Building a trail can be like fitting a puzzle together. One such puzzle—the Swedish Immigrant Regional Trail—has been three decades in the making. This January, Parks & Trails Council of Minnesota acquired three critical parcels that will enable the county to finish a gap in a portion of the trail between the cities of Center City and Shafer.
Since 1993, Chisago County has been planning and constructing (in segments) this 20-mile paved trail on a railroad corridor that was abandoned in 1948. The area is incredibly scenic, with abundant lakes, rolling pastoral landscapes, wetlands, and small forests. This trail segment will help connect citizens to the vast beauty in this part of the state.
As of today, the trail is built in two unconnected segments: a 5-mile segment between Chisago City (western end) and Center City and a 6.7-mile segment between Shafer and Taylors Falls (eastern end).
Laying between these segments has been a roughly 2-mile gap that has been a top priority to acquire and develop for nearly 20 years. Efforts to fill the gap have received significant support from Chisago County residents, stakeholders, local organizations, and cities.
Part of the challenge to this project was that three separate landowners each owned part, and each had generations of history and attachment to the land. Building the 10-foot-wide bituminous trail would require a 50-to-100-foot-wide corridor running across each property.
Trail-building projects rely on landowners embracing them and willingly selling their land. Yet, even the most ardent supporters can hesitate if a trail impinges on land they use. For this project, the former railroad corridor on which the trail was planned was now being used as a farm. Chisago County officials hired WSJ Engineering to engineer a route that avoids traversing the farm.
“In the end, this is a perfect route,” says Chisago County Parks Director Joe Tart. Even though the trail will curve south near the highway, it will be separated and elevated enough to provide scenic views of the area. “We want as little impact as possible for the landowners, and we worked to cooperate and get their input on the project.” Finding an alternate route for the other two properties would have been much more challenging, but luckily, that wasn’t necessary.
Beyond these properties, another roughly 1,500 feet of land included in this trail project came from previously acquired trail easements abutting property owned by the county for the sheriff’s office.
Funding is an essential factor in most land sales discussions. To make credible offers, the county needed readily available funds.
By partnering with P&TC, these conversations turned earnest. Ultimately, P&TC purchased the rights-of-way from these three separate landowners and will hold them in trust for the trail.
P&TC’s land fund exists for this very reason—to provide readily available funds and know-how to purchase land before an opportunity is lost.
The county anticipates that the state legislature will approve $2.4 million later this summer for acquisition and development. However, it needed to act while the iron was hot rather than hoping a landowner would wait months for potential legislative action.
The Greater Minnesota Parks and Trails Commission, a governmental body tasked with recommending how the Legacy Parks and Trails Fund is spent, has recommended the Legislature fully fund this project.
If funds are approved this summer, Tart expects the county will be able to begin construction in spring 2026.
This 2-mile gap isn’t the only part of the Swedish Immigrant Trail seeing exciting progress. On the western end, the county plans to build another 6-7 miles of trail in conjunction with a highway project. Highway 8 between Chisago City and Forest Lake is planned for reconstruction starting in 2026. Once that project is complete, the trail will connect directly to the Hardwood Creek Regional Trail in Forest Lake, which connects seamlessly to the Sunrise Prairie Regional Trail.
It will weave together a system of trails across various city and county jurisdictions.