Appalachian Trail Turns 75

The 2,180-mile Appalachian Trail marks its 75^th anniversary today.  The trail stretches across 14 states from Springer, Georgia to Katahdin, Maine.  It took 15 years for hundreds of volunteers, state and federal partners, trail maintenance clubs and young workers with the New Deal-era Civilian Conservation Corps to build the original path. In the decades since, nearly 99 percent has been relocated or rebuilt, and transferred from private to public ownership.  That means the trail and some 250,000 contiguous acres are better protected than ever from development and suburban sprawl.  Today’s trail features more scenic vistas than the original route, too, including Roan Mountain, Tenn.; the Mount Rogers High Country and Grayson Highlands in Virginia; the Pochuck Creek swamp in New Jersey and Thundering Falls in Vermont.  The idea for the trail was born in a 1921 article in the Journal of the American Institute of Architects.   As many as 3 million people a year now visit some part of the trail to reconnect with nature and slow down.  About 2,000-3,000 people each summer attempt a “thru-hike,” or journey along the entire length.  Only one in four will succeed.  The trail is part of the National Park System.