County of trail: Montgomery County
Location of trailhead: Hickory St., in Lions Park, High Hill
Created: June 2022
The trail is a half mile long, with a loop at the far end. Crushed stone, and gravel, packed. It is in, or rather runs along side the border of Lions Park. Parking in front of the old school is now available for the walking trail.
"Since it is celebrating 100 years in business this year, Christy Minerals wanted to make a contribution to the High Hill community.
"So the company donated a new walking trail called the Christy Trail, which is located near Lions Park. A ribbon-cutting ceremony was held to dedicate the opening of the half-mile trail on June 25, just minutes after the High Hill Parade ended.
“Christy Minerals is very proud to be here today to support our community the best we can,” said Jim Talley, vice president of operations at Christy Minerals. “We want to be a part of this community. We’re celebrating our 100th year in business. We just love the town. There are good neighbors here. We want to continue to see the town grow and prosper. The city approached us for help on some roads. We approached them wanting to do something so that Christy can be remembered within the town for its 100th anniversary.”
"The walking trail is part of a park expansion project city officials have been working on for several months. It goes through a soccer field, which has two soccer nets and new benches.
“We had that field donated to us 20 years ago,” High Hill Mayor Tom Stine said. “We could never use it because there was no way to get to it. So this trail and the soccer field are connected together. There are parking lots on both ends of the park and the trail connects both ends. Hopefully, they’ll get more use now.”
Stine said now that the walking trail has been completed, the city’s next mission is to create a youth athletic complex that will be made for football and soccer.
“That’s what we’re working on,” Stine said. “When you have the property and you can’t use it, it’s kind of useless. We’re hoping that it will get some younger people into town and maybe get some activities.”
"High Hill Christian Church is working on installing football goal posts for the new football field that will be part of the sports complex. The Jonesburg-High Hill Fire Department created the soccer nets.
“We’re hoping to do rec soccer up there,” High Hill Christian Church Pastor Robert Gentry said. “We’re going to have ball cages to hold soccer balls and footballs all of the time.”
"Mike Veach, captain of the Jonesburg-High Hill Fire Department, said the football field will be used by the Montgomery County pee-wee football team.
“They practice where the high schoolers practice,” Veach said. “They don’t really have a field of their own, so I reached out to the coaches and threw the idea for them to come in here and scope this one out once we get the football goal posts. Hopefully, this will be the youth football field.” ~ Montgomery Standard, By Theo Tate, July 8, 2022