History of Appalachian Trail

[charliethruhike]

What are some good sources of information for the history of the Appalachian Trail?

[Cookerhiker]

I would start with this page from the Appalachian Trail Conservancy's website.

[Sarcasm the elf]

I would recommend reading "Walking with Spring" which is the story if Earl Schaffer's original thru hike ( the first person to ever thru hike the trail) and contains a good bit if historical info.

You may have heard of a book called "A Walk in the Woods" by Bill Bryson. A lot if people in this site hate it because it is an unrealistic and overdramatic account of hiking in the A.T., however it does include a good amount of well researched historical information regarding the construction of he trail. It's also well written and entertaining, but keep in mind that a lot of what he wrote about his actual hike is novelized fiction.

Beyond that, wikipedia has a lot of good info, read the entry for Appalachian Trail, as well as the pages for Benton MacKaye and Myron Avery.

[rickb]

I would start with this page from the Appalachian Trail Conservancy's website.

Great link. I also noticed they even had their own link to this rather cool PDF

http://www.appalachiantrail.org/docs...CFD2F2022D.pdf

[Odd Man Out]

The ATC also has a big thick (332 page) book on the AT history. I got it for Christmas.

https://www.atctrailstore.org/catalo...d=716&compid=1

[sore ankle]

Check out Rodale's fat two volumes of journals from early through hikers.

[eArThworm]

The ATC also has a big thick (332 page) book on the AT history. I got it for Christmas.

https://www.atctrailstore.org/catalo...d=716&compid=1

Yes, "The Appalachian Trail: Celebrating America’s Hiking Trail" by Brian King is an absolutely great book.
And another is "Walking the Appalachian Trail" by Larry Luxenberg: "A perennial hiker favorite, this book has
assumed a place alongside the famous 2-volume Rodale Press series, "Hiking the Appalachian Trail," as
must-read material. Larry's book contains excerpts from 200 interviews with hikers, many of whom still hike
and volunteer on the Appalachian Trail today."

[BackpackerGreg]

What are some good sources of information for the history of the Appalachian Trail?

I am getting my master's degree in adventure education, focusing on wilderness travel. Last semester I took a History of the A.T. course, and my course's final paper took the same title. In one form or another, I used about 85 sources. For that 20-page paper, I used nearly half of those sources. My three most cited sources were Larry Anderson's (2002) Benton MacKaye: Conservationist, Planner, and Creator of the Appalachian Trail, Brian King's (2012) The Appalachian Trail: Celebrating America's Hiking Trail, and Brian King's, et al., (2000) "Trail Years: A History of the Appalachian Trail Conference." Appalachian Trailway News. Between the latter two is a lot of overlap. Although the 2012 is more comprehensive, includes events that have transpired this century, and has some spectacular pictures (I purchased it), the 2000 is available for free on the ATC's Web site. Anderson's book is amazingly well-cited with many diary and memo inclusions from the Trail's early years, very interestingly accounting for MacKaye's entire life story, the second half of the book (as was the second half of his life) excludes the A.T.

[Wise Old Owl]

Sarcasm the elf nailed it I really enjoyed that book on Kindle! to the other suggestions I will certainly check it.