PIKEVILLE, Ky. — Pike County announced earlier this week the Recreational Trails Program issued a grant to help fund the Tug Fork River Trail, which proposes to create several river access points and highlight Hatfield-McCoy feud sites along the river.

As part of the plan to capitalize on a nationwide tourism boom, Pike employed Summit Engineering to create plans for the the Tug Fork River Trail and an ATV trail. The river trail would parallell the ATV trail as they would share some points of interest, such as the Hatfield-McCoy Park at McCarr.

The seven other proposed river access points are in Poplar Creek, Peter Creek, at the Hatfield School near Matewan, W.Va., the South Williamson boat ramp, the McCoy Cemetery near Ky. Route 22, the Goody take out, a water facility near Williamson, and Big Creek Park. The trail would be open to non-motorized boat traffic only, such as canoes and kayaks.

Pike County Parks and Recreation Director Jarrod Hunt traveled May 13, to Frankfort on behalf of Pike County Judge/Executive Wayne T. Rutherford to receive a Recreational Trails Program Grant for $33,100. The money will be used to fund the Tug Fork River Trail in Pike County, Rutherford’s office reported..

“I am so pleased that we have received this funding. The water trail, once it is complete, will be a great benefit to Pike County and will further the county’s adventure tourism initiatives,” said Rutherford, who was originally scheduled to attend Wednesday’s check presentation with the governor, but the recent flooding prevented his trip.

“I sent Jarrod to ‘bring home the bacon’ because I needed to remain in the county,” Rutherford said.

According to the governor’s office, the Recreational Trails Program is an assistance program funded by the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Federal Highway Administration (FHWA). Kentucky’s RTP is administered by the Department for Local Government and requires the applicants to match by 50 percent the amount of funds requested.

“We’re very excited to receive this grant from the Recreational Trails Authority. The grant will help us begin the process of obtaining easements and preparing access points along the Tug River, as well as purchase items such as benches, grills, garbage cans and signage along the trail route,” said Hunt.

The Pike County Fiscal Court will match the grant by in-kind donations and force account labor. The initial construction costs for all the trails in Pike’s plans , which includes four primitive trailheads, is $354,000. The plans show less than 5 percent of the trails would be constructed in order to trails as natural as possible.

“Creating the Tug Fork River Trail will help us further expand our Pike County heritage by highlighting the Hatfield-McCoy feud sites which lie along the Tug Fork River,” Hunt said.