Appalachian Trail Conservancy history

But while planning for and promotion of the Appalachian Trail would continue, actual progress to the trail’s construction was slow-going. It wasn’t until Arthur Perkins (pictured above)—a retired lawyer, police court judge, and officer with the AMC Connecticut Chapter—officially took over leadership of the A.T. project in 1927 that the project began to gain steam.

A crew takes up the first sign to Katahdin’s summit in 1933.

In 1934, ATC volunteers affix the first sign at Katahdin’s summit declaring it as a terminus of the Appalachian Trail.

A hurricane in 1938 heavily damaged parts of the trail in the north.

In 1948, Earl Shaffer became the first person to report thru-hiking the entire Appalachian Trail.

Finally, in 1951, despite never officially being “closed,” Avery once again declared the AT open as a continuous footpath.

A year after its reopening, in 1952, Mildred Norman—a mystic and activist later known as Peace Pilgrim—became the first woman to thru-hike the A.T. in one season.

United States District Court Judge Charles S. Haight, Jr., broadly interprets the 1968 National Trails System Act to allow acquisitions for Trail values, not just treadway needs.

850 miles protected since 1978, 100 miles left to acquire.

Bob Brown of the AMC Berkshire Chapter (now AMC Western Massachusetts Chapter) repairs a broken sign along the A.T. in Great Barrington, Mass., in 1987.

Congress appropriates $15.1 million to carry combined A.T. land acquisition through 2000, with 15 years of tract-based appropriations to follow.