Kinzua Valley Trail

The Kinzua Valley Trail follows Kinzua Creek for about nine and a half miles through the Allegheny National Forest in McKean County, Pennsylvania. It runs from the Tally Ho Trailhead just off US 219 west through the small settlement of Westline to the Red Bridge Recreation Area on Route 321. The trail sits on the old Valley Railroad grade, so it is rail-grade flat with a gentle downhill drift toward Red Bridge. The surface is crushed limestone, eight feet wide, and the route crosses the creek and its side runs on a series of bridges. Westline is the only settlement on the way. Beyond it there is little but creek, forest, and wildlife.

• The trail sits on the bed of the Valley Railroad Company, which its builders and later admirers called the smallest railroad company in the world.
• The Valley Railroad ran a narrow gauge, geared Shay locomotive from Kushequa through Westline to the town of Kinzua.
• In its final years the line shrank to a single mile between Westline and Kinzua and was billed as the World's Shortest Railroad.
• The last rail traffic ended in 1953 when the Westline chemical plant, which made charcoal and acetic acid from hardwood, shut down.
• Kushequa, the mill village at the head of the valley, later became known for brick manufacturing.
• Kinzua Creek is 26.5 miles long and empties into the Allegheny Reservoir about 10 miles upstream of Warren.
• The Seneca name behind Kinzua translates roughly as fish speared there.

General Thomas Kane came to the Kinzua Valley to open its coal and timber. His Kinzua Bridge of 1882 was called the eighth wonder of the world. His son Elisha Kent Kane took over in the late 1800s and built a lumber mill downstream of the bridge. The mill site grew into the village of Kushequa. To feed the mill he laid the Valley Railroad along the valley floor, following the bends of Kinzua Creek. A narrow gauge Shay locomotive ran from Kushequa through Westline to the town of Kinzua on the Allegheny River. Westline grew up around a chemical plant that cooked hardwood into charcoal and acetic acid. As the timber was cut over, the railroad lost its purpose. The northern section came out in 1936. The rest was shortened piece by piece until only a mile survived, billed as the World's Shortest Railroad. The Westline chemical plant closed in 1953, and rail service ended with it. In the mid 1970s Westline outdoors people began maintaining cross-country ski trails on the old grade. They formed the Kinzua Valley Trail Club in 1999 and incorporated as a nonprofit in 2001. The club rebuilt the grade west of Westline on a private timberland easement. In the summer of 2016 the trail reached the Red Bridge Recreation Area. Later work carried it east across Kinzua Creek at Olivedale to the Tally Ho Trailhead at US 219. The plan is a 21 mile trail to the Knox & Kane Rail Trail.

• Tally Ho TrailheadMILE 0Directions
• Camp Run BridgeMILE 0.9Directions
• Westline TrailheadMILE 3.3Directions
• Red Bridge Recreation AreaMILE 9.5Directions

• Kinzua Valley Trail Club · MAP THE KVT
• Kinzua Valley Trail Club · Club Info
• Pennsylvania DCNR · Kinzua Valley Trail
• Kinzua Valley Trail Club · Industrialization
• Kinzua Valley Trail Club · Redevelopment
• Wikipedia · Kinzua Creek