The two thousand one hundred ninety mile Appalachian Trail grew from Benton MacKaye’s early nineteen twenties vision of a footpath along the Appalachian mountain range and, in north Georgia, was shaped by road building through Neel Gap, scouting by Roy Ozmer, route planning by Everett Stone and Charlie Elliott, and the organizing work of the Appalachian Trail Conference and the Georgia Appalachian Trail Club. In nineteen thirty, the Georgia route from Mount Oglethorpe to the North Carolina line won approval, Boy Scouts hiked the full Georgia section to promote it, and the GATC was formed to build, maintain, and preserve the trail as a retreat from civilization. During the Depression, the GATC expanded its work and friendships, women took important leadership roles, and the Civilian Conservation Corps planted millions of trees in Georgia while constructing Vogel State Park, Walasi-yi at Neel Gap, the Blood Mountain shelter, and other trail structures. World War Two halted hiking and maintenance, but postwar leaders revived the route, and milestones followed as Earl Schaffer became the first person to hike the entire trail, Eugene Espy the second and first Georgian, and Emma Gatewood the first woman. Later decades brought the relocation of the southern terminus from Mount Oglethorpe to Springer Mountain, federal protection through the Wilderness Act and National Trails System Act, defeated highway proposals, and National Park Service delegation of maintenance and management to the Appalachian Trail Conference and local clubs. From the late twentieth century into the twenty-first, partnerships among the U.S. Forest Service, National Park Service, Appalachian Trail Conservancy, and Georgia Appalachian Trail Club added stewardship programs, youth outreach, trail facilities, restoration of the Blood Mountain shelter, and measures to address overuse, continuing a long north Georgia role in protecting this nationally significant trail.