KNOTT COUNTY – Kentucky Mountain Regional Recreation Authority was formed in 2017 and officially organized a couple of years later, and operates under First Frontier Appalachian Trials, and are working toward creating a connected trail system connecting more than 30 Eastern Kentucky counties, including Magoffin County.
The group has since received $1 million for a base to operate out of, and a ground breaking ceremony was held last Thursday, October 2, in Knott County.
Magoffin County Judge/Executive Matthew Wireman, who is a member of the group, told Mortimer Media Group, “What we have is a statutorily created organization called the Kentucky Mountain Regional Recreation Authority, doing business as First Frontier Appalachian Trails, and what it is that trail system we’ve talked about quite a while, the ATV trail system. It’s going to be similar to what the Hatfield and McCoys system has in West Virginia. This was created by statute in 2017 and organized in 2019 and it has since been funded by the legislature every session since that time frame. What we’re trying to do is establish organized trails that are part of the authority that is a tourism-type thing that has trails systems about a 36-county area, with us being one of the prime locations, especially with the expansion of the Mountain Parkway.”
Wireman explained right now there is tourism funding already passing us by, but hopefully not for long.
“Anyone can see if they’re out on Restaurant Row on a Thursday, Friday or Sunday, the number of side-by-sides and ATVs going through our town and passing us by, with their money in their pockets, and they should be stopping here,” Wireman said. “This is something we’re continuing to work on and it needs land owner agreements signed.”
He explained that right now people are basically just trespassing on people’s property on the already-existing trails, but with the land owner agreements, it will open public ATV trails across people’s properties and the authority will maintain the trails. It will also indemnify the landowners, meaning the state will pick up responsibility for any liabilities.
“What we’re seeing in the communities that are doing this now, the landowners that are allowing this to happen also have bottom land and they’re also letting people camp in it,” Wireman said. “They’re making money just by those folks being there. This will help a lot of our little hollows that’s adjacent to the Breathitt/Magoffin Ridge and the Johnson line and the Floyd line at the south end of the county. It could be an economic boom for our community.”
Wireman said the new headquarters will have its work cut out for it, calling it quite the undertaking to connect these 36 counties, but a lot of the preliminary work is already underway.
“I think it’s one of those things that when it starts happening, it’s going to happen fast,” Wireman said. “We should have an established trail system here in the coming year, maybe two years. The legislature is getting ready to come back into session and they’re asking for more funding so they can do this design and legal work.”
As far as the progress, Judge Wireman said some of the counties have already started selling permits, and in comparison, the Hatfield and McCoy system took eight years to get established and to start selling permits.
“We’re ahead of the game we think and this has the potential to be a big economic boom for our area,” Wireman said.
