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1760 Planter Pioneer Health and Heritage Walking Trail
The Upper Burlington Community Hall Association Trustees at their November 2008 business meeting passed a motion to proceed with construction of a health and heritage walking trail around the perimeter of the large plot of land (roughly 330 feet x 400 feet) adjacent to the hall. Such a trail was one of the purposes for which the land was purchased by the municipality several years previous.
The trail commemorates the 250th anniversary of settlement of the community when the Newport township was colonized by the Planters from Rhode Island in 1760, subsequent to the 1755 expulsion of the Acadians. Signage on the trail will note this commemoration as well as display a community map with the names of the original lot grantees.
The trail will be 1760 feet in length and six feet in width with a 4-inch coarse gravel base topped by a 2-inch layer of red sand-sawdust mix for most of its length. The exception will be about a 30 foot section at the four corners which will be shaped in the form of the digits 1, 7, 6, 0 and topped with gray crusher dust. The surface will be reminiscent of the old gravel roads in the community from pioneer times onwards, and familiar to former attendees of the old 1-room school, now the community hall, who walked them daily.
In addition to the walking trail, several exercise stations will be installed with signage instructing users on stretching and strength exercises that can be done to improve their flexibility and endurance.
Construction of the trail will be done by “pioneer methods”, volunteer hand labor by members of the community using shovels, rakes, and wheelbarrows with no powered machinery except the trucks that will deliver the gravel and sand to the site. The trail trench will be dug four inches deep and filled with gravel on which the two-inch layer of sand will be spread. Trees already growing on the site will in time make this a pathway with trees on both sides.
Sample Trail Signage with Instructions on Various Exercises
Chin-Up Station in Use by a 1950 Upper Burlington School Grad
Three Step-Up Stations of Varying Height are at the Right