Nuttallburg Loop

Start at the Keeneys Creek Rail Trail Parking Area and walk the lower rail alignment to the Town Loop Connector. The connector brings you west to Tipple Trail. Follow it to the Seldom Seen spur, walk out to the former settlement, and return to Tipple Trail. Continue to Town Loop, circle the residential area, then retrace the connector and lower rail path to the start. That 2.5-mile figure includes the Seldom Seen return and both shared access legs; it is not the full 3.3-mile Keeneys Creek Rail Trail.

The rail-trail section is broad and gently graded. The connected paths are short, but the route mixes easy sections with the moderate Town Loop, so think of it as an easy-to-moderate walk rather than a stroll around the tipple parking lot. This itinerary does not include the separate, steep Conveyor or Headhouse hikes. There is no official time estimate for this combined route, so treat two hours as a practical allowance, not a timed standard.

Nuttallburg began in 1870, and the Chesapeake and Ohio Railway’s arrival in 1873 helped the mine ship smokeless coal out of the gorge. The tall tipple sorted and loaded coal; the long conveyor carried it down the mountainside. Coke ovens and rail structures show how much industry sat in this tight hollow. The town was more than a mine: Town Loop passes the foundations of a church, school, and houses, while only occasional house foundations remain at Seldom Seen.

Henry Ford’s company leased the mines in the 1920s to supply coal for a planned steel operation. The plan ran into trouble over its railroad connection, and Ford sold his interests in 1928. Coal production ended in 1958. The machinery and town sites now make the route especially worthwhile for anyone curious about how a coal community was laid out, not just how the mine worked.

Interpretive exhibits help identify what stood along Town Loop, where vegetation can make the foundations easy to miss. At Seldom Seen, expect scattered traces rather than a row of standing houses. Stay on the established paths and don't walk, sit, or climb on historic walls; that damages fragile masonry. At the tipple, the rail line in front of the structure helps show its size in a photo, and the conveyor gives the complex its unmistakable hillside scale.

From Winona, follow Keeneys Creek Road (CR 85/2) about 4.1 miles to the main Nuttallburg parking area, where a restroom is listed. No drinking water is available at the trailhead. Dogs are allowed on the park’s trails on a physical leash no longer than six feet. The drive in is steep, winding, partly paved and partly gravel, and mostly one lane; the passing pull-offs are limited, so a driver may need to back to one to let another vehicle through. Large vehicles and trailers are a poor fit.