Rock Island Arsenal, with its very real security concerns, didn’t have to allow this. Not only do Arsenal leaders support it, they’re using federal funds to pay for half of it.

Once the Rock Island Trail interconnects with the Katy Trail, it will be a full 450-mile loop in Missouri. People should bring brochures and ideas to share, a news release notes.

In 1986 a resident of Eldon, Missouri, called the newly created Rails to Trails Conservancy to ask what it would take to turn the old Rock Island Railroad Line Corridor into a trail. Now, nearly 40 ...