Great Northern merged with Northern Pacific Railway, which formed Burlington Northern Railroad. Burlington Northern sold the line to Dakota Rail in 1985, when it operated both freight and dinner trains. In 1995, RailAmerica purchased the Dakota Rail. The last train left Hutchinson in 2001, when the line was abandoned. It was bought up by Hennepin County Regional Railroad Authority, Carver County and McLeod County.
Despite being more than a decade since the rail line was officially abandoned, there are still remnants of the Hutchinson Subdivision including an engine house in Spring Park, various trestles, a rail spur in Mound, a rail spur at a scrapyard in Hutchinson, and a dead-end track from the Wayzata Subdivision jutting to the west and ending at the beginning of the Dakota Rail Trail.
The state-designated Dakota Rail Trail currently ends at Lester Prairie. The former Dakota Rail roadbed continues toward Hutchinson as a snowmobile trail funded by the MN Department of Natural Resources through the Snowmobile Grant-In-Aid program.
The Cache
The cache is a camouflaged beach tube hanging by a wire in a tree. The tube contains a log, a pencil with an add-on eraser, a sharpener and one handmade polymer-clay gummybear. The sharpener is not for trade. Please leave it in the cache for future use.
In winter, the trail is used extensively by snowmobilers. Be watchful for snowmobile (snow machine) traffic as it can exceed 60 mph.
NOTE: This cache may not be SUMMER friendly. No maintenance, including weed control, is performed during summer months.
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