HEBER SPRINGS — After years of being overgrown and seen as unsafe, the Jeff Anderson Memorial Trail in Heber Springs has been renovated.
In 1983, a man named Jeff Anderson drowned in the Sandy Beach area, and a trail was established by his family in his memory, Heber Springs Mayor
Jimmy Clark said. In recent years, the trail had become difficult and unsafe to access, said Jo Price, president of the Greers Ferry Lake Trails Council.
“The reason we’ve renovated it is because it’s got a lot of thickets in the woods, and there were a lot of not-so-nice people doing not-so-nice things down there,” she said. “It was just so narrow and so thick that it was just not a safe environment. If you’re going to have a trail and publicize that, it’s our duty to make it nice.”
The council, Cleburne County and the city of Heber Springs celebrated the completion of the renovation with a ribbon cutting Dec. 10. Pauline Anderson, mother of Jeff Anderson, was also in attendance.
“It’s a biking and walking trail, and it’s long overdue, and we’re really proud that Mrs. Anderson could come out for the ribbon cutting,” Clark said.
Clark said that over time, the elements caused damage to the trail, which is near Sandy Beach.
“The Andersons headed the project up with the Boys Scouts [after Jeff’s death], and they built the walking trail,” Clark said. “It was probably a quarter of a mile long. After that, it’s been there ever since, and it got [damaged by] the ice and snow and high waters through the years. The trail got to where it really wasn’t safe to walk.”
Clark said the trail was moved to a higher elevation so it won’t flood as much.
“We have openings that you can see all the way from the lake to the trail,” he said. “The whole Anderson Trail is now close to a mile long.”
Clark said more amenities, such as additional park benches, will be added to the park in the future.
Though the Greers Ferry Lake Council has been working on its master plan, which didn’t include the memorial-trail project, Price said the council figured it would be great to help out with the trail. The council had to get permission from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which owns the trail land, and had to present a plan for the renovation, Price said. Price even contacted Cleburne County Judge Jerry Holmes for help with clearing dead trees from the trail area.
“He said, ‘Let me talk to our road department. Sure, I think we can help you with that,’” she said. “They did a phenomenal job.”
Price said the city paid for all of the gravel, and the county provided the labor to pave the trail.
“I went on vacation for two weeks. They did it while I was gone, and I was amazed,” she said.
Price said trails play an important role in helping lower obesity and diabetes rates.
“In Arkansas and in Cleburne County, we feel like there’s a need to get kids and adults out of the house and walking, and most of [the Jeff Anderson Memorial Trail] isn’t going to be strenuous at all,” she said. “We just felt like it’s important for health issues; it’s great, too, for mental stress to get outside.”
The Greers Ferry Lake Council is also applying for grants to add 9 miles of trails to the area, which is estimated to be a $2 million project.
“[The trails will] join at Sugarloaf Mountain, and they’ll go all the way through town through the west side of town out into the country and to the Heber Springs Sports Complex,” Price said.
Price said she’s heard one local say she walks the Jeff Anderson
Memorial Trail every day now and feels a lot safer on it after the renovation.
“We have all had such great comments from a lot of people that they’re just thrilled with it,” Price said.
Staff writer Syd Hayman can be reached at (501) 244-4307 or shayman@arkansasonline.com.