As the owner, with son Jay, of Egolf Motors in Brevard, Jeff Egolf exemplifies the sentiments of community support expressed by many of the Ecusta Trail sponsors and donors. These individuals and their businesses are similar to Jeff and Jay in that the primary reason for their financial support of the Ecusta Trail is simply that the Trail will benefit their community. Like Jeff, they believe that the Trail will enhance the quality of life in the community, and that being fortunate to be part of a giving community they want to give back to that community.

Jeff takes that basic tenet of involvement one step further by being an ambassador for the Ecusta Trail, encouraging other acquaintances and business leaders to similarly appreciate their municipalities and the people in them. At one point in his more than 50 years of entrenchment in the Hendersonville and Brevard communities, he was the Chair of the Hendersonville Chamber of Commerce as well as the Community Foundation of Henderson County. Now, his son Jay is following in that community involvement by being on the Henderson County School Board. Both Jay’s wife Jen and Jeff’s wife Jan are similarly involved in the community, although Jeff says Jan’s primary job is to keep him in line.
 
Jeff’s acquaintance with the idea of rails-to-trails goes quite a way back in his life’s story. Jeff grew up in Aurora, Illinois, where his father owned a car dealership. His grandfather was a General Manager for the Chicago, Aurora & Elgin, a commuter railroad. Jeff remembers riding the CA&E to Chicago in the 1950s. So he was very interested when those rail lines eventually became the Illinois Prairie Path*, a truly successful rails-to-trails conversion. Jeff has visited the trail and finds the history fascinating, thus developing an appreciation for how an abandoned rail line can be utilized for a different form of transportation. 
 
Eventually Jeff’s dad sold the business and made an attempt at retirement, about the time Jeff had graduated from Indiana University and soon after joined the Navy. However, his dad realized very quickly that he wanted to get back into the business. So when Jeff and wife Jan (at one time Office Manager who handled all the business financials) moved his family to Hendersonville, the dealership he and his Dad established was first located on south Main St., near where the Trail terminus will be. Prior to the abandonment of rail traffic, Jeff recalls riding an excursion train to Brevard, so now the conversion of that line to the Ecusta Trail again brings Jeff connective rail line memories.  
 
Today, with the family’s auto business consolidated in Brevard (again near, albeit at two miles a bit further away from, the western end of the Trail), and with continuing business and community interests in both Hendersonville and Brevard, Jeff is very cognizant of the many varied connections of the two towns and counties, and is confident that the Ecusta Trail will benefit their citizens. So Jeff’s life is one of connections with both ends of the Ecusta, so truly a Trail of Two Cities. 
 
*Note: The Illinois Prairie Path was the first successful rail-to-trails conversion in North America, having been founded in 1963.  This multi-use nature trail now spans 61 miles.  The CA&E was an electric line which carried commuters and freight between Chicago and its western suburbs as far as the Fox River. It suspended commuter operations in 1957 and freight in 1959, and the right-of-way was abandoned in 1961. For more information please see www.ipp.org.

By Cindy Ruzak