National Historic Trail is a designation for a protected area in the United States containing historic trails and surrounding areas. They are part of the National Trails System.
National Historic Trails were authorized under the National Parks and Recreation Act of 1978 (Public Law 95-625), amending the National Trails System Act of 1968 (Public Law 90-543), which had introduced National Scenic Trails and National Recreation Trails. National Scenic Trails and National Historic Trails may only be designated by an act of Congress.
National Historic Trails are designated to protect the remains of significant overland or water routes to reflect the history of the nation. Most of them are highway routes and are not hiking trails, although they provide opportunities for hiking and other outdoor activities along their routes. Only one is a water trail, Captain John Smith Chesapeake National Historic Trail.
Read more about National Historic Trail: List of National Historic Trails
Famous quotes containing the words national, historic and/or trail:
“The return of the asymmetrical Saturday was one of those small events that were interior, local, almost civic and which, in tranquil lives and closed societies, create a sort of national bond and become the favorite theme of conversation, of jokes and of stories exaggerated with pleasure: it would have been a ready- made seed for a legendary cycle, had any of us leanings toward the epic.”
—Marcel Proust (1871–1922)
“We are becoming like cats, slyly parasitic, enjoying an indifferent domesticity. Nice and snug in “the social” our historic passions have withdrawn into the glow of an artificial cosiness, and our half-closed eyes now seek little other than the peaceful parade of television pictures.”
—Jean Baudrillard (b. 1929)
“You will trail across the rocks
and wash them with your salt,
you will curl between sand-hills
you will thunder along the cliff
break retreat get fresh strength
gather and pour weight upon the beach.”
—Hilda Doolittle (1886–1961)