Cutting the ribbon for Thursday’s ceremony for the Chinworth Bridge Trail extension are, left to right, Scott Wiley, Kosciusko Chamber of Commerce; Aggie Sweeney, Matt Metzger, Mike Cusick and Rob Bishop, all of the Kosciusko County Parks and Recreation Board; Cary Groninger, county commissioner; Troy Turley, Kosciusko County Parks and Recreation Board; Amy Roe, Kosciusko County community coordinator; John Nelson, VS Engineering; and Nora Christiansen, Kosciusko Chamber of Commerce. 

Text and Photos
By David Slone
Times-Union

WARSAW — The history of the Chinworth Bridge and Trail begins in the late 19th century.

On Thursday afternoon, Oct. 9, another piece of their history was written with the ribbon-cutting ceremony of the Chinworth Bridge Trail extension along Old 30 West, Warsaw. It’s the first projected completed by the Kosciusko County Parks & Recreation Board.

In his comments at the ceremony, Rob Bishop, chairman of the parks board, said he did some research into the Chinworth Bridge and the land that it and the pavilion are on. “

The Chinworth Bridge was built in 1897. If you think about it, there probably weren’t a whole lot of cars, so it probably was built for horses and wagons to go across. And this land was bought at the same time from Robert Chinworth,” he said, pointing out that if you go to downtown Warsaw and look at the furniture store, the name Chinworth is at the top of that.

“This park is also from 1897, so it is one of the absolute oldest parks in Kosciusko County and was made as a rest park for people crossing the bridge. So it’s a cool historical fact about where we are,” Bishop stated.

Bishop thanked VS Engineering, the engineering firm for the project; and Niblock, the construction company for the project, for the work they did in making the trail extension possible. He gave thanks to the other board members, including Vice-Chair Aggie Sweeney, Mike Cusick, Troy Turley and Matt Metzger. He explained the county parks board got started with a Forward Kosciusko project as it was indicated there was a need for a county parks board.

“That became an opportunity for us to do this eight-tenths of a mile trail, which is a great project for the parks board to get its feet wet and figure out how to do these things and how to get the money approved and how things get built. I know I really enjoyed the project, and I hope we’ll all enjoy the trail throughout the years,” Bishop said. “We’ve heard great things from the neighbors, that it’s being used and used quite a bit.”

Kosciusko County Parks and Recreation Board Vice Chair Aggie Sweeney, pictured left, speaks at Thursday’s ribbon-cutting ceremony for the Chinworth Bridge Trail extension before handing the microphone over to Kosciusko County Commissioner Cary Groninger, pictured right.

Part of the Lake City Greenway, the existing Chinworth Trail connects the City-County Athletic Complex (CCAC) to the west side of Warsaw and offers almost two miles of scenic routes, a picnic area and a canoe and kayak launch along the Tippecanoe River, according to a previously provided news release. The extension brings the existing trailhead at the Chinworth Bridge westward toward Creighton’s Crazy Egg Café.

“I want to thank you all for being here today. I hope you all enjoy the trail. I hope you give us park board members more ideas about what you would like to see us do because we are always looking for more projects and it’ll be great to see what project number two will be,” Bishop concluded.

Sweeney said the parks board was really excited to have its first project completed as a relatively new parks and recreation department in Kosciusko County.

“We recognize that as we move forward to implement part of our master plan for trails, and eventually for parks, that we will need the active engagement of the community to make a park system successful,” she stated. “So, with the involvement of some of the local neighbors to this particular trail extension, we’re starting off an organization that we’re calling Kosciusko Friends of the Trails.”

She said it’s an informal organization and gave the members a shoutout for cleaning up the trailhead so it would look nice for Thursday’s ceremony.

Turning the microphone over to Kosciusko County Middle District Commissioner Cary Groninger, Sweeney said without the commissioners’ support, “we wouldn’t have figured out how to get out of the starting blocks as a new parks and recreation department and a parks and recreation board. So thank you, Cary, for all of your support.”

On the history of the location, Groninger said it was kind of his old stomping grounds. His dad, who attended the ceremony, still lives across the Tippecanoe River there.

“The Groningers homesteaded that place in 1906. So, if you would go across the river, the Chinworths were on the left, and the Groningers were on the right. But even before the bridge was there, there used to be the old Yellowstone Trail for the wagons to cross, just to the west of the river right there on our property. Just some interesting history here,” he recalled.

He said US 30 was active by the time he lived there, but his dad could tell “all kinds of horror stories when this was a two-lane bridge across here. The semis would try to go through the bridge at the same time, and all the things that would happen, so a lot of good history in this area.”

Groninger continued, “With that, this is a really exciting opportunity for us to ribbon-cut our first trail project as a county.”

Bragging on the county parks board, he said in less than two years the board has been able to create a master parks plan for the whole county, a master trails and blueways plan for the whole county and do the county’s first trail project.

Kosciusko County Parks and Recreation Board Chair Rob Bishop, pictured left, kicks off the ribbon-cutting ceremony Thursday for the Chinworth Bridge Trail extension project, with John Nelson, pictured right, of VS Engineering, the engineering firm for the trail extension, listening.  

“So it’s just really cool to see all of them working together and the community really supporting as we’re able to build some trails, because I really see, as we grow as a county, we want to make this a place where people want to live and raise a family,” he said.

The long-term goal is to have connectivity between the communities in the county with the city of Warsaw being the hub. The master trail plan shows how that could happen.

“So this is just a small little section we’re able to complete today, but we do see a lot of opportunity with the trailer park and some of those on down the road here, that they’re able to get access to the trail and connect up to the CCAC, and we’ve got a lot of plans for other things to happen. It’s an exciting area. Slate (Auto) coming to town right down the road and new pavement happening … we’re making good progress and it’s cool to see things happening here,” Groninger said.

He thanked Kosciusko Community Coordinator Amy Roe as the trail extension was one of the projects the county did through its Hoosier Enduring Legacy Program (HELP) through the Office of Community and Rural Affairs (OCRA).

“We were able to create a strategic plan for the county and … (complete projects for) three of our small communities in our county. So it’s been cool to see how that’s played out, and Amy has done a great job … as we’re trying to get all of these projects done. It seems like there’s always new problems to solve and opportunities to be able to move things forward. But, I appreciate everyone’s efforts to make this happen today and excited to see what this might be in the future,” Groninger concluded. 

Kosciusko County Parks and Recreation Board Chair Rob Bishop, pictured left; and Vice Chair Aggie Sweeney, pictured right, use the crosswalk to cross Old 30 West at the start of the Chinworth Bridge Trail extension in Warsaw.