200 images from the archives of the Appalachian Trail Conservancy and
the National Park Service that tell the history of the Appalachian Trail
in NY, NJ and CT.
Crossing through 14 states from Maine to Georgia, the Appalachian Trail
enters New Jersey through the Delaware Water Gap, crosses New York's
Hudson River, and rises over Connecticut's Lion's Head. The area is
considered by some to be the pathways birthplace, for in 1923, just two
years after Benton MacKaye originally proposed the trail, the first few
miles specifically constructed for the Appalachian Trail were built by
volunteers in New York's Harriman and Bear Mountain State Parks. These
photographs and the corresponding narrative present a historical
perspective on what it took to create the trail, including the thousands
of volunteers and the arduous tasks they performed, those who lived
along the trail before and during its creation, the many people who have
enjoyed the trail through the years, and the original routes that are no
longer part of the present-day Appalachian Trail.