The legal fight to build this trail rewrote Massachusetts property law. When Falmouth voted to take the abandoned Old Colony Railroad right-of-way by eminent domain, a town resident had purchased the parcel the very next day. The resulting court battle ultimately produced the strongest state rail corridor protection legislation in the country — one reason Massachusetts has preserved more miles of abandoned rail lines in public ownership than any other state. The trail itself runs 10.7 miles from Woods Hole to North Falmouth, completed in phases from 1975 to 2009, and takes its name from "America the Beautiful," whose lyrics were written by Falmouth native Katharine Lee Bates.
Memories
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