Community — theregional.io

— Current project

The Lafayette-Moraga History Trail.

A nine-stop interpretive walking tour for the regional trail's fiftieth anniversary.

Ribbon cutting Saturday, October 10, 20269–11 AM · program at 10 AM
Where Jennifer Russell BuildingLafayette Community Center, 500 St. Mary's Rd
Partners East Bay Regional Park DistrictLafayette & Moraga historical societies, community foundations
Trail length 7½ milesLafayette to Moraga

— Upcoming · open to the public

Sat, Oct 10

Join community leaders, local history buffs, and neighbors to unveil the signs and celebrate fifty years of one of California's early rails-to-trails conversions. Light refreshments.

Explore the nine stops ↗

The Lafayette-Moraga Regional Trail opened in 1976 and turns fifty this year. To mark the milestone, the Lafayette-Moraga History Trail (LMHT) adds nine interpretive stops along the route. The corridor went from mule trains to an electric railroad to an abandoned rail line, and finally to the trail thousands of people in Lafayette and Moraga use today.

The project spent several years bringing that history out of the archives and onto the trail itself, in partnership with East Bay Regional Park District, local historical societies, and community partners. Each stop pairs archival photography with concise interpretive writing, sited where the history actually happened.

The ribbon cutting is Saturday, October 10. Visitors can preview the new panels before they go up along the trail. More information at lmhistorytrail.org ↗.

Five members of the Friends of the Lafayette-Moraga History Trail stand together on a sunny lawn beneath a large shade tree. — Friends of the Lafayette-Moraga History Trail

— Also part of the practice

Parks, history, and ongoing service.

01 / Service

Lafayette Parks, Trails, and Recreation Commission.

Appointed Parks Commissioner. The commission shapes how Lafayette stewards its parks, trails, and public spaces — including the segment of the regional trail that runs through town.

Current term

02 / Interactive history

A Sacramento Northern electric interurban train rounds a bend on the Shepherd Canyon corridor, mid-twentieth century. A vintage car shares the parallel road.

Courtesy Western Railway Museum Archives

Burton Valley History Project.

A brief history of the Shepherd Canyon Freeway.

An interactive StoryMap walking through the never-built freeway corridor — the proposed route that would have cut through the East Bay hills from Pleasant Hill down through Lafayette and Moraga. Pairs archival routing plans with the present-day neighborhood, showing what was almost paved over.

The story follows the corridor from its origin as a mid-century highway plan through the freeway-revolt era of the late 1960s that quietly killed the project.

Open the StoryMap ↗

The community work.

The Lafayette-Moraga History Trail.

Parks, history, and ongoing service.

Burton Valley History Project.

For civic and community inquiries.