The Tuscobia Trail reflects the history of railroads in the development of northern Wisconsin. First conceived as a rail line in 1899 and not completed until 1914, the route carried Chicago and North Western Railroad trains between Tuscobia and Park Falls hauling timber from regional logging operations. By the 1940s, the railroad declined as automobiles became more common and logging slowed, and the line was abandoned in 1965. Before the trestles and bridges were dismantled, Hulda Hilfiker advanced a plan to convert the 74 mile rail line into a recreational trail, persuading area landowners and eventually Governor Warren Knowles to support it. On February 17, 1967, Wisconsin purchased the corridor, making it only the second rail-to-trail conversion in the state at that time. In 1984, part of the trail was designated as part of the Ice Age National Scenic Trail. Hulda Hilfiker and her husband, Ernest Hilfiker, operated the nearby Tuscobia Cheese Factory, and her wish to keep the corridor open for public use grew from her love of the area’s natural beauty, including white pine stands, horsetails at the creek crossing, and the place where a 358-foot timber trestle once carried trains over Tuscobia Creek. Today the corridor remains a remnant of the era when the railroad was the region’s primary economic driver, supporting logging, agriculture, and later tourism and service industries.