Thank you for visiting the Randolph County Trails Master Plan!

The master plan is complete! Thank you to all who have contributed to this project.

A trails master plan is a report that provides recommendations for trail routes connecting points of interest through the county. Within the report, you’ll find sections that include the data gathered during inventory and analysis, maps of the proposed trails, cost estimates, funding, and implementation strategies. This report does not include construction documents or property acquisition. View the draft plan and other resources here:

This is a journey that began in 2018, when Randolph County’s Economic Development Office identified the need to address economic development and population decline. Randoph County responded and embraced the shift from a traditional economic development approach to the broader more comprehensive approach to economic development called community development.

Partnering with Indiana Communities Institute at Ball State University, the team reached out to the community to gather their thoughts on what things, if changed and addressed, could improve Randolph County for the current residents and would encourage other people to live there. Based on feedback of over 2,000 people, the following 5 areas were identified as community concerns, and thought if addressed could help grow our community: Education, Technology, Housing/Blight, Business Attraction, and Quality of Life.

With those 5 directives in hand, multiple community meetings were held with the goal to identify how to improve each of those 5 areas. From there, the suggestion for trails surfaced, and a trail committee was formed as a county-wide trail network was identified as an important quality of life issue.

“A future, county-wide trail network would connect Randolph County’s numerous tourism and recreation destinations. But rather than use one or more of the vacant or abandoned rail corridors, community leaders offer that enhancements along some of the county’s existing road network as a viable option for establishing a county-wide trail network, over time.” – Randolph Co. Comprehensive Plan 2018

In 2024, The Community Foundation of Randolph County received a $50,000 planning grant as part of the eighth phase of Lilly Endowment Inc.’s initiative, Giving Indiana Funds for Tomorrow (GIFT VIII). With the grant, the Community Foundation partnered with engineering firm Butler Fairman & Seufert (BF&S) to develop a Randolph County Trails Master Plan. This is building upon the efforts of the Trails Committee formed through the Cultivating Community initiatives.

The process of creating the Trails Master Plan included an initial meeting, data collection on existing and planned projects, stakeholder meetings, an online public survey, a public open house and workshop, and a final plan presentation. The creation of the Trails Master Plan will support various entities within the county as they seek additional funding to enhance the network of trails available to residents and visitors of Randolph County.

“This GIFT VIII planning grant will allow us to continue the momentum that has been created by the Trails Committee established through the Cultivating Community initiative, which is a partnership between RCU, the Community Foundation, and Indiana Communities Institute,” said Lisa Jennings, Executive Director of the Community Foundation of Randolph County.

Lilly Endowment created the GIFT initiative in 1990 to help local communities in Indiana develop the philanthropic capacity to identify local needs and challenges and work with other organizations to help their communities thrive.  Through GIFT VIII, Lilly Endowment has allocated up to $210 million to support Indiana’s community foundations in growing their financial resources and further strengthening their ability to address their community’s highest-priority challenges and opportunities.