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The Main Line of the Ghost Town Trail is the original Ebensburg and Black Lick Railroad grade, 32 miles of crushed limestone from Ebensburg west along Blacklick Creek to Saylor Park at Black Lick. It passes Nanty Glo, Twin Rocks, the Eliza Furnace at Vintondale, the Wehrum town site, Dilltown, the Buena Vista Furnace, and Heshbon. Westbound it drops about 1,000 feet on a steady rail grade, and eastward it is one long, gentle climb. The C and I Extension leaves this line at Vintondale and rejoins it at Ebensburg, and the Hoodlebug Trail continues from Saylor Park toward Indiana.
Ghost Town Trail: Main Line
Your comfort. Prognosticated.
-Cory
In a typical year the Ghost Town Trail: Main Line has about 100 to 149 days of excellent weather for popular activities such as hiking, dog walking, e-biking, biking, running, walking, and birding, with May, September, 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 Ghost Town Trail: Main Line!
In half of past years, color along the Ghost Town Trail: Main Line peaks October 16 to 26, typically around October 20. The trail has 52% deciduous coverage, with the majority being red maple, northern red oak, black cherry, and chestnut oak.
Wehrum had 250 houses, a bank, a jail, and a hotel, and by 1934 the last of its people were gone. Iron came from this valley before coal. The Eliza Furnace at Vintondale went into blast in 1846 and made about 1,080 tons of iron a year with 90 men and boys and 45 mules. It shut down in 1849. Coal came with the rails. The Ebensburg and Black Lick Railroad laid its line down Blacklick Creek, and the Pennsylvania Railroad ran it as a branch hauling coal from Vintondale and Wehrum. By 1919 it served 23 mines around Colver, Revloc, and Nanty Glo. The mines closed one by one, and the closing of Mine 33 in 1994 ended the railroad. In 1991 the Kovalchick Salvage Company donated the first miles of the Ebensburg and Black Lick grade to Indiana County. The trail opened in 1994 between Dilltown and Nanty Glo. The C and I donated its Rexis Branch in 1993, and in 2005 another 20 miles carried the trail to Black Lick and Ebensburg. In 2026 the last two miles at Nanty Glo closed a 32-mile loop, the second longest rail trail loop in the United States. The Main Line is the Ebensburg and Black Lick grade itself, from Ebensburg down Blacklick Creek past the Eliza Furnace, the Wehrum town site, and Dilltown to Black Lick.
