RUMFORD — An all-access looped trail designed specifically for wheelchairs, strollers and people using walkers and crutches is getting ready to open to the public for the first time in Rumford Community Forest.

A grand opening will be held Saturday, Sept. 20, at the 446-acre forest at 161 Isthmus Road.

Secured in partnership by Trust for Public Land, the town, Inland Woods + Trails, and the Northern Forest Center, the project stemmed from the community’s desire to boost its economic vitality, strengthen their outdoor recreation assets, and protect a valuable tract of natural land close to town.

Funding comes from the State of Maine’s Land for Maine’s Future and the U.S. Forest Service Community Forest and Open Space Program. Funders who made the construction of the All-Persons Trail possible were the Maine Outdoor Heritage Fund, Friends of the River Valley, and Two for the Trails.

With plans for two new parking areas close to town and connections to regional trail networks — including the Black Mountain trail network and Pennacook Area Community Trails at Mountain Valley High School — the land also will be maintained and improved for a wide variety of outdoor recreation uses, including hiking, biking, skiing, snowshoeing, hunting, fishing and motorized uses on designated trails.

Inland Woods + Trails said officials will begin arriving at noon for the grand opening ceremony, with remarks beginning at 12:30 p.m. followed by a guided trail walk at 2 p.m. An optional volunteer trail work session will be held at 9 a.m.

The scheduled speakers are Gov. Janet Mills, Town Manager George O’Keefe, Planning Board Chairman Travis Palmer and Select Board Chairman Chris Brennick, as well as Gabe Perkins, executive director of Inland Woods + Trails, and Betsy Cook, Maine state director for Trust for Public Land.

The all access looped trail was completed in August. Called the All-Persons or Universal Trail, it goes past an area where a stream runs from Scotty Brook in a gorge that runs along the trail.

The project marks a significant change in course, conserving land that was formerly permitted for 257 residential and condominium lots. This intense and infrastructure-heavy development of a high value rural area would have significantly impacted the adjoining Black Mountain viewshed, local water supplies, wildlife habitat, and would have intensified future flood events in Rumford and Mexico.

Karla Leandri Rider, development and communications coordinator with Inland Woods + Trails, said that during the fall of 2024, staff scouted the Scotty Brook area and mapped out a nearly half-mile All-Persons Trail as well as a proposed hiking trail, based on the recreation plan put together by the Outdoor Sports Institute.