The Inkpaduta Canoe Trail is a regional water trail originally organized and developed by local County Conservation Boards in the early 1980s. This initiative represents the earliest known organized water trail effort in the state, predating Iowa's official Water Trails Program by decades. The county partners are now collaborating with the Iowa Department of Natural Resources (DNR) to plan and officially designate the Inkpaduta Canoe Trail as Iowa’s newest State Water Trail.