Walker County, Ga., under a new administration, will not seek to condemn land from a couple along a proposed public trail on the old Chickamauga to Durham Railroad.
Former County Attorney Don Oliver, who supported the trail idea, in the waning days of the Bebe Heiskell administration went to court to condemn property in the name of Stanley Lowe and Jill Wyse at the community of Vulcan near Hinkle on Lookout Mountain.
A new court order has been put into effect that says Walker County has no interest in continuing the land dispute with the couple, who had put up gates and signs across the old railroad right of way and would run off "trespassers."
The agreement sets aside an order of condemnation of the Lowe/Wyse property that had been signed on Nov. 17, 2016.
Shortly after that order, a sign went up at Vulcan marking the trail. The sign disappeared soon after the election loss by Ms. Heiskell.
Shannon Whitfield defeated Ms. Heiskell in the recent election.
Ms. Heiskell and Mr. Oliver had put in a trail head and about a mile of trail starting at Durham Road at the old mining town of Durham. An opening ceremony was held, but the trail head and trail were closed a short time later after Mr. Lowe and Ms. Wyse turned in the county to state environmental authorities for muddying Rock Creek during the trail work.
The county faced heavy fines in connection with erosion while building the trail across one section of Rock Creek near Durham.
The railroad was built by convict labor in the late 1880s from Chickamauga to Durham.
The old railroad bed goes by Lula Lake and Falls en route to Durham.
There has been discussion through the years of making it a public trail, but a number of landowners are opposed and claim the county no longer owns the right of way.
At two locations, houses have been built on top of the old railroad bed.