The bike & walk trail in this booming SC area is now an economic powerhouse. Here’s how

Greenville County’s Swamp Rabbit Trail with 28 miles of bike-walk path from Travelers Rest in the north to southern Greenville County has become an economic powerhouse.

The Development District Association of Appalachia estimates an annual boost to the economy at more than $7 million. Plus, property values have increased, the association said.

It is estimated 750,000 people use the trail from 30 states with 26% of weekend users coming from out of state, Upstate Alliance said. The trail, a city and county joint venture, began on the site of an abandoned railroad track and has extended outward from there.

Businesses have opened and existing businesses have seen an upturn in revenue, especially in Travelers Rest, whose restaurant scene has expanded and businesses such as bee keeping supplies, a bookstore, boutiques and a wine shop have opened.

Mixed used developments have been built. Most recently Bolden Street District was announced and will include businesses, homes and entertainment in a 10-year build out on 90 acres adjacent to the trail.

Leaders of other cities and communities come to Greenville to see the trail and hear about how it came to be. It ranked first on travel guide Fodor’s best urban trails.

City and county leaders have much more in store including spurs to other communities and neighborhoods. The city of Greenville is in the beginning stages of planning for a trail through the North Main neighborhood edging downtown.

How the SC trail began

Judith Bainbridge, Furman University professor emeritus, said the railway started operating in 1887 as the Carolina, Knoxville and Western Railroad.

“It became the Greenville & Northern, surviving a century of lawsuits, injunctions, neglect, and ridicule before it ceased operations in 1997,” she wrote in a column for The Greenville News.

The name Swamp Rabbit came about because people said the uneven track caused the cars to hop like the swamp rabbit once found around Furman University. Swamp rabbits, while not extinct, are considered rare or imperiled due to habitat loss, the South Carolina Department of Natural Resources said.

Then-Upstate Forever executive director Brad Wyche worked with the national Rails to Trails Conservancy to place the abandoned line in the Rail Trail Bank.

The Greenville County Economic Development Corporation bought the rail line in 1999 with no firm plan on what to do with it.

The track also had to be officially declared abandoned by the federal government before anything other than train travel could be implemented.

Some were not sold on the idea of a bike-walk path. In the summer of 2005 a group cleared the line, whacking kudzu and bushes for miles and people started seeing the opportunity..

In April, 2006, the order approving the abandonment was signed. The effort was bolstered by Greenville Health System’s gift of $100,000 over 10 years, which came with naming rights of the Greenville Health System Swamp Rabbit Trail.

The trail officially opened in 2009.

What’s been built

The Development District Association of Appalachia put the development costs in 2023 at $9 million.

Today, the trail has three lines in the city of Greenville, Calin Owens, Greenville’s mobility coordinator told ETV. The orange line is the original Greenville to Travelers Rest trail, green to Verdea, a mixed used development on the southern end of the city and blue that goes to Cleveland Park, Greenville’s first public park.

It edges the Reedy River, Furman University, Greenville’s newest park Unity, Falls Park and Reedy River Falls in downtown Greenville, and Lake Conestee Nature Park south of Greenville near Mauldin. There is also a spur in Fountain Inn.

There are some gaps, including the Parkins Mill neighborhood, which would have linked with Lake Conestee. Residents protested what they said would be as many as 1,200 people walking in front of their homes daily.

This week, a trail connecting Travelers Rest High School to the George I. Theisen Family YMCA will be officially opened. It will connect to a 1.8-mile trail being built this year connecting the Swamp Rabbit Trail Network to the YMCA.

More to come

Besides the North Main extension, the city intends to build a skatepark, pump track and bicycle playground next to the Greenville Downtown Airport as well as a loop trail around the airport.

Various pedestrian bridges are planned, including one connecting to a new trail extension toward Clemson University International Center for Automotive Research.

Greenville County has secured a $20.3 million federal infrastructure grant to connect the Sans Souci neighborhood that includes the $2 billion On the Trail GVL., 240-acre redevelopment of the former Union Bleachery site and Superfund site.

It will include multi-family housing, retail, office, hotel, educational and research campus space.

This story was originally published May 8, 2025 at 6:00 AM.