http://www.startribune.com/local/east/102667789.html
Star Tribune wrote:DNR officials said on Friday that they have obtained the right to buy the 6 1/2-mile railbed formerly used by the Minnesota Zephyr and that they intend to use the land to build a recreational trail connecting the Gateway section of the Willard Munger State Trail to downtown Stillwater.About darn time - this section of the former Northern Pacific has been disconnected from the rail network for nearly 30 years since it was sold to the Minnesota Transportation Museum, and from them to the Minnesota Zephyr. There are no customers along its length, the neighbors were (are?) intensely anti-rail and almost certainly would not have funded a trail without state support either, and it will drop cyclists directly into a very scenic river town.