BELLAIRE — The Great Stone Viaduct has come a long way in recent years, thanks to the efforts of a local group working to preserve the distinct landmark and repurpose it as a destination for visitors — work has recently earned state recognition.

On Tuesday, members of the Great Stone Viaduct Historical Education Society attended the Ohio Appalachian Heritage Luncheon in Columbus, where they were recognized as a “Success Story” and given certificates from the Ohio House of Representatives and Senate.

Ed Mowrer, member of the Great Stone Viaduct Historical Education Society, spoke prior to the event.

“We’ll be recognized for our project, among others around the state,” he said. “It’s kind of exciting. There’s been a lot of good recognition since we finished the Phase 1 of our project last year.”

He added there were a total of eight projects recognized from across the state.

In October 2022, the society unveiled the culmination of 10 years of work, renovating the 151-year-old viaduct as a walking trail and plaza. It boasts an overlook hanging over the arches, and spans half a mile with a bike trail as well.

Last year, the society received the 2022 Mattox Award from the Belmont County Tourism Council for a significant and long-term contribution to the county.

“We’ve been recognized several times,” Mowrer said. “We’ll showcase a little bit about our project at that luncheon.”

Mowrer said word has been getting out, generating more traffic and tourism for Belmont County.

“We’ve been amazed the amount of visitors that we get. Several from the Columbus area, New Jersey, they hear about it on Facebook and drive down to see the project. Back in the end of September we lit part of the bridge, so the north façade of the bridge is lit and that’s drummed up a lot of people coming in to look at the bridge at night,” he said. “A lot of people have been stopping by, and groups, and there’s been a lot of interest both from the local community and statewide, different people coming to look at it — bridge enthusiasts, historical people, railroad enthusiasts.”

Mowrer said members will look at more projects after the first of the year. Meanwhile, they are continuing outreach efforts.

“One thing that’s really pleasing is the involvement of our high school students. I did a presentation just this past Tuesday … down at Shadyside High School at one of their environmental science classes, and their students are going to help us with some of the projects on the bridge. We have some environmental Brownfield site concerns we have to look at, and they’re going to help out as a class project, so that’s really nice,” he said. “All kinds of people are coming to us and saying: ‘What can we do to help?’ We still have lots of work to do. There’s the area to the north of the viaduct, we call it that triangle area that goes up to 32nd Street that still needs to be developed and environmentally cleaned up.

“A lot has been happening. This year has kind of been bringing together all these different things that we’ve been working on, and it’s really nice to see the involvement from the community, both local and across the state,” Mowrer said. “I’ve been giving presentations. I gave a presentation back in October at the Ohio Transportation Engineering conference. There was 4,200 people.

“I spoke to about 120 people about our overall project about restoring a historic structure, and in February I’ll be going up to a park conference in Sandusky, talking to them about our project and what we’ve done. That’s at the Ohio Parks and Recreation Association.”

He said this award will also make future grants more likely.

“We’ve submitted for a couple grants, one is the Ohio Capital Bill. They’ve supported us in the past, so we’re going to try to go after some additional funding,” he said. “Belomar over in Wheeling have helped us quite a bit with some environmental studies and project design, so there’s just an incredible amount of people helping with these projects, which we really appreciate.”

He expressed thanks for the Ohio Department of Transportation grant completed last year that made the construction of the plaza possible.

“That was a $2 million project from the Ohio Department of Transportation that really got this project moving,” he said.

Belmont County Tourism Director Jackee Pugh said the walking trail is a feather in the area’s cap.

“I nominated them for this award,” she said. “I am absolutely thrilled to have an organization from Belmont County recognized for the work that they’re doing here in Appalachia, and the Great Stone Viaduct is an amazing example. The historical education society has put in so much effort and so much time to preserve the viaduct. The fact that they’re being recognized at the state level for the hard work they’ve done is just fantastic.”

She said her department has received positive input from many tourists.

“They have people there all the time. One of the things the society is looking at doing is actually putting a ‘people counter’ in, to be able to track as many people are coming to it. I think that’s a great way. We have one of our geocaches hidden there, and we’ve got lots of wonderful comments from people about how neat the structure is and how glad they are that our geotour took them to that location.”

More information can be found at the website greatstoneviaduct.org.