[at-l] The Other MacKaye Vision

[RoksnRoots at aol.com (RoksnRoots@aol.com)]

In a message dated 7/26/2005 10:58:06 PM Eastern Standard Time, 
lbooher@pure.net writes:
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Gee, ya' know, all those work camps, farms--and wasn't there something about 
saw mills, too?--would destroy even the amount of wildness that the AT 
exhibits today.  There would be huge open places on the ridges where there would be 
farms (houses, barns, fields, silos-on the ridgeline?  Ye gads! There would 
likely even be windmills up there to draw the water!), noisy machinery, all sorts 
of hideous intrusions.  Thank goodness, his vision never came to fruition!  
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           That sounds nice in order to defend a rather unstudied view of the 
AT, but it isn't close to accurate. From what I've read of MacKaye he very 
definitely intended to surround the AT in vast tracts of Appalachian lands big 
enough to contain both those functional developments AND a wild corridor. No 
matter how many times you show MacKaye was more interested in Project-scale 
tracts before a continuous trail it gets ignored, yet the reason he left the Trail 
was exactly because a road was destroying the continuous wild corridor he 
needed to complete his concept. So to suggest he was comfortable with widespread 
Trail development is just to defiantly ignore what has been discussed many 
times on this list as well as represented in plain AT history. 

       I have noticed that I've suggested those Trail facilities would 
lock-in undeveloped lands as part of the Trail corridor - lands that are presently 
being developed as massive housing projects adjacent to the Trail. I am 
directly suggesting MacKaye had this long-term in mind and that those functional 
facilities would now serve as development preventers more than wilderness 
diminishers. The limits of those small work camps were clearly spelled out by MacKaye. 
In respect to this the post above is mean-spiritedly out of context.

         Again, it is tragic to not realize the lengthy national parks and 
wild national forests embodying the Trail were most likely inspired by MacKaye. 
I'm sure the Teddy Roosevelt era conservation movement was also contributory, 
but it would be remiss to not notice the line of national forests, state 
parks, and other preserves that just happen to co-allign with the Appalachian 
Trail. 

       The camps and timber operations surrounding the Trail would have had a 
directly designed Trail-related purpose. One that would bind and protect it 
from outside encroachment. This would be perpetual and serve a continual social 
and conservation purpose. The present sub-developments, loud race tracks, 
interstates, condos, and other fragmentations don't serve any purpose except that 
which damages the Trail.

             Forgive me, but I find it rather disingenuous for Trail members 
who otherwise say "go ahead, develop, hikers will get used to it" to pose as 
having a Trail intrusion concern - whether sarcastic or not. This is exactly 
what is wrong with the AT. Trying to deny a planned AT connection to 
conservation by calling it a "hidden agenda" is like trying to make a case for the 
Vatican not being connected to religion...





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