Building trails and communities

A conversation with Warsaw, Missouri’s Mac Vorce

By Peter Hoecker

Mac Vorce is the Director of Parks and Recreation, owner of the local bike shop and master trail builder in Warsaw, Missouri. Since 2007 he has worked tirelessly to get nearly 20 miles of trails built in his small town. Since building the trails, Mac has seen Warsaw embrace not just mountain biking, but road and cyclocross, paddling and trail running. Mac’s approach is unique: he convinced the city government to allow community restitution to be fulfilled by building trails. In the process of providing this small Midwest community with top-notch trails, Mac has transformed people’s bad decisions into an opportunity to take ownership and pride in their parks. What’s more, the opportunities for recreation are helping to renew the local economy. What follows is an inspiring story of advocacy, community development and second chances.

How would you describe Warsaw, Missouri?

It’s quant, historic, small-town, USA. There are 2,070 people in the city limits and 10,000 in the county. We’re an hour and a half drive southeast of Kansas City and north of Springfield, MO. Warsaw is a few miles east of Truman Lake, a reservoir created by the Harry S. Truman Dam. Truman Reservoir is basically the headwaters of the Lake of the Ozarks and is the largest reservoir in the area. Hunting and fishing is what the whole town has known for decades. When the dam went in they thought they could watch the tourists flock here. I guess you could say Warsaw is a small town that never grew. The dam hasn’t been as attractive to tourists as they thought. The main tourist draw in town was mostly just hunting, fishing and antiques.

How did the development of the Warsaw trail system happen?

I actually opened a bar when I first moved to Warsaw. I started poking around and seeing what the terrain was like. I went to the Army Corps of Engineers and asked if I could build a short trail on some unused land near the dam. The area was littered with trash, so I asked these cats if I could clean it up. At that time the only unpaved trails in Warsaw were for equestrian use only. I took an amazing amount of dumpsters of trash out of the place. I got permission to build a half-mile trail by myself, just so I could start doing loops and stuff. Because Warsaw is such a small town, Parks and Rec heard I was doing some mountain biking and asked if I wanted to do a class. I put on an 8-week class with three or four guys. One was local judge Larry Burditt. Another was a schoolteacher and road rider, well known locally as Warsaw’s main cyclist. He’d never been mountain biking and came to check it out. After the class, this small group continued to ride and build the trail. At some point Judge Burditt said, “We should be using some of the guys in the orange suits to help us out.”

How did you use community service and volunteer labor to build the trails?

First, we got one small group of inmates; we even went over to the jailhouse to get them. When we got on the trails with them we decided that wasn’t a good avenue for us. Judge Burditt talked to the City Council to get community service workers out to help. I went and flagged the trail and then a crew followed to clean it up. In 2009 I was hired on as director, but I had been working as a partner with the Army Corps of Engineers since 2007. Eventually the city was able to lease the land from the Corps. This made things a lot easier because everything could go through Parks and Rec.

How receptive has the community been to the new trails and mountain biking in general?

Initially, I think people were just trying to appease me, but then I started going to the city meetings. I started to become a part of the community. My first day on the job as director of Parks and Rec was a park board meeting. The Park Board jumped on the idea of trail building. Warsaw was able to get a lot of stimulus money for trail system development. It has really been one big snowballing effect over the last four years. Randy Pouge, the city planner, has been as aggressive as I have been with the mountain biking. Right now we’re 10 years ahead of schedule for trails in the city master plan.

How have the trails impacted the lives of the people building them?

Some people who otherwise couldn’t have finished their community service did it because it was a better option than going to jail. For example, I had a guy that was about a week away from going to jail because he hadn’t completed his community service. I arranged for his family to be able to help him and count their hours towards his sentence. They came out and finished his hours in three days of trail work. Afterwards, they bought mountain bikes. It changed that guy; his family was proud of him. He’s part of something bigger now. Building trails is not belittling. It’s not like other forms of community service. It gives participants something they can be proud of—proud of their work, and of helping their community. By the end of their 40, 60, 100 hours they can’t believe we’re going to come through here and ride our bikes as fast as we can—or as slow as we can to see everything.

How have these trails impacted the community?

We have a town that has embraced cycling. Groups of riders are just starting to form, building up a volunteer force. We couldn’t have done it without community service volunteers because there are only six or seven core builders and 20 miles of trail. People are seeing cyclists everywhere. I recently had a meeting with the state park representative from Truman State Park. They have 1,400 acres and want include mountain bike trails. There is a marina at the far end of the park with places for RV’s and primitive camping. The marina has lost some popularity because of a decrease in fishing, but now they’re getting people stopping by in the fall months while mountain biking and they’re seeing the benefits.

What events do the trails host?

I’m planning to have eight or nine races a year on these trails. We’re having trail running races this summer and a three-race cyclocross series this winter. Mountain bike racing is bringing paddlers in as well; we hosted the Truman Lake Adventure Race on April 16. The Missouri Singlespeed State Championship Race will be held here in August.

How would you describe the riding in Warsaw?

The bike park sits right up on the side of the dam; one side has beautiful views of Truman Lake. Lots of tight, windy singletrack, some areas are pretty rocky. It’s super sweet flowy, wavy singletrack. We have very rolling hills—you’re either going up or down. We have areas that remind me of Flagstaff, areas that remind me of Big Bear, the dirt changes so much. Right now we have several different loops for different skill levels. The beginner loop, “Larry’s Groove Train” is a very easy 1.5 miles. That one might be more downhill than uphill. Our 7-mile loop, called “Hard Work,” has lots of steep stuff. Every single super rocky technical thing we have is on that loop; you’re going up the nasties. The biggest, and ever-growing yellow loop, “Come and Get Some,” is on the perimeter and connects all of the trails together. It’s 19-20 miles total. Because it’s a reservoir, sometimes you’re riding right alongside the water and other times it’ll be a quarter mile away.

How could other cities learn from Warsaw?

The main thing I’ve learned is volunteer forces can dry up, but if you work with the right groups of people you can accomplish something big, sometimes without having to pay for it. We got a kick-ass mountain bike park out of it.

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This article originally appeared in Issue #157. You can purchase a copy of this issue in our online store or please consider purchasing a subscription to help keep this great content rolling your way.