[at-l] The Other MacKaye Vision

[Snodrog5 at aol.com (Snodrog5@aol.com)]

In a message dated 7/26/2005 10:58:06 PM Eastern Daylight Time, 
lbooher@pure.net writes:
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. 
---
Yup, saw mills and lumber camps, based on contemporary examples. In "Regional 
Planning," MacKaye wrote excitedly about the water power and coal resources 
to be developed along the Trail, and if he knew more about wind power I'm sure 
he would've championed ridgetop windmills, too. Remember, this man called his 
ideas "Geotechnics", had a Harvard Master's degree in Forestry, worked for the 
US Forest Service, the Tennessee Valley Authority, and the Department of 
Labor. MacKaye's proposal was very straight forward, and there's no doubt he meant 
what he wrote in 1921. For some to say he couldn't have meant what he wrote, 
and that we should worship him for what he probably meant is insulting to the 
man, in my opinion. Those same people cry foul when MacKaye's writings and the 
work of his biographer are shown to them, which says a great deal about how 
much those self-styled devotees actually know (and care) about the man. 
Teej