TINA MARKOE/Courier-Post Helen Mahan, a National Park Service planner, and Bill Matulewicz, a Delanco resident, bike at Burlington City's riverfront promenade.

Thousands of years ago, ancient Lenni Lenape Indians blazed the first trails along the Delaware River, cutting paths through dense woods to link their scattered villages.

As the river grew and became industrialized over more recent centuries, these trails gave way to dirt paths, canals, railroads, bridges and ultimately urban highways like Route 130.

Now, the National Park Service hopes to chronicle this evolution in the river's history while spurring economic development in riverfront towns that have languished since the exodus of many of the river's industries in the 1960s and '70s.

The park service wants to complete a study to determine the feasibility of a 50-mile bicycling and walking trail around the Delaware River by the fall. The trail would link the river's historical sites, parks and natural assets.

"People all over want access to the river," said park service planner Helen Mahan from the Burlington City waterfront, a key link in the proposed trail. "There's a lot of grass-roots and public support for this."

Although the park service hasn't done formal local surveys, people are crowding the few places where there is access, such as Burlington City's waterfront, Mahan said.

As envisioned, the Delaware River Heritage Trail will follow both sides of the river between the Tacony-Palmyra Bridge in Burlington County and the Calhoun Street Bridge in Trenton. It will take in the small and picturesque river towns north of Philadelphia, including Palmyra, Riverton, Riverside, Delanco, Beverly and Burlington City. mentioning phila. towns isn't necessarily relevant here.

The park service says the trail could result in the conversion of neglected houses and buildings into bed and breakfast inns, restaurants, recreation equipment shops and lead corporations interested in good recreational opportunities for their employees to locate in riverfront communities.

In some parts of the nation, however, opponents concerned about property damage, liability, privacy and loss of property rights have taken trail planners to court, physically blocked trails and even burned railroad trestles where trails where planned.

So far, 13 of 17 municipalities in the park service study area on both sides of the Delaware support the concept and have named representatives to an advisory council. The park service is discussing the idea with officials in Bordentown City and Mansfield, hoping those municipalities come aboard.

Bordentown Township and tiny Fieldsboro, however, want nothing to do with the trail. Local officials in these towns fear the park service is trying to gain control of their residents' land.

Bordentown Township Administrator John Mason says his township is trying to protect owners of homes along the river from "condemnation" of their properties. He said most property owners aren't even aware of the proposal.

The township is also concerned about safety, since it would have to follow an active rail line.

"The trail makes sense in a lot of communities, but not in every community...and we don't think it makes sense here," Mason said.

Mahan said there are no plans to condemn any properties. The park service only wants willing partners, but it's not necessary to have the municipalities' blessing.

Mahan is working with Burlington County officials to route the trail through Bordentown Township and Fieldsboro along county-owned roads and land. The park service also expects to negotiate with private landowners despite the lack of municipal support.

"Preferably we'd have everybody along with this," Mahan said. "If they don't, there's way too much support for this to stop the project.

Suzanne Day supports the project...to a point. She helps run the Taylor Family farm in Cinnaminson, the last farm on the river between Camden and Trenton. In 1975, the family set aside an 89-acre tract of woods and wetlands on their property as a nature preserve that gets about 1,000 visitors annually.

Although the family won't allow a paved trail through the property, it hopes the park service trail will come close enough to allow people to visit the preserve.

"People who live in the suburbs and urban environments need to get out in nature, to get out under the trees," said Day.

The trail's exact cost is not known, but it will certainly take several million dollars to set it up, Mahan said. It will be established with federal and state transportation money, she said.

More than just being a place to spend a Sunday afternoon or work off excess winter flab, the trail is seen as an economic magnet.

A park service study found that downtown Dunedin, Fla., for example, was suffering a 35 percent storefront vacancy rate in the early 1990s until an abandoned railroad track became the Pinellas Trail. Now, store occupancy is nearly 100 percent.

And it took 17 years to establish the Minuteman Trail outside Boston. But the same federal study found that the trail has been good to business: A bicycle repair and supply shop served 1,800 people on a beautiful Saturday, an ice cream shop reported serving 200 more customers a week, and a Gap clothing store claimed a 30 percent increase in business.

Bill Mantulewicz of Delanco is an avid bicyclist who serves on the advisory committee for the Delaware River trail. He believes a trail will help revitalize riverfront communities.

As Mantulewicz sees it, the trail will open up places such as Burlington City, a Colonial-era marketplace, to tourists who otherwise might not come to this under-visited city of quaint buildings and shops. The hope is to erect signs about historical events along the river.

"We have more than 300 years of history here," Mantulewicz said. "Let's showcase it."