Leadville, CO |
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Hayden Meadows Recreation Area is a wayside site in the Upper Arkansas Valley on the Top of the Rockies Scenic and Historic Byway. Located between Leadville and Buena Vista on reclaimed riverside land that had been polluted by runoff from upstream mining operations, the site offers a fully-accessible nature trail about a mile in length, a manmade fishing pond (also fully-accessible) of about seven acres and opportunities for world-class trout fishing in the Arkansas River. |
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| Other features of the site include an historic bridge that was once part of the Pike’s Peak Ocean to Ocean Highway (PPOO), one of the first of the named motor trails that sprang up around the nation as automobile touring became popular in the early 1900’s. |
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| Reclaiming the site, and planning and funding the visitor amenities was a cooperative effort that included nearly thirty agencies and organizations. The Byway, Colorado Division of Wildlife, Environmental Protection Agency, Lake County Open Space Initiative, Colorado Historical Society, Nature Conservancy, City of Aurora, USDA Forest Service and Colorado Mountain College were among the partners. |
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EDA planned, designed and fabricated eleven interpretive panels with themes and topics ranging from land reclamation and wetland ecology to wildlife and mining history. |
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