Parks has actually been amazing,” Ferguson said. “But the first call I made [to them], the comment I got was, ‘We are never building trails in Nebraska again.’” Undeterred, she canvased the area, gathering petition signatures. Other local residents joined her effort. “They also wanted a safe space,” Ferguson said, “and that turned into our nonprofit, which is Cowboy Trail West.” At first, it was hard for Ferguson to talk about the crash that broke her leg and arm, bruised her lung, and left her concussed. But her story resonated. “My story is the most known piece of the puzzle, but I can’t take more credit than any of the other board or community members. It’s been a labor of love.” Emphasis on labor: The group attended meetings, raised funds, cleared land and maintained the trail themselves. It officially opened in 2019. “I think we’ve done a lot of good,” Elwood said. “We’ve decked five bridges and put handrails on “We’d seen what Cowboy Trail West had done with the Cowboy Trail and said, ‘Hey, we’ve got to get our end going.’” — George Ledbetter, Treasurer, Northwest Nebraska Trails Association PHOTOS: This page: Cowboy Trail West volunteers decking a bridge along the trail; a western section of the Cowboy Trail between Gordon and Chadron, Nebraska | Trisha Loosvelt (2). Opposite page: Temporary pathway cut with permission alongside a section of the Nebraska Northwestern Railroad in Chadron by the Northwest Nebraska Trails Association, as they develop a local section of the Cowboy Trail | George Ledbetter.
growing. During a late July ride, he stopped where Norfolk’s paved city trail meets the Cowboy’s limestone alongside the Elkhorn River. At the base of a flagpole, there was a metal box. Inside were a few trinkets picked through by participants in the Cowboy Cache program he start- ed this year to celebrate the trail’s 30th anniversary. Duryea ballparked that 100 people would participate in the geocaching game. About 600 people already had by late July, and Duryea was dealing with the good problem of trying to find freebies to replenish his popular program. While he didn’t have 2025 data cleaned up, automatic counters in the towns between Valentine and Norfolk totaled 87,000 trips along the trail over the first half of 2024. But its remoteness and its breadth make for many DIY projects for vol- unteers, including weeding, chang- ing a flat or building out miles-long western segments. “I think we’ve done a lot of good.” Three times a year, Cowboy Trail West volunteer Ross Elwood, 78, gets on a Farmall tractor four years older than he is and putters up and down the 17-mile segment of the Cowboy Trail between Gordon and his home of Rushville, mowing along a path that he and a grassroots group first cleared of towering weeds and heavy debris about a decade ago.
“It was such a mess,” said Elwood, who’s owned a parts store in Rushville for nearly six decades. “That first year, we picked up 60 truckloads of debris between Rushville and Gordon.” Like many who’ve helped form and sustain the nonprofit (facebook.com/ CowboyTrailWestInc), Elwood joined in after hearing the story of Kris Ferguson’s 2011 car-bike crash on Nebraska Highway 27, which intersects with the trail in Gordon. When Ferguson heard the first voicemail Elwood left her, she put off returning his call because she thought he’d have an opinion along the lines of the rancher who told her, “I’m sorry you got hit, but we don’t need a trail.” Instead, Ferguson found one of many allies who would move heaven and earth with her to build the momentum needed to develop and sustain the trail. Now, Elwood is pre- paring to retire his mower. Funding is in place for Nebraska Game and Parks to take over maintenance and expand the Cowboy Trail’s reach. A seasonal worker will soon manage a 41-mile stretch from Gordon west to just outside Chadron, including 25 miles still in development. Asked what he’d do once Nebraska Game and Parks took over, Elwood laughed: “I might get on my bike and go for a ride.” That level of support didn’t hap- pen overnight. “Let me preface this by saying that Nebraska Game and
Rails to Trails MAGAZINE | FALL 2025
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