Historically, the Union Pacific Railroad ran through the upland portion of the Property. In the 1980s, after railroad use was discontinued, the tracks fell down the riverbank due to extreme erosion. Erosion continued to threaten Highway 75, and in an effort to protect the bank and the highway, car bodies and railroad cars were placed next to and in the river. Sun Valley Partners, the developers of the adjacent Rainbow Bend Subdivision, donated the parcel to The Nature Conservancy in 1995 who then transferred it to the Wood River Land Trust in 1997. In 1988, Friends of the Big Wood River, a local volunteer group, restored the west back to a more gradual slope, installed bank stabilization structures, and planted riparian vegetation.