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The Butler-Freeport Community Trail runs 20 miles between the Kaufman Drive trailhead in Butler and Freeport on the Allegheny River, crossing into Armstrong County near its southern end. The corridor is the former Butler Branch of the Western Pennsylvania Railroad, later the Pennsylvania Railroad. From Freeport it follows Buffalo Creek up through the wooded Buffalo Creek Gorge, then picks up Little Buffalo Creek past Sarver and Cabot before easing through farmland and the villages of Marwood, Great Belt, and Herman toward Butler. The surface is mostly crushed limestone, with asphalt at the Laneville end and south of Monroe Road. Grades stay gentle, and the creek crossings and hemlock groves between Sarver and Freeport are the scenic heart of the trail.
Butler-Freeport Community Trail
Your comfort. Prognosticated.
-Cory
In a typical year the Butler-Freeport Community Trail has about 109 to 152 days of excellent weather for popular activities such as hiking, dog walking, e-biking, running, biking, birding, and walking, with April, May, and October the best months.
Hourly comfort scores for the next 15 days of weather, tuned to your activity and your own thresholds.
Plan your visit to this trail. Get the best windows for a comfortable outing.
Enjoy the Butler-Freeport Community Trail!
In half of past years, color along the Butler-Freeport Community Trail peaks October 20 to November 1, typically around October 25. The trail has 35% deciduous coverage, with the majority being black cherry, red maple, and northern red oak.
A stagecoach ran between Butler and Freeport until the railroad held a mock funeral for it in January 1871. Work on the Butler Branch had begun in September 1869, and ground was broken at Butler in February 1870. The twenty-one mile line formally opened to the public on January 18, 1871, after a two-day celebration. It was Butler County's first railroad, operated by the Western Pennsylvania Railroad Company and built for $400,000. Trains carried limestone, iron ore, farm produce, sand, oil, and bricks down the Buffalo Creek valley to the Allegheny River port at Freeport, where Pittsburgh's growing steel industry wanted the limestone. On June 1, 1888, the Pennsylvania Railroad leased the line for forty years. It became part of the Pennsylvania Railroad outright in 1903 and passed to Conrail late in its life. The last service ended in 1987. Buffalo Township took ownership of the corridor, and a volunteer trail council set out to convert it. The Butler-Freeport Community Trail officially opened on October 4, 1992, although legal challenges over ownership of the corridor slowed progress for nine years. Hurricane Ivan damaged sections in 2004, and FEMA approved money to restore them. In 2009 Pennsylvania DCNR approved permits for the Final Four Miles Project, which improved drainage and resurfaced the northern end south to Bonniebrook Road. The all-volunteer Butler-Freeport Community Trail Council still maintains the trail today, with asphalt at the Laneville end and crushed limestone for most of the route.
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