Himes Park Bucket Brigade

The trail through Himes Park, the Iowa street trail, is re-opening at the end of October after having been closed for the past 4 years due to freeway construction.    This time the trail has been built by our government.  But it is worth remembering back to 1996 when volunteers re-surfaced the trail with the bucket brigade. SW Trails encouraged everyone walking along the trail to volunteer by carrying a bucket of grave.

We set up signs encouraging walkers to fill a bucket and help with the graveling of the trail.   The idea was to load the bucket with as much gravel they thought they could carry,  dump it on the trail where it was needed, and then carry the empty bucket to the next gravel site.    (See the photos below.)    We obtained 30 two gallon buckets with plastic handles, and  6 five gallon buckets.  We put 10 buckets at each gravel pile near the signs.  We began by spray painting along the trail in the areas where we most needed gravel.   But as the bucket brigade got underway,  it became evident we could gravel the entire trail, so we changed the instructions to indicate that they should go to where there was no gravel on the trail.

Here are some pictures of that endeavor.

Help SW Trails gravel the Trail.
Fill a Bucket – as much as you can carry.
Carry it to the end of the new gravel where it is needed.
Dump your bucket on the trail.
Carry your bucket to the next gravel mound.

Volunteers at the uphill trailhead near Terwilliger.

Map of trails in Himes Park back in 1996

Fill a bucket from the gravel pile.

Carry the bucket along the trail to the end of the currently graveled section.

Dump your bucket on the trail.

Buckets at the gravel mound at the bottom of the trail.

Finished trail newly covered with gravel.

Thanks to the volunteers who made this project succeed.