Books for the Hiker in Your Life

Predating the Great Smoky Mountains National Park and the Blue Ridge Parkway, the Appalachian Trail was established in the 1920s. Yet even after volunteers had begun the pathway's construction, its southern terminus was still undetermined. The more than 200 vintage photographs of Images of America: Along the Appalachian Trail: Georgia, North Carolina, and Tennessee have been culled from the Appalachian Trail Conservancy, National Park Service, local trail maintaining clubs, state archives, and historical societies. They illustrate the sweat, toil, and dedication that went into building the trail over some of Eastern America's highest and most rugged terrain. Also chronicled are the people who lived along the trail's route, those who volunteered to physically build it or lobby for its creation, and the many relocations that have moved the pathway to optimal locations.

Photo by photo, discover the stories that have been made along Maine's stretch of Appalachian wildneress.

Maine native Myron H. Avery recruited friends from Washington, DC; Maine forest and warden service personnel; guides and sporting camp operators; and the Civilian Conservation Corps to extend the Appalachian Trail through Maine, despite questions of whether it would be possible to carve a trail through the state's wildlands. Volunteers of Maine's Appalachian Trail Club, created by Avery in 1935, have since maintained the trail, built shelters, relocated more than half of the original hastily constructed route, and taken on the task of managing the trail's protection corridor. Along Maine's Appalachian Trail illustrates the rich history of the trail's rugged mountains and vast forests, which have provided a livelihood for generations of workers and communities.

It was in the early 1900s atop a summit in Vermont that Benton MacKaye envisioned a hiking path along the crest of the Appalachians, beginning in the New England states and extending to those in the South. Along the Appalachian Trail: Massachusetts, Vermont, and New Hampshire chronicles the history of the world-famous route in those states, from New England's hiking and trail-building culture that predated and paved the way for the trail to those who toiled to create it and those who have continued to hike and protect it. Today's trail is vastly different from its earlier days. This collection of vintage photographs and accompanying text includes its original course and some of the many reroutes it has experienced. It all comes together to illuminate just what an amazing volunteer achievement the existence of the trail is.

Approximately ¼ of the Appalachian Trail passes through Virginia, going across some of the state's best mountain scenery and affording access to small-town life.

Initially proposed by Benton MacKaye in 1921, the trail was, and still is, primarily built, maintained, and overseen by volunteers. Selected from the archives of the Appalachian Trail Conservancy, the National Park Service, and local Appalachian Trail maintenance clubs, the 200-some photographs in Images of America: Along Virginia's Appalachian Trailprovide a look at life in the mountains before and during the trail's creation, how it developed, who its early champions were, the many relocations the trail has experienced, and the volunteers who have constructed and maintained it.

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.

Native Americans called the area Couxsaxrage, "beaver hunting ground." Professor Ebenezer Emmons named it Adirondack, after one of the native tribes. Along the Adirondack Trail traces the history and lore of the Adirondacks up the scenic roadway through the heart of New York's mountain-and-lake country. Included are tales of the Mohawk Indians and their beatified princess, Tekakwitha; the site of the mansion of Sir William Johnson, one of America's most influential citizens of the 1700s; and an important battleground of the Revolution. Rare original photographs portray each of the twenty settlements on the trail from Fonda to Malone, reflecting the lives of the guides, loggers, trappers, sportsmen, camp owners, tourists, leather workers, and health seekers who opened up the unknown county.