The Raccoon River Valley Trail (RRVT) uses the former right-of-way of a railroad built in the late-19th century to connect the city of Des Moines with the Iowa Great Lakes region in the northwest part of the state. The first rail company was the Des Moines Western Railroad Company, which became part of the Wabash, St. Louis, & Pacific Railroad.  The line opened in 1881 as a narrow-gauge railroad but a decade later, the Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul & Pacific Railroad, usually referred to as the "Milwaukee Road," had taken it over and widened it to the standard gauge.

For more than 50 years, it was a popular rail line, taking many vacationers from central Iowa right to the shores of Storm Lake, the Okobojis, and Big Spirit Lake  By 1952, however, when the easy availability of automobiles had changed the public's preference in traveling, passenger service on the Milwaukee Road was discontinued.  The line continued to be used for freight trains for another 35 years but by the middle of the 1980s, all rail service was discontinued and the Central Iowa Power Cooperative (CIECO) purchased the right-of-way in 1987.

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CEICO, the Iowa Trails Council, and the Conservation Boards of Dallas and Guthrie counties came to an agreement later that year to allow the development of a multi-use trail on the right-of-way.  Initially, the idea was that the power company could reclaim the route for development of a new railroad should a need develop for a new power plants to be built along the right-of-way in west-central Iowa.

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No such need ever developed and in 2001, the Iowa Natural Heritage Foundation helped the counties, which now included Greene County, complete the purchase of the right of way from CIECO with money from an Iowa Trails grant form the Department of Transportation.  The Iowa Natural Heritage Foundation, which is a nonprofit group based in Des Moines but operates statewide, has been an instrumental partner in the RRVT expansions over the past three decades.

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The trail received its name from the branches of the Raccoon River that frequently appear alongside the trail or under its bridges.  Work on developing the trail commenced in 1987 and the first section of the RRVT opened in 1989.  By 1990, the 34-mile route from Waukee to Yale was completed.  A 12-mile addition from Jefferson to Herndon was completed in 1997 with Greene County Conservation joining the consortium owning and operating the trail.

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Other trails in Iowa were being developed at the same time but the RRVT was unique as it was a paved trail, unlike most other trails in Iowa, which were crushed limestone.  

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In 1999, a 5-mile extension was completed east from Waukee to connect with the Green Belt Trail in the Des Moines suburb of Clive, which in turn connects to the many other trails in the metro area.  In that same year, another 5 miles of trail was finished, connection Herndon to Yale.

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In 2007, the former railroad right-of-way, now called the "North Loop," was purchased from the Union Pacific (UP) Railroad.  Six years later, this portion of the trail was completed, making the RRVT an expansive and seamless trail loop, 89-miles in length with the distinction of being the longest paved, loop trail in the United States.

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In 2015, the Iowa Department of Cultural Affairs designated the RRVT as one of Iowa's "Great Places."  Iowa Great Places are designated to support new and existing infrastructure that cultivates unique and authentic qualities of neighborhoods, communities, and regions in Iowa.

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A national honor was afforded the RRVT in 2021 when it became the 35th trail in the United States to be elected a Hall of Fame trail in the nation-wide vote conducted by the Rails to Trails Conservancy.  The Rail-Trail Hall of Fame inductee is selected annually during a pubic vote.  Hall of Fame trails are an elite group recognized for outstanding scenic value, high use, trailside amenities, community connections, geographic distribution, and community value.