City asks for ideas to name bike trails
■ The new trails at City Lake are expected to open Aug. 1. Names will improve marketability and safety.
The city of Siloam Springs is asking for the public’s help to name new mountain bike trails at City Lake. It’s for both marketing purposes and to improve safety.
A submission form has been set up at surverymonkey.com for ideas and early results have been promising, according to Siloam Springs communications manager Holland Hayden.
“We’re getting great feedback,” Hayden said. “We probably have close to 100 or so suggestions
already. Some of them are really good. Some you can say, ‘Yeah, that’s not going to work.’”
On the survey, it asks to make the ideas “memorable and marketable.” Names like “City Lake Bike Trail” won’t fly while others like, “Simon’s Revenge” would be better because mountain bike enthusiasts would prefer to wear T-shirts with something like that on it. Also, avoid names with that include the word “trail” all together. In 1839, Simon Sager was one of the first white settlers of Siloam Springs, which was called the Hico community at the time.
“’I survived Simon’s Revenge’ — that’s marketable,” Hayden said. “I’ve seen that a couple of times in the results and that sounds pretty cool.”
More important than marketing, different names for each of the four trails will help first responders and emergency medical technicians if there is an injury on the trail. Signs will be put up with the names of each trail along with color codes for different ratings to designate if trails are for beginners, intermediate or advance riders.
“A lot of it is for 911 operators,” Hayden said. “If someone calls 911 and says they’re at City Lake bike trail and they’ve got a bone sticking out of their leg or something like that from a crash, then it’ll be harder to find them. This way, the response time should be much better because they can say what part of the trail they’re on and they can be found in a much smaller area.”
There will be five miles of dirt trails as well as a wooden bridge across Flint Creek. It’s part of a plan for major improvements to increase outdoor activity at City Lake.
Mountain biking has become a huge draw and is continuing to grow in Northwest Arkansas, so the city wants to be welcoming to riders. There’s already miles of soft-surface bike and walking trails around town and ongoing construction as part of the city’s master trail plan. The five-mile long Sager Creek Mountain Bike Trail has become a major attraction for riders and connects to the Dogwood Springs trail and the Cross Country trail around John Brown University’s campus.
The city is partnering with the nonprofit organization Ozark Off Road Cyclists on the trail’s construction and design to ensure it fits all skill levels. The multi-use trails also can be used by hikers, trail runners, bird watchers and dog walkers.
“We’re basically using the expertise of the Ozark Off Road Cyclists,” Hayden said. “They have a passion to get (the trails) open and have been a huge part of how we’ve been able to get this done so quickly.”
The trails are expected to officially open around Aug. 1 and the survey will be open through March 15, or longer, if necessary, to gather more ideas. Hayden said the city will continue to plug the survey on social media.
To check out the survey or submit name suggestions, visit www.surveymonkey.com/r/Siloambiketrails.