The Appalachian National Scenic Trail, designated a linear National Park by the 1968 National Trails System Act, is a continuous marked public footpath extending approximately 2,144 miles from Mount Katahdin, Maine, to Springer Mountain, Georgia, along the Appalachian Mountain range. It follows the scenic ridges of the White, Green, Berkshire, Ramapo, Kittatinny, Blue Ridge, Great Smoky, and Nantahala Mountains to maintain a wilderness character, and most of its route is protected by federal or state land ownership. The trail environment is maintained for public hiking and enjoyment while conserving its natural, scenic, historical, and cultural resources. In 1920, Major William A. Welch created the first Harriman State Park trail map, showing routes of old roads in the Highland and Ramapo Mountains, and hiking clubs used it to lay out new routes, including Palisades Interstate Park Commission sections of the Appalachian Trail. Diamond-shaped metal markers bearing the trail logo originally guided hikers, using Major Welch’s design with the A.T. monogram, while white blazes on trees, posts, and rocks marked the trail, double blazes warned of turns or junctions, and blue blazes marked side trails to shelters, water supplies, or viewpoints. The Appalachian Trail Conservancy, established in 1923 as a federation of outdoor clubs and individuals to create a walkers’ path from Maine to Georgia, is a nonprofit educational organization whose clubs and volunteers maintain and protect the trail in partnership with the National Park Service, the U.S. Forest Service, and state and local communities.
