The Green Tunnel

Did you know a significant number of hikers confess their sins in the logbook in the shelter on Priest Mountain? Why do they do this and what do they confess? Find out on today’s Iconic Locations episode. 

Benton MacKaye wanted to be sure that anyone who chose to spend a few hours, a few days, or a few weeks on the trail would have the opportunity to really get away from civilization. However, most of the lands MacKaye hoped to route his future trail through were in private hands, owned either by individuals or corporations. If an Appalachian Trail was really going to be built, then its leaders would have to find a way to reconcile their desire to build a trail with the rights of private landowners.

The Delaware Water Gap is one of the most breathtaking spots along the entire Appalachian Trail and has been a favorite subject of landscape painters since at least the middle of the 19th century. It's an important marker for northbound hikers, but it's also a torturous landscape that many hikers call "Rocksylvania." 

There is no better way to turn a good hike into a bad hike than taking a wrong turn and hiking miles out of your way. Especially if that means you climbed an extra mountain or two. Today, we are exploring the history of blazing, signing, and mapping the trail from Georgia to Maine.

Bear Mountain Bridge sits just north of the oldest section of the entire Appalachian Trail and on today's Iconic Location episode we are what was once the world’s longest suspension bridge. 

Today we’re going back to the earliest days of the Appalachian Trail to learn more about the critical role that the Civilian Conservation Corps played in making the trail a reality. 

Have you ever wondered who Charlies Bunion was named after or why there are two balds with the same name? On today’s Iconic Location episode, we are exploring the mystery of Charlies Bunion.

The American Chestnut was one of the most magnificent trees in North America. On today’s episode of The Green Tunnel, we’re going to explore how it lived, how it died, and how – with the help of scientists, non-profit organizations, and passionate volunteers – it just might repopulate the Appalachian Mountains once again.

While no one has ever seen a dragon along the Appalachian Trail, hundreds of thousands of hikers have seen a dragon’s tooth. Viewed from a distance this geological formation looks like one very large, very snaggly fang sticking up out of Cove Mountain.

This season the history we’re starting with is really, really old. We are exploring the geological history of the rocks and mountains the Appalachian Trail runs through. We will also answer the age-old question, are the mountains actually getting taller?

On Tuesday, October 17th, The Green Tunnel will be back with Season Three! This season we’re exploring the natural history of the Appalachian Trail. We’ll dig deep into the trail’s geological past, climb chestnut trees, follow some critters down unexpected paths, and consider the history of the trail’s future. We’ll also highlight iconic locations across the trail, from the Priest Shelter in Virginia to the Kennebec River Ferry in Maine. We’ve interviewed historians and scientists, hikers and authors, trail maintainers and mapmakers, to bring you new stories about the history and culture of the Appalachian Trail. For more information or to catch up on previous episodes, visit our website, R2Studios.org. 

Planning section hikes can take a lot of work. Luckily, every section hiker out there has a go-to podcast to help with that planning. Julie Gayheart hosts the “Jester” Section Hiker podcast and there is no better resource for anyone interested in section hiking the Appalachian Trail. Today, Julie walks us through what it takes to hike the Connecticut section of the trail. 

Today we’re headed to Florida. While the AT doesn’t run through Florida, the state has a lot of great trails, including the Florida Trail. And one of the best ways for you to learn about the FT is by listening to Orange Blaze. This podcast highlights the experience of hikers along the Florida Trail and is hosted by Misti ‘Ridley’ Little. 

When the Appalachian Trail project began, volunteer clubs up and down the length of the trail committed themselves to first scouting, then building, and then maintaining the trail. In the last episode of season two, we are digging into the critical role women played in the early years of the AT. They played such a big role, some trail clubs limited the number of women allowed to join. 

Today, we’re hiking on the border of Tennessee and North Carolina, to the site of Fontana Dam. It’s the tallest dam east of the Rocky Mountains. Constructed in the 1940s, the dam and its resulting reservoir flooded four towns and affected the daily lives and memories of many people. So, why was the dam built and what lies beneath the cool blue waters of Fontana Lake?

Further Reading:

“Fontana Dam, N.C.,” Appalachian Trail Conservancy

“The History of Fontana Village,” Fontana Village Resort and Marina.

“Interview with Commodore A. Casada, 11 November 2009,” interview by Rhydon T. Atzenhoffer, Oral Histories of Western North Carolina, Southern Appalachian Digital Collections.

Archival Photographs of Fontana Village and Fontana Lake, Southern Appalachian Digital Collections.

“Fontana,” Tennessee Valley Authority.

“Tennessee Valley Authority Act (1933),” National Archives and Records Administration.

Pete Seeger, "The TVA Song," Gazette, Vol. 1 (1958) Smithsonian Folkways Recordings https://folkways.si.edu/pete-seeger/gazette-vol-1/american-folk/music/album/smithsonian. 

The Appalachian Trail is a much more diverse place in 2023 than it was as recently as 20 years ago. But if you spend much time on the trail, you know it’s still a pretty white place. There are many stories about the challenges faced by members of marginalized communities who hike the AT, and we need a lot more research to better understand how the history of the trail and the history of race are closely interwoven. 

On today’s episode, attorney Krystal Williams of Maine and historian Phoebe Young of the University of Colorado-Boulder help us explore specifically how the history of the AT crosses paths with African American history, in ways you might not expect. 

Further Reading: 

Mills Kelly, “The A.T. and Race” AT Journeys, February 2021: https://appalachiantrail.org/official-blog/the-a-t-and-race/.

Megan Rosenbloom, Dark Archives: A Librarian’s Investigation into the Science and History of Books Bound in Human Skin (New York: MacMillian, 2020).

Noelle Smith, “How Perceived Racial Differences Created a Crisis in Black Women’s Healthcare,” Nursing Clio, March 31, 2020,
https://nursingclio.org/2020/03/31/how-perceived-racial-differences-created-a-crisis-in-black-womens-healthcare/ 

Harriet Washington, Medical Apartheid: The Dark History of Medical Experimentation on Black Americans from Colonial Times to the Present (New York: Random House, 2008).

Phoebe S. K. Young, Camping Grounds: Public Nature in American Life from the Civil War to the Occupy Movement (New York: Oxford University Press, 2021).

Long before Harpers Ferry, Virginia became the emotional halfway point for Appalachian Trail thru hikers, it was the site of one of the most important events in 19th century American history.  In the fall of 1859, the abolitionist John Brown and 22 of his compatriots attacked the federal arsenal there, hoping to spark an insurrection against slavery in the American South on the eve of the Civil War.

On today's episode, historian Jonathan Earle of Louisiana State University explores Brown's raid on Harpers Ferry and the landscape hikers now pass through today.

Further Reading:

AT hiker photographs: [https://athikerpictures.org/]

Jonathan Earle, John Brown's Raid on Harpers Ferry: A Brief History with Documents (2008).

Harpers Ferry Stories from the National Park Service: https://www.nps.gov/hafe/learn/historyculture/stories.htm

Thomas Jefferson, Notes on the State of Virginia: An Annotated Edition, ed. Robert Pierce Forbes (New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 2022), 36-38. 

Pete Seeger, America’s Favorite Ballads, Vol. 3, Folkways Records, 1959, vinyl. https://folkways.si.edu/pete-seeger/american-favorite-ballads-vol-3/american-folk/music/album/smithsonian.

Harpers Ferry Stories from the National Park Service: https://www.nps.gov/hafe/learn/historyculture/stories.htm.

Throughout its history, the Appalachian Trail has been a place many hikers go for peace, for inspiration, for community, for physical challenge, and in some cases, as a sort of personal spiritual journey. In our show today, we’re taking a close look at the history of these inner motivations to hike.

Have you ever wondered where the center point of the Appalachian Trail is? If you guessed Center Point Knob, Pennsylvania you would be wrong. But it was the location of an infamous crime. Well sort of. 

On this special episode of The Green Tunnel, Dakota Jackson, Director of Visitor Experience at the Appalachian Trail Conservancy, talks with Mills Kelly about his new book, Virginia's Lost Appalachian Trail. Dakota and Mills explore the process of digging up the story of Virginia's Lost AT in the archives, and in the memories of the people who remember it. We hope you enjoy this deeper dive into the history of the old section of the trail, and learn a little about how historians recover and interpret the past.

Don't forget to listen to "The Lost AT."
https://www.r2studios.org/show/the-green-tunnel/the-lost-at/

Purchase your own copy of Mills Kelly's book.
https://www.arcadiapublishing.com/Products/9781467153393