Hillsboro Trail

Hillsboro Trail in Shelby County, Alabama, follows one point nine miles of former railroad grade along part of the old Helena and Blocton branch line of the Birmingham Mineral Railroad, built in eighteen eighty-nine to reach the mineral-rich Cahaba Basin and connect with other lines serving coal and related industries. After mines declined and the railroad was abandoned in the mid-twentieth century, the corridor was gradually converted into a paved local trail between two thousand eight and two thousand ten. Its railroad past remains visible in features such as a milepost, remnants of ties, and a nearby nineteenth-century coke oven site, set amid forest that regrew after decades of mining and timber clearing.

Helena, Alabama · United States