Remembering Frank Schier – founder of Rock River Trail

Frank Schier (1954-2017) founded the Rock River Trail in 2010. Frank was an adventurer, writer, poet, entrepreneur and instigator…and without his vision, talents and tenacity, the Rock River Trail would not exist. On this day that we lost him from cancer, Jan 17, 2017, we share some of his words from his unfinished book about the river he loved…“River Of Hearts”.

Frank wrote in 2010: “I feel the Rock River watershed as a true, many-limbed body of water – immensely alive with past, present and future. Heart and mind can meet like rock and water for a challenging and wondrous result. Join me. New myths must be.”

River of Hearts Excerpt:
“The Rock River grows on the map like a tree, backwards yet forward, from its thin northern branches and burl-like lakes, acting as roots, coursing to the southern main truck, hanging off the Mississippi’s eastern, cliff-like face.

The sap-waters flow down, rather than up, the Rock-tree to give more moving ground to the nation’s dividing line.

As the Big River divines the nation’s many parts, so flows the Rock on a smaller, more secret scale, kept from you, the reader, the potential unknown traveler, by the depths of the many hitherto-silent hearts welcome your exploration of their life-blood, swirling so coldly, thinly and with cursory word on a map where so much more rushed in personal-vocal-not-so-distant-heat.

Come, listen, bring your soul and senses, and have your heart take this time-journey offered by this paper canoe down our mystical little River of Hearts. “

~~~~ Frank’s living legacy is the Rock River Trail, and all the work he did along the 320 miles of the trail. Please think of him when you see an oak tree growing along the Rock River, or watch a butterfly fluttering among the milkweeds.
If you are so inclined to make a donation in Frank’s memory, please click on this link: https://rockrivertrail.com/donatesupport/