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The City of Keene is nestled into the southwest corner of New Hampshire. Some might think we are a sleepy college town, but we are the vibrant economic pulse of Cheshire County with a population of 23,000, which grows to 60,000 during the day. The city has a long history of rail trails and mountain biking. Yet, while the mountain biking community had kept the local trails a secret until the past decade, now it has grown into a destination for every ability.

In 2019, the New England Mountain Bike Association – Brattleboro/Keene (NEMBA-BK) approached the city to build a one-acre mountain bike park. An original donation of $25,000 quickly became a $115,000 donation and two acres. As the park was being built, the opportunity to create a new, unique park quickly sparked a vision fueled by a community passion. Shortly after the ribbon cutting, the bike park became a destination. As use increased, we began to notice more out-of-state vehicles bringing riders of all ages. A friend shared a story with me about an experience he had with his two boys: they had been riding on an early Sunday morning to avoid the crowd, and he wanted to get a coffee. As they left the park, his kids brought him a different way, and he learned of trails he didn’t know about and found a much more direct route that led him to a park with a Starbucks in the parking lot. This story triggered a light-bulb moment. If residents didn’t know where they were, how would visitors?

Community Collaboration

From the bike park grew a vision of stronger collaboration, promotion, wayfinding and economic development. Collaborations with multiple partners, including Pathways for Keene, a nonprofit whose sole mission is to raise money for the Keene rail trails, have been supporting this vision. In more than 20 years, the group has raised more than $700,000 to improve various rail-trails sections, including the North Bridge, which allowed the city to connect the east and west sides over a state highway. Their annual 4 on the 4th Road Race raises nearly $35,000, which has been used as seed money for large grants to improve the eight miles of rail trail, and they are currently spearheading the fundraising effort for the city’s Transportation Heritage Trail, which will connect three unique bridge spans, all of which have had an important engineering impact in bridge construction.

Collaborations can create a strong sense of community. They require a shared vision among all the members involved in the project. When bringing new members to join the effort, there needs to be respect. It takes constant communication to make all the pieces of the vision move forward. However, when you have a vision and you share the direction you are looking to go, often the funding will begin to flow, and the project can be launched successfully. It’s constant work, and the more organizations at the table, the higher the risk of losing project momentum. But when you can keep everyone aligned, you can achieve amazing results. A culture begins to develop, and as one organization provides funding, they begin to bring in other organizations. Soon, each group is matching their funds and reducing the city match into large grants. This has been a key to Keene’s success.

Connecting Students

Although project funding is a strong reason to focus on collaboration, there are other ways to utilize local resources. Keene State College provides students opportunities to connect with real-world experiences. During the 2021 spring semester, students in the graphic design studio came together to create images of how they saw Keene. City staff provided guidance and worked with the students as the designs took shape.

After more than 150 images were created, city staff whittled down the options to four images. These images were placed in two locations and used as backdrops to community bulletin boards. When the city was not advertising its events, the images served as public art, and three out of four images featured Keene Bike Park, parks and trails combined with an image of the Ashuelot River Park arched entrance. The arch provides architectural synergy to many landmarks around the city. The promotion of the parks, trails and bike park is unsolicited and shares a message to those driving around Keene that the city supports this important lifestyle.

Examining Economic Development

Beginning to see the culture change to support the trails, the city worked with the University of New Hampshire (UNH) Cooperative Extension to complete a downtowns and trails economic development study. Shannon Rogers, Ph.D., outdoor economist, led the project to investigate spatial assessment utilizing ESRI GIS data collecting tools, an intercept survey, and focused on wayfinding. The final report, adopted in 2022, supported the Bicycle Pedestrian Pathways Advisory Committee’s advocacy work to include bike lanes in the city’s downtown redevelopment project.

The study helped identify needs within the city utilizing a metric that identified 19 characteristics that would help increase economic development when located in a downtown. One of the attractions of the rail trail in Keene is that two rail lines from the Boston and Maine railway were part of the history. The Ashuelot Rail Trail begins in Keene and goes southwest to the border of Massachusetts. The Cheshire Rail Trail crosses Main Street and connects both south to Massachusetts and north to the Vermont border. As a result of the Main Street crossing, Keene is ideal for economic growth related to our trail system.

The UNH study showed that when visitors came to Keene, they were spending $38 more than the average visitor to New Hampshire. These survey results built momentum to continue to promote and educate the community and city council on the importance of trail connectivity. Currently, we have renewed our relationship with the UNH Extension office, working with graduate students to investigate how we can improve our opportunities to increase the economic impact and find the gaps toward a more outdoor recreational economy. The continuation of work was sparked by the bike park. The city collaborated with NEMBA-BK and Alpine Bike Works to host a race series during a six-week stretch in July and August 2023. The program registration quickly filled with close to 50 registrations, but it wasn’t the total number that was important — it was the nonresident number. All for a 45-second ride around the park loop, bikers from Connecticut, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Vermont and other towns in New Hampshire converged in Keene. These folks came to spend a day, fuel up their vehicles and eat in our local restaurants, for less than one minute of action.

With more than eight miles of rail trail, 40 miles of a single track, a nearby private/public farm, a revitalized alpine ski hill and community members working toward a vision of making Keene a destination, the reality is people are coming to ride Keene! As a writer in New Hampshire magazine shared, “It doesn’t get much better than Keene."

Andy Bohannon, CPRP, AFO, is Parks, Recreation and Facilities Director at City of Keene, New Hampshire.