Trails at Quarry Park Officially Open

Mar. 24, 2021

Source: Rankin County News, Linda Horton

Pictured at the ribbon cutting on the last day of winter were (l to r) Brandon Alderman Dwight Middleton, Alderman Chris Vinson, Alderman Harry Williams, Noel Daniels (Rankin First), Brandon Mayor Butch Lee, Chris Wise, Ken Seawright, Keigth Rogers, Trey Spillman, Mark Boackle, and Wade Hankins.

Brandon, MS – With the snip of a big, red ribbon, the trails at Quarry Park in Brandon are officially open.

Friday morning, people gathered to witness the opening of the walking, biking, and nature trails at Quarry Park to the public.

“We can’t keep people out of here,” said Mayor Butch Lee. “So, we might as well go ahead and open the trails.”

Lee spoke to those who had gathered to be a part of this event. He said that this project has been a work in progress for eight years. He said the work was done a little at a time.

“We haven’t used a lot of city resources to do this,” Lee said. “We did it a little bit along as we could break free. We’ve had a lot of help from Tri County Mountain Bike (Association) folks working on the bike trails.

“This is a beautiful piece of property. There are places you will go in here that I promise you, you won’t believe you are in Brandon or even Rankin County.”

Lee recognized Rankin First Economic Development Authority for their vision in seeing what could be. The whole thing came about through a land swap idea for land that could not be used for anything else but recreation. It was a collaborative effort.

“We are working on adding 38 acres below the railroad track,” Lee said. “We feel like we have between six and seven miles in here for runners and bikers. There is one nature trail that we want to preserve. We want to add more property down by the GM plant. Our plan is to get to an 11-mile track so we can have races in here. There is no other place in Rankin County like the bike trails at Quarry Park.

Keith Rodgers, Tri County Mountain Bike Association, said. It was unusual to see this kind of terrain in this part of the state or anywhere in the state.

“The boulders and the rocks,” Rodgers said. “We don’t have quite the elevation that we would like to have for mountain biking, but we have so many unique features that we are able to incorporate into interesting mountain biking.”

Chris Wise, Tri County Mountain Biking Association, said that Tri County Mountain Biking Association has a MOU with the City of Brandon to build trails at Quarry Park. “We currently have over 600 members in the tri-county area,” Wise said. “Our main trail is Ridgeland Trails in Ridgeland. We have 10 miles there. Here, we are hoping to get five or six on this side, and maybe four or five on the other side of Marquette Road.”

Rodgers said Tri County group has been working along side the city developing the mountain biking trails. The city has been working more on the improved trail.

“We started over by the Bayou Classic,” he said. “There are about three miles of mountain bike specific trails in here. Our goal, by early summer, is to have all of the mountain bike trails complete.”