As we ride north from Cincinnati in our rail car, we’ve been enjoying glimpses of the scenic Little Miami River through the trees. The Guide describes our next stop:

“Loveland, 23 miles from Cincinnati, is an important station. Here is the intersection of the Hillsborough Railroad with the Little Miami Railroad. Hillsborough is 37 miles by rail, from this point. It is the county seat of Highland county, and a pleasant village.”

The Guide goes on to describe what is now Hillsboro, due east of Loveland, and the surrounding countryside that makes it “very healthy--and in summer a cool and agreeable retreat.” Founded in 1807, Hillsborough manufactured flour, carriages, and lumber. It also was the home of Eliza Thompson, who led groups of women into saloons to close them down in the temperance movement of the 1870s. The 1854 Guide informs us Hillsborough “contains about 2,000 inhabitants, with several churches. The society is cultivated and agreeable.”

But what of Loveland, where we are now stopped? Our Guide is brief, telling us that just three or four years ago, when the railroad first came through, “there was but a single house here; but now, there is quite a village grown up.” The Guide provides us an etching (above) of the location where the two rail lines intersect.

Loveland was named for James Loveland, who operated a general store and post office in the downtown area. The settlement grew because of the river and the railroad, and in 1872 a bridge was built across the Little Miami joining East Loveland and West Loveland. By this time the Hillsborough Railroad that connected here had become part of the Marietta & Cincinnati Railroad, carrying frieght and passengers east across Ohio.

In 1876 Loveland was incorporated as a village with fewer than 800 residents, but the population spiked in the 1950s, and Loveland became a chartered city spanning three counties (Hamilton, Warren, and Clermont) in 1961. After damage from devastating flooding in 1913 and 1959 (read here about the 1913 flood), a levee and channel were constructed in 1962 to reduce the possibility of another major deluge.

Today, the tracks of the Little Miami Railroad have been replaced by our scenic trail, passing right through downtown Loveland. The Marietta & Cincinnati tracks are still here, but the railroad was abandoned years ago. Loveland's growth in recent years has come in part because of what began as the "Loveland Bike Trail" and is now part of the Little Miami State Park's multi-purpose trail. Today Loveland has over 12,000 residents--almost twice as many as Hillsboro, the town more fully described in our 1854 Guide. It attracts the largest number of trail users each year, and many businesses cater to the travelers who come today by bicycle rather than on the trains of the past.

Below: The intersection of the two rail lines today [Google Earth]. The tracks were the old Hillsborough line; the trail is the Little Miami RR line.

Below: 1860 mapshowing the Little Miami RR and the Marietta & Cincinnati RR intersecting at Loveland. The railroads ran parallel along opposite sides of the river for several miles after the M&C RR crossed the Loveland bridge and before diverging to take separate routes to Cincinnati.

Below: Vintage postcard of the Loveland depot after the Little Miami RR joined the Penn. RR

by Rick Forrester

As part of the maintenance of the park, we remove Amur Honeysuckle (Lonicera Maackii), a very aggressive, invasive species. Originally from western China, it was grown in Chinese gardens before being cultivated at the St. Petersburg Botanical Gardens in Russia (1883). It then moved to Europe and was highly valued as an ornamental. Next, it was cultivated at the Dominion Arboretum in Ottawa Canada in 1896 from seeds obtained from Germany, and then in the New York Arboretum in 1898. Plants were widely sold and promoted by the USDA for soil stabilization, reclamation, and wildlife habitat improvement programs through the 1980s.

Naturalized, wild-growing honeysuckle was found outside the Chicago’s Morton Arboretum in the 1920s and began rapidly spreading across the mid-west and eastern states. Wild Amur Honeysuckle was endemic in Ohio by 1993.

With plants growing upwards of 30 feet tall with arching branches of opposite, simple, ovate leaves 2 to 3 inches long, green above, paler and slightly fuzzy below, they have been rampant in the Little Miami State Park.

As for why blue is my favorite color, our teams use blue color in our spray mix for treating the stump after the team has cut/chain sawed the plant. Treatment must be done with 10 minutes of cutting as the plant cells will quickly close off the wound and the mix will not be absorbed. The mix we use is composed of 12-15% glyphosate herbicide, 0.5% Pentabark surfactant that helps move the mix into the stump, a small amount (1-2 tbl/gal) of ammonium sulfate fertilizer (also helps move the herbicide into the plant), and a small amount (<0.5%) of farm-grade blue colorant. The blue lets us target the spray to the absolutely smallest area needed to kill the honeysuckle above and below ground without doing damage to the surrounding native plants. Go Blue!

November 2019

The term “eye candy” is often used to refer to often expensive, very colorful and really attractive bicycles. I recently took a long run on the Little Miami Scenic Trail and was overtaken by some truly great looking bicycles, which swiftly and silently approached before whizzing past me. But, as much as I appreciate “eye candy” bikes, to paraphrase Shania Twain, “that didn’t impress me much.”
What did impress me was a number of bicyclists, many riding basic bikes, who called out “on your left” or “passing” or rang their bells as they approached. I knew what to expect and knew to maintain my position running along the righthand side of the trail. I was pleased to know that at least some trail users are knowledgeable, courteous and safety-minded.

I am in the habit of calling out “on your right” when a bicyclist passes me unannounced, hoping that at least a few will figure out that they should call out “on your left” when passing. I have no idea if this approach is at all effective. On the other hand, whenever someone passes me and announces their presence, I always say “thank you,” to acknowledge I’ve heard, to express my appreciation and to provide positive reinforcement. My hope is that my “thank you” will encourage others always to announce their presence when passing.

Here are two things you can do to encourage safe passing behavior on the trail:

1. Set a good example by always announcing your presence when passing.
2. Provide positive reinforcement by thanking those who announce their presence when passing you.

With these simple actions, each of us individually and all of us together can make a real difference, one passerby at a time.

by Erick Wikum
October 2019