Goosecreek Valley, from the Blue Ridge 
 
 
Appalachian Scenic Footway 
 
                               By JEAN STEPHENSON 
 
 
A Tany highway crossing of the Blue 
   Ridge one is likely to see white 
board signs, reading "Appalachian Trail." 
These signs mark one of the greatest 
amateur recreational projects of the East, 
a mountain trail which stretches from 
Maine to Georgia. 
  It is not a motor way. Much of it is 
not even suitable for horses. It is a foot- 
path, a backbone trail, the first great pro- 
ject in a vast trail system which some 
day will lead to innumerable points of 
scenic interest and through vast wilder- 
ness or near-wilderness areas which are 
forever calling to those who derive enjoy- 
ment from walking or camping in the 
wild. 
 
IT WAS IN 1921 THAT BENTON MACKAYE 
of Shirley, Mass. pointed out in the Jour- 
nal of the American Institute of Architects 
that people of the eastern United States, 
living often in crowded cities and almost 
always under such urban conditions that 
they were deprived of the contact with 
nature that had meant so much to their 
forefathers, had at their back door a great 
wilderness area which could be utilized to 
give to the town dweller some opportunity 
for outdoor life. Taking his cue from the 
meaning of the Indian word "Appa- 
lachian," Endless, he proposed an Appa- 
lachian Trail, a footpath through the 
18 
 
 
mountains that for all practical purposes 
would be endless. 
  The idea was received with much en- 
thusiasm and a group around New York 
cut a small segment of trail which might 
be used as part of such a project. Interest 
then lagged until 1926, when Arthur 
Perkins, a retired lawyer of Hartford, 
Conn., revived it. He traveled up and 
down the seaboard states making contacts 
and planning where the trail might go. 
Among his associates was Myron H. 
Avery of Lubec, Maine, now an admiralty 
lawyer in Washington, D. C., who, in 
1927, organized the Potomac Appalachian 
Trail Club, and in the next few years 
various groups in Virginia. On Mr. 
Perkins' death, Mr. Avery became, in 
1931, chairman of the board of managers 
of the Appalachian Trail Conferefice, and 
under his supervision the trail has been 
put through to completion. The last link 
was cut on Sugarloaf Mountain in Maine 
in August, 1937. 
 
THS APPALACHIAN      TRAIL  STRETCHES 
from Mt. Katahdin in Maine to Mt. Ogle- 
thorpe in Georgia, a distance of 2,050 
miles. One-quarter of this mileage is in 
Virginia. 
  From Katahdin it crosses the central 
Maine wilderness, traverses the White 
Mountains, by way of the Long Trail of 
 
 
Vermont reaches Massachusetts where it 
winds among the Berkshire Hills to the 
wooded summits of western Connecticut, 
then extends on to New York and across 
the Hudson River on the Bear Mountain 
Bridge, through the high hills of northern 
New Jersey to the Delaware Water Gap, 
and along the crest of the Blue Mountains 
of eastern Pennsylvania. To the south of 
Harrisburg it crosses the Cumberland 
Valley to South Mountain, which it fol- 
lows through Pennsylvania and across 
Maryland, then goes up the historic tow- 
path for a few miles, over the Potomac 
River to Harper's Ferry, and across the 
beautiful Shenandoah to the Virginia 
shore. 
  Across Virginia the trail follows the 
crest of the Blue Ridge from Chimney 
Rock, opposite Harper's Ferry at the junc- 
tion of the Potomac and Shenandoah 
rivers, to just beyond Damascus, where 
it crosses into Tennessee. Along this 
stretch of 500 miles it leads to the sum- 
mits of high mountains, along cliffs, 
through spectacular forest growth, and 
over cleared, rounded knobs affording 
beautiful views in all directions. Side trails 
lead into somber mountain canyons or to 
picturesque "hollows," in some of which 
can still be found "mountain folk," always 
friendly to travelers on the trail. 
   For ninety-six miles the trail traverses 
            THE COMMONWEALTH 
 
 
ýamuert martin