The Greater Grand Forks Greenway is a huge greenway bordering the Red River and Red Lake River in the twin cities of Grand Forks, North Dakota and East Grand Forks, Minnesota (commonly called Greater Grand Forks). At 2,200 acres (9 km²), the Greenway is more than twice the size of New York City's Central Park. One of the most prominent features of the Greenway is the extensive, 20-mile (32 km) system of bike paths which are used by bikers, walkers, joggers, and rollerbladers. In 2007, the system was designated as a National Recreation Trail by the National Park Service. There are several city parks and golf courses along the Greenway. Other amenities include wildlife observation areas, a campground, fishing areas, interpretive displays, wildflower gardens, and fields for various athletics including softball, basketball, and disc golf.
The Greenway was developed after the devastating Red River Flood of 1997. The land encompasses major portions of the two communities that used to sit in the floodplain. After the flood, several neighborhoods had to be removed to make way for a massive new dike system. The Greenway includes the lands that sit between these new dikes and the rivers. Today, the Greenway serves the dual purpose of holding back river waters during floods and providing recreational opportunities for metropolitan area residents throughout the year.
Read more about Greater Grand Forks Greenway: Trail Heads, Management
Famous quotes containing the words greater, grand and/or forks:
“The British are a self-distrustful, diffident people, agreeing with alacrity that they are neither successful nor clever, and only modestly claiming that they have a keener sense of humour, more robust common sense, and greater staying power as a nation than all the rest of the world put together.”
—Quoted in Fourth Leaders from the Times (1950)
“One of my playmates, who was apprenticed to a printer, and was somewhat of a wag, asked his master one afternoon if he might go a-fishing, and his master consented. He was gone three months. When he came back, he said that he had been to the Grand Banks, and went to setting type again as if only an afternoon had intervened.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“Just think of all the spare time that has flown
Straight into nothingness by being filled
With forks and faces....”
—Philip Larkin (1922–1986)