Lieutenant Governor visits Great Sauk State Trail

On Wednesday, May 10th, Lt. Governor Sara Rodriguez visited Sauk Prairie to see the site of a future public art mural. The mural was made possible thanks to funding from the Tourism Capital Grant Program which supported tourism-related investment projects that help promote, maintain, or bolster Wisconsin’s tourism industry. The 100-foot mural will be located in Sauk City near the Great Sauk State Trail’s (GSST) mile marker 0, and will welcome visitors to Sauk County as they cross the Wisconsin River from Dane County via a new trail bridge. Through a highly competitive RFP process, Christopher Sweet (Reedsburg, WI) was selected as the artist for the mural.  Currently, the GSST is roughly 11 miles and runs from Sauk City to the northern edge of the Sauk Prairie Recreation Area. Future plans include connecting the trail to Baraboo and Reedsburg where it will then connect to the 400 Trail. At the event on Wednesday, Marty Krueger, Sauk County Board Member and advocate for the GSST, announced that Wisconsin & Southern Railroad’s operating certificate dissolved for the rail corridor between the GSSTs current southern terminus (near mile marker 0) and milepost 4.72 WDNR Access Road (a few miles south of Hwy Y and Hwy 78 in Dane County). This will now allow WisDOT and the DNR to execute an Interim Trail Use Agreement, remove the current rail infrastructure, and construct the bridge and trail that will take the Great Sauk State Trail into Dane County. Once these connections are made, it is anticipated that the Great Sauk State Trail will be the most heavily used trail in Wisconsin. To learn more about the trail, visit www.greatsaukstatetrail.org Pictured, left to right: Tywana German, Linda Sauer, John Sauer, Marty Krueger, Jon Cody, Alan Wildman, Lt. Governor Sara Rodriguez, Dave Considine and granddaughter, Lindsey Giese, Ken Lueck, Jim Anderson, and Heidi Koch.