[at-l] The Other MacKaye Vision

[athiker89 at yahoo.com (Tim Rich)]

Greetings,
 
I have little doubt that MacKaye was influenced by the conservation movement, and legislation, that predated his article.  When I said that most eastern national forests intersecting the AT were either created or had vast tracts purchased before the article, that's what I meant, not that they were concurrent with his article.  
 
You say: "the Trail Community seems most interested in skeptically attacking the concept of an organized AT wilderness purpose rather than appreciating it.  It's tragic that the Trail's inspirational figure is best known for his failure rather than what he managed to achieve. Travesty in my mind."  Far be it from me to speak for "the trail community", but what I sense in this forum is a clear appreciation for Mackaye and Avery and what they envisioned and achieved.  I see, in this forum, an appreciation for those who have worked so hard and long to achieve the current level of trail protection, yet there's a clear hunger to see further protection of threatened areas.  My view is that MacKaye is and always will be remembered as the visionary with the idea of the AT, and that Avery is remembered as a hardworking achiever.  
 
When this forum is badgered and battered with the notion that MacKaye was more than an individual with an idea, that he was feared by politicians because of his radical ideas, that there was some conspiracy to head this off, and that all other eastern conservation evolved from his 1921 article, THAT'S when folks get a bellyfull, call BS and are in turn branded as heretics.

Take Care,

Tim

RoksnRoots@aol.com wrote:
In a message dated 7/27/2005 9:18:11 AM Eastern Standard Time, athiker89@yahoo.com writes:
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The AT, and the line of national forests and parks, state parks and preserves, all line up with the Appalachian chain of mountains.  Legislation to preserve forests predated MacKaye's article by thirty years, and the Weeks Act, allowing for Federal purchase of eastern forests, passed in 1911. 
         ***     I guess I knew that, but never the less, knowing MacKaye's credentials and concern I'm sure he was at minimum motivated by this national conservation movement. Regional Planning was a perfect accompaniment to this action. In fact if you time the 1911 passage of the Act with MacKaye's plans he is pretty much implementing his Appalachian Trail Project simultaneously with the installation of those preserves. The Great Smokies National Park was opened 10 years after MacKaye broke ground on the AT. The history of Appalachian preservation is common knowledge in AT history as the succession of land ownership from rapacious timber barons to national forests. What MacKaye planned wasn't much different than selling forest to timber companies for pennies on the dollar and having taxpayers heavily subsidize it. I don't hear any public land ownership arguments about that. However, MacKaye's version involved permanent wilderness preservation - something that appears to be
 debatable, or optional, (or even threatening) to our government.   
 
  Many of the national forests were created or had significant tracts purchased (White Mountain, Jefferson, George Washington, Cherokee, Chattahoochee) before MacKaye's article. 
      ***    Which is just another way of saying many other national forests and preserves were formed concurrent to MacKaye. The AT Project was close enough in purpose to those forests and parks that it had no problem getting built. In my mind, whether MacKaye was taking advantage of a previous movement or not, I'd rather have MacKaye than the bastard who is building that development in Pennsylvania right smack in the face of all this. I'm sure MacKaye felt similarly about the rejection of his Project and the installation of the Skyline Drive. It was clearly a choice between the two, and Washington is entertaining a non-reality if it thinks looking the other way while the corridor gets pecked to death is a reasonable way of dealing with it. They are clearly delinquent.
 
 
 
  The impetus for the Green Mountain NF is largely attributed to the 1927 flood.  
       ***   And the official reason for the Iraq invasion was a serious threat from WMD's ;-)
 
         1927 being 4 years after the first treadway was laid. Hmm. I wish they had extended it further south and into Massachusetts and Connecticut.
 
      Hey! The Long Trail ran through there too! The trail MacKaye dreamed up the AT from. Hmmmm...
 
 
The NPS attributes the idea for Great Smokey Mtn NP to Mrs. Willis Davis in 1923 after she was inspired by the western parks.   
        *** 1923, the first year of the AT. Even if this is correct, I wonder if they would have attributed it to a liberal conservationist who intended to form Appalachian relief communities? How much credit does MacKaye get today? Almost none.
 
 


The Appalachian chain runs roughly SW to NE.  Protection of these mountains runs SW to NE.  Not surprisingly, a trail developed to follow this chain runs SW to NE.  The tail's not wagging the dog.
 
        
 
 
         ***  Granted those national forests probably would have existed without him, but I don't buy a total divorce from MacKaye. During the Great Depression the government formed the WPA and CCC to perform natural facility related improvements. These crews of workers went out and built parks and made improvements in natural areas. They were a direct translation of MacKaye's relief camps, but even more intensely work oriented. Never once have I seen anyone attribute this to him. (These were unemployed needing productive occupation, not urban slaves as someone suggested) Typical of our government, once this movement had been coopted and diverted these agencies quickly dissolved and were abandoned. Much of their work later became a burden to park budgets and was slowly left to rot. That included MacKaye's defeated Project. 
 
         I hope you can understand my frustration with the Trail Community when it seems quick in offering posts and information that diminish MacKaye or his wilderness plans, sort of like shims being deliberately applied to slowly force MacKaye off the Trail, all of them negative about his intentions. Posts interested in or discussing this vital AT aspect are virtually nil. If you look at their posts,
the Trail Community seems most interested in skeptically attacking the concept of an organized AT wilderness purpose rather than appreciating it. 

 

      It's tragic that the Trail's inspirational figure is best known for his failure rather than what he managed to achieve. Travesty in my mind.

 
 
 
 
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