The rail line was surveyed in the late 1870s between Red Wing and Waterville though construction did not begin until 1882 by the Central Railway Company of Minnesota under the management of A.

Stickney was head of the Minnesota & Northwestern Railroad which would later become the Chicago Great Western Railway in 1891.

By 1889, the line had been renamed Wisconsin, Minnesota & Pacific and was under the trusteeship of the Rock Island railroad.

The C&NW operated the line for a few years after the CGW merger, but abandoned it in the early 1970s.

The trail was built as a joint effort of the cities of Northfield and Dundas in 1998.