Stewards of a National Treasure: 100 Years of the Appalachian Trail Conservancy

A Footpath through the Woods

Pioneering naturalist and environmental philosopher Benton MacKaye was a visionary. But don’t worry if his name is unfamiliar. You are, of course, familiar with the pinnacle of his life's work: the Appalachian Trail. Benton honed this vision for years before outlining it in his 1921 article, "An Appalachian Trail: A Project in Regional Planning.” That article was a rallying call to action for individual trail groups from Georgia to Maine to partner with the emerging Appalachian Trail Conference (now Conservancy) to make a more connected through-trail. The purpose of the trail was motivated by his desire to preserve land for recreation and conservation while balancing human needs and those of nature. The result of which makes the A.T. so special to this day. 

“Benton was a purist,” shared Hawk, “so in the abstract, his vision was a simple concept for people to get behind: a footpath through the woods.” However pure the intentions, the project would be fraught with complexity, not just in building it but in sustaining it.

In a 1925 meeting, to minimize potential governance issues, the collected groups created the ATC to guide the collaborative project and steward the trail from then on. The trail came to life, “linked by landscape and individual efforts, one piece at a time.”

A Trail of Bruised Egos

For the 12 years following that fortuitous 1925 meeting, Benton’s notoriously bold and polarizing partner, Myron Avery, applied his hard-driven, can-do attitude to make the shared vision of a “footpath through the woods” a reality.

Although they had differing approaches to designing and laying out the trail, Appalachian Trail aficionados and history buffs will often refer to Benton and Myron together: the visionary and the doer, form and function. With Benton’s pencil sketches, Myron hit the road. “While Myron put a trail on the grounds, he left behind a trail of bruised egos,” shared Hawk, but it was Myron’s dedication and fortitude that drove the laborious process. With handsaws, loppers, and white paint for blazing, Myron and his volunteers and laborers created new trails to connect existing ones, building out the nearly 2,200 miles people walk today. 

One hundred years later, the ATC continues to steward the collective maintenance and sustainability of the trail. Thanks to all those involved in its stewardship, from here in Hanover, New Hampshire to Springer Mountain in Georgia, millions of people from across the globe continue to experience its magic. 

Morgan Swan, one of the exhibition co-curators, shared his view on this momentous collaboration. “One of the strengths of Dartmouth Libraries special collections is the way in which our holdings overlap with and are informed by important historical events, places, and people. The Dartmouth Outing Club’s long-standing partnership with the Appalachian Trail Conservancy is a great example of that intertwining, as is Rauner’s stewardship of the MacKaye Family papers. The opportunity to draw from both archival and manuscript collections to celebrate a national treasure is rare; it made curating this exhibit a delight.”