Minden, WV (WOAY) – Work has begun on an $11.8 million restoration of one of the New River Gorge’s historic trails, with crews breaking ground Tuesday on the Rend Trail at the Minden Trailhead.
The trail follows an old railroad grade 3.2 miles into the New River Gorge, crossing five railroad bridges built in 1906 to haul coal. The National Park Service says that more than a century later, those bridges have fallen into disrepair.
“One of the bridges has been closed for a number of years because it is so rotted, it’s too dangerous to allow people to cross,” said Acting Superintendent of the park, Eric LaPrice. “So this project is going to remove all those wooden bridges and it’s going to restore them with durable aluminum tread. That is going to be a lot safer for people to cross.”
The Park Service says the project will also regrade the trail, improve drainage, add a restroom at the trailhead, and replace the stairs at a spot called Big Rock with an accessible ramp, opening the full path to people of all abilities.
Once the work is finished, the trail will reconnect to the surrounding area and the community’s other trails.
“The trail was partially closed, so it wasn’t a through trail,” LaPrice said. “Now, when this work is done, it’s going to be a through trail again … it’s going to connect to another area of the park and it’s going to connect to the trails that the community has here. So it’s a connection to the community.”
Visitor spending generated an estimated $95.5 million for the local economy last year. Sen. Jim Justice, on hand for the groundbreaking, wants trails like this one to give visitors more reasons to come and enjoy the park.
“We want to bring our businesses here. We want to bring people here. We want to bring tourism here,” Justice said. “That’s what it’s all about right there.”
The money for the project comes from the Legacy Restoration Fund, part of the Great American Outdoors Act, which expired in September 2025. The National Park Foundation and other supporters are now pushing Congress to renew it.
“We have a lot of support in Congress right now on the America the Beautiful Act, which would take this great program that was created back in 2020, the Legacy Restoration Fund, and extend it for another five years,” said Paul Coussan, vice president of government relations for the National Park Foundation. “So we’re really working to get that done.”
Justice is among the co-sponsors of the America the Beautiful Act.
“The dollars that we’re funding with here are really, really significant … they are vital, vital to us, telling the world all the time what our soul looks like, who we are,” Justice said.
The Park Service expects about 16 months of work, and hopes to reopen the full trail with a ribbon cutting next fall.
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