Raymond H. Torrey - The Appalachian Trail

The Appalachian Trail

In 1922 Torrey publicized a proposal by forester Benton MacKaye to build a 2100-mile (3,360 km) trail from Maine to Georgia (subsequently named the Appalachian Trail or AT) with a story under a full-page banner headline reading "A Great Trail from Maine to Georgia!"; the idea was quickly adopted by the new Trail Conference as their main project.

Working with volunteers organized by J. Ashton Allis of the Trail Conference, Torrey helped blaze the first six miles (9.6 km) of the AT running from the Ramapo River to Fingerboard Mountain. By January 4, 1924, the twenty mile (32 km) stretch from the Hudson to the Ramapo Rivers was complete. On November 18 of that year, he worked with the Tramp and Trail Club on what he dubbed a "Speed Special", clearing and blazing a 20-mile (32 km) section through Sterling Forest, New York.

The effort involved much more than the physical effort of building and blazing trails— complex negotiations with property owners were required as well, particularly east of the Hudson where no established system of hiking trails existed. By 1929, with the help of New Jersey state park officials a 43-mile (69 km) section from the Delaware River to High Point along the Kittatinny Ridge was completed. Two years later, 160 miles (257.4 km) of the AT, from the Delaware River to Kent, Connecticut, was in place.