Appalachian Trail Celebrates 75 Years As The World’s—Yes, The World's—Quintessential Hike | National Parks Traveler

Appalachian Trail Celebrates 75 Years As The World’s—Yes, The World's—Quintessential Hike | National Parks Traveler



Today is the 75th anniversary of the world’s quintessential hike—the Appalachian National Scenic Trail.

Each spring nearly 2,000 people hoist unbelievably heavy packs and strain down a misty trail, intent on accomplishing the most difficult task of their lives: going the length of Eastern America’s Appalachian Mountains. This is a unit of the National Park Service—a footpath linking a tree-covered mountaintop in Georgia and a rock-capped summit in central Maine. The Appalachian Trail (AT) may have been the world’s first long-distance, organized recreational avenue to wilderness. Today there are many long-distance trails—but none equal the AT.

When first proposed in 1921 by regional planner Benton MacKaye, the idea for a Appalachian trail was labeled “an experiment in regional planning.” Actually, it was a lofty philosophical experiment, intended to dilute the hold that industrialism had on modern life. The AT would preserve the East’s wilderness while offering the laboring masses an uplifting escape from the manufacturing economy. The idea caught on dramatically. People recognized that the future of the logging-denuded and eroded Appalachians were at stake. And trail enthusiasts liked the idea of the path itself.

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