HORTONVILLE — For Hortonville High School cross-country runner Silas Hutchinson, the inspiration to take on one of the most ambitious Eagle Scout projects in recent Outagamie County memory came during a sudden downpour.
“What originally gave me the idea was a practice where we all met at the trail, and it was overcast and started to rain,” Hutchinson recalled. “We had our backpacks and all our school gear, and everyone was scrambling like, ‘Open up the car! We need to get our stuff in so it doesn’t get wet!’ I thought about how nice it would have been if we had something to stand under.”
On Saturday morning, that vision became a permanent community landmark as Outagamie County officials, local leaders, family members, and volunteers gathered at the Wiouwash State Trailhead off Lakeview Avenue to cut the ribbon on a brand-new 16-by-24-foot timber-frame pavilion.
What is the Wiouwash State Trail?
A rail trail named for four counties
The Wiouwash State Trail gets its unique name from the four Wisconsin counties it was chartered to connect: Winnebago, Outagamie, Waupaca and Shawano.
Built along the abandoned rail corridor of the former Chicago & North Western Railway, the crushed-limestone recreation trail is widely used year-round by runners, cyclists, walkers, equestrians, and winter snowmobilers.
Two segments and the ‘missing link’
While the long-term vision has always been a continuous 60-plus-mile corridor linking Lake Winnebago directly to the Northwoods, the trail currently exists in two separate, non-connected segments separated by a roughly 15- to 20-mile gap:
• Southern Segment (22 miles): Extends from downtown Oshkosh north through Winneconne, Larsen and Medina, before terminating at the Lakeview Avenue trailhead in Hortonville near Black Otter Lake.
• Northern Segment (19 miles): Runs through Shawano and northeastern Waupaca counties, connecting Aniwa and Birnamwood south through Eland (where it intersects the Mountain-Bay State Trail), Wittenberg, Tigerton, Split Rock and Marion.
A future connection between Hortonville and Marion—navigating through the New London and Bear Creek areas—remains part of regional trail master planning, but right-of-way acquisitions and private property boundaries keep the segments divided.
Because the southern branch currently dead-ends in Hortonville, the new timber pavilion constructed by Eagle Scout Silas Hutchinson serves as a true gateway and resting hub for travelers reaching the end of the line.
From open grass to permanent shelter
Hutchinson, an 18-year-old member of Greenville Troop 77 who began his scouting journey more than a decade ago as a Tiger Scout in his family garage, led the effort from initial blueprints through final construction.
The site where the pavilion now stands was previously an empty circle of turf.
“There was nothing here. It was just a patch of grass,” said Outagamie County Parks Director Justin Schumacher. “Silas approached me about a year and a half ago. He’s a big trail user for cross-country and came to me with two or three ideas. What I appreciated was that he didn’t come to me with a bunch of problems; he came saying, ‘I noticed these deficiencies, and these are ways I think I can help.’”
Schumacher, an Eagle Scout himself who built park benches in Ellington for his own milestone badge years ago, noted that Hutchinson navigated town zoning hurdles—working through the Town of Hortonia and Village of Hortonville—before lining up engineering schematics and fundraising. Former troop member and structural engineer Alan Theobald helped develop blueprints.
A community-wide build
The county poured the concrete foundation slab last fall. Then, from late July through late August, Hutchinson coordinated a crew of 15 volunteers—including his father, uncle Bill, and fellow Troop 77 scouts—logging roughly 350 combined service hours, including 75 hours of hands-on framing and roofing. Hutchinson personally logged 120 hours between planning, coordination, and building.
“I thought originally that it would take a week,” Hutchinson said with a grin. “We got all the posts set and I thought, ‘Man, this is going to take not even a week.’ A month later, I was still building this thing!”
The total value of the project came in between $10,000 and $15,000 in materials, concrete, and volunteer labor. Miron Construction provided a pivotal $5,000 donation to purchase lumber and building supplies, while Outagamie County donated the concrete pad, two interior benches, and surrounding landscaping.
Praise from county leadership
Outagamie County Executive Tom Nelson commended Hutchinson and his support network during Saturday’s dedication, calling the pavilion an extraordinary addition to the county’s recreational footprint.
“I have done a lot of scouting events and a lot of Eagle Scout Courts of Honor, but this is at the top for the level of commitment to a project that I’ve ever seen,” Nelson told the crowd. “This is not just checking a box. This is an impressive, permanent structure. It takes the vision and hard work of one scout, but it also takes the entire troop, pack, and family support.”
Trail users didn’t even wait for Saturday’s ceremonial ribbon cutting to start enjoying the space.
“While we were hammering on the building this summer, people coming off the trail would come right under and sit down,” Hutchinson said. “Seeing people use it every day—whether shielding themselves from the sun, resting after a long bike ride, or waiting out the rain—is the most rewarding part. My goal was to build something lasting that I can bring my own family back to see years from now.”
With his Eagle paperwork complete and his final cross-country season wrapped up, Hutchinson plans to attend UW-Madison next fall to study marketing and sales.
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