’s residential center. Dating back to 1883, when the majority of the area was farmland, the open ditch eventually became a problem for 20th Century city residents.
According to city historical information, tall weeds around the canal used valuable water, acted as a mosquito breeding ground, collected litter and became a fire hazard in the winter. The waterway also claimed the lives of at least three children.
Around 1971, the Grassroots Gals Garden Club decided to make the ditch its pet project – determined to create a safer, more attractive environment for Torrington residents.
The club partnered with city officials, local farmers, the Agriculture Stabilization and Conservation Service – which later merged with other agencies to form the current Farm Service Agency – and residents to devise a plan. Eventually, the group decided to tile and cover the ditch and create a chain of mini parks to the tune of $200,000.

Through the promotion of a $99,000 Park Bond Issue, which voters passed by a 5-to-1 margin, and a 50/50 cost-share agreement with the Wyoming Recreation Commission, the garden club was ready to begin the project by 1972. The gals even won Wyoming’s first award in the 1971-1973 Sears Roebuck and National Council of State Garden Clubs’ IEP Contest for their efforts.
In 1973, the garden club led a special park committee to guide the development of the mini parks. They received approval from the Wyoming Recreation Commission to qualify for matching funds from the Federal Bureau of Outdoor Recreation and enlisted the help of a professional planner to assist with figuring out costs, government forms and engineering plans for automatic sprinklers in the parks. University of Wyoming Extension Horticulturist Blair Adams helped the women design landscape plans.
Finally, in 1974, the Grassroots Trail featured a five-foot wide concrete walking path, grass in all mini parks, plenty of foot traffic and playground equipment, which was installed by the Wyoming National Guard.
Forty-two years later, in 2016, the City of Torrington purchased a lot at 2525 West C St. to act as the path’s trailhead.
“I persuaded the city council to purchase the lot because I wanted to improve the presentation from the street, and also, we needed more parking along West C Street,” City Building Official Dennis Estes said, referring to the old, dilapidated house that once occupied the lot.
City workers from the building and streets and sanitation department did all the work on the trailhead in-house, with the exception of the parking lot.
“The project cost the city about $26,000 total,” Estes said. “The Goshen County Recreation Board provided a lot of funding.”
Today, the trailhead features grass, an underground sprinkler system, a parking lot and informational plaque including the history of the trail and a map of its course throughout the city.
The trail itself has around six pieces of exercise equipment, including a two-person elliptical, and although the ribbon’s been cut, Estes has plans to continue improving the trail.
“My goal for the future is to have exercise equipment at every block,” he said.
The Grassroots Gals Garden Club gathered on Tuesday to celebrate the new trailhead and remember the people who had helped them along the way, including Neva Rogers – a member who championed the trail and has since passed away.
They called the ribbon cutting “fabulous.”
Torrington Mayor Mike Varney spoke about the significance of the event and its history, and a smiling group of community-minded individuals watched two halves of a red ribbon fall to the ground, signifying a new chapter in the saga of the Grassroots Trail.