Trails across America: a “grand experiment” BOOK REVIEW
Review by Jim Schmid I
n 1968 Congress passed the National Trails System Act which estab- lished National Scenic
these) and National Recreation Trails. A decade later National Historic Trails were added to the System.
What started as an experi- ment has now grown to 30 National Scenic (NST) and Historic Trails (NHT) totaling 55,000 miles crossing 49 States and the District of Columbia along with six Connecting and Side Trails and over 1,000 National Recreation Trails (NRT) in every state with more NRTs added every year. A Grand Experiment: The
National Trails System at 50 is the remarkable story of this Act told by Steve Elkinton, an insider who spent 25 years of his career working on these trails. Steve served as the Program Leader for the National Trails System in the National Park Service (NPS) from 1989 to his retirement in 2014. For most of the second half of the history of the System, Steve provided lead- ership and worked to further the intentions and spirit of the Act. This 50th anniversary book uses some of the text and photos from his 2008 booklet (“The National Trails System: A Grand Experiment”) that commemorat- ed the 40th anniversary of the
National Trails System Administrative History Archives located in the NPS Washington
Steve has compiled a histo- ry of how the System came about and how it has evolved. or much detail about each of the Trails; instead Steve concentrates on the actions and personalities that shaped the evolution and progress of the entire System. The illustrated book is
…in the 50 years since passage of the Trails Act in 1968, this disparate collec- tion of trails has begun to coalesce into a coherent system touching every state and offering a wide range of recreational and cultural experiences. The story of this experiment is a story of American democracy at work.
—STEVE ELIKINTON
Act. This much-expanded version includes sources unavail- able in 2008 and describes events that occurred between 2008 and 2018. Most of the new sources are taken from the NPS 40th Anniversary National Trails System Oral History Project undertaken in 2007-08 and additional documents in the
18 SPRING 2019
AmericanTrails.org
starting in 1906. To give a sense of the rich history covered, I’m going to list a few highlights from 1906 to 1989 and spend a little more time with highlights from 1989 to 2018 when the System came into its own. The story starts with Ezra Meeker who placed granite trail markers along overland pioneer trails, especially the Oregon Trail, in 1906; Benton MacKaye who conceived of the Appalachian Trail in 1921; Clinton C. Clarke who organized in 1932; the publication of Trails for America in 1966; and President Lyndon Johnson sign- ing into law the National Trails System Act on October 2, 1968. Remarkably, when the Act
was signed there were no national trail organizations. That changed in the following years to support not only the System but all types of trails.
Another milestone was the
which was held in 1971. The
second, held in 1973, was hosted by the newly-created National Trails Council. The Symposium has been held every two years since in locations across the nation. Then in 1988 the National Trails Council merged with the American Trails Network, a newer group that aspired to
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