By any measure, the Appalachian Trail is now a century old. That’s old enough to venerate but still young enough for a human to appreciate. It is merely the span of one long human lifetime. We learned this lesson again in August when Gene Espy, the second thru-hiker, passed away in his Georgia home. Gene loved the trail till the end and as a true gentleman of the trail epitomized the best of the qualities of all hikers and people in general.
Close to the A.T.’s founding, Jean Stephenson, one of the A.T.’s initial leaders was quoted in “Impressions of the Maine Wilderness,” in 1941: “Though new as an “endless foothpath through the wilderness,” the Trail itself seems age-old, so naturally does it fit into its surroundings. Just a path, now through old clearings sweet scented with grasses in the sun, through dim forests, then up through scrub and out over bare mountain ledges, it seems it’s been since the beginning; it seems it will be till the end.”
This spring, the Appalachian Trail Conservancy, celebrated the centennial of its founding on March 3 in Washington, D.C. ATC has always been the guiding non-profit group shepherding the trail. Not an easy assignment by any measure.
Looking back, it’s hard to believe how much high-level support the Appalachian Trail got from the very beginning. Stephen T. Mather, first director of the National Park Service, attended that founding ATC meeting as did many other significant outdoor leaders in eastern America.
One attendee particularly intrigues me. Frederic A. Delano, uncle of future president FDR, welcomed the attendees, according to historian Larry Anderson. FDR, who in 1925 became first chairman of the Taconic State Park Commission in New York State, corresponded and met with A.T. founder Benton MacKaye in the 1920s as MacKaye worked on the A.T. route including in present day Fahnestock Park.
Another FDR tie to the A.T. is more tragic. In August, 1921, a month after MacKaye’s public proposal of the A.T., FDR is believed to have contracted polio while swimming at Bear Mountain State Park in N.Y., which became the first stretch of the A.T. However, the symptoms didn’t show up for a few days until FDR was at his retreat at Campobello Island.
The treasured heritage of the A.T. is one of the special things that sets the A.T. Museum apart from the other 35,000 U.S. museums. The A.T. itself is arguably the most famous hiking trail in the world. The A.T. community is special, too, with its tradition of voluntarism and its reverence for the history and culture of the Trail. With this special heritage, the A.T. Museum must strive hard to be worthy of this legacy.
During the year, the Museum’s 16th season, the Museum published the Hiker Yearbook for the second time. While staying true to its roots, manager Julie Queen produced a beautiful book. We are also able to provide back copies of the Hiker Yearbook as well.
In June, the Museum held its first Arts & Culture festival in collaboration with the Earl Shaffer Foundation. The festival featured a dozen A.T. authors, several musicians, a story teller, children’s author, videographers and others. Our second Arts & Culture Festival, again with the Earl Shaffer Foundation, is scheduled for Saturday June 20, 2026 in Pine Grove Furnace State Park. We hope to attract an even broader lineup of cultural figures for this one. To promote the festival, longtime volunteer, Alan “Gonzo” Strackeljahn produced a beautiful poster.
Author Shayla “Kiddo” Paradeis, talked about her book. Also, a talented musician and story teller, Shayla will be back in 2026. Shayla presented again at the Museum on Labor Day Weekend.
Another notable presentation during the summer was Professor and Author Kip Redick of Christopher Newport University in Virginia. Kip, a former ALDHA Coordinator and frequent long-distance hiker, has done several presentations for the Museum including on his latest book, American Camino, about the A.T. The Museum hosted Kip at the Bosler Library in Carlisle.
Early in the season, the Museum hosted a presentation by Heather “Anish” Anderson and Christine Reed, cosponsored by ATC, on “How Did the A.T. Change Your Life?” Both Heather and Christine had spoken before at the Museum and Heather is featured in a Museum exhibit.
The Museum added several exhibits during the season through the efforts of Gwen Loose. One featured Nimblewill Nomad and Nan “Drag’n Fly” Reisinger. Nimblewill was the oldest thru-hiker and Nan the oldest woman, at least until the end of the 2025 hiking season. Nan, a Museum volunteer, ended her record-breaking hike at the Museum.
A new exhibit features the achievements of young A.T. hikers including a scrapbook of photos and their stories in their own words. The exhibit also contains shoes, clothing, packs and other items from their A.T. hikes. We also added a beautiful mural in the children’s area done by longtime Museum volunteer Nancy Stawitz Barnhart and Janette Toth-Musser.
In addition, we put a roof on the outdoor Darlington Shelter and prepared interpretative materials for that exhibit for next year. We continued work on the 3 D Map and expect to have all of its monitors complete in 2026.
The Museum continued its outreach efforts with tables at Trail Days and the Gathering as well as at REI in Mechanicsburg, the Loudon, Va., Appalachian Trail Festival and the Outdoor Festival in Waynesboro.
We added to the Museum collection and beefed up our shelving at our storage area in Carlisle thanks to the generosity of volunteers Sandy and Jerry and the continued efforts of Becky. We also loaned objects from our collection to the George Mason University A.T. exhibit this fall.
While most of our volunteers work various shifts with only one or two others, we continued to have monthly volunteer picnics as well as some outings for volunteers so they can get to know each other. Besides working as greeters, organizing the library and storage area and helping on new exhibits and other activities, volunteers stained the ramp leading to the Museum’s second floor and painted and did considerable other repair work at the hostel.
Our volunteers keep the Museum open and thanks to their efforts the Museum was open for each shift all season and never had to close for lack of volunteers, a notable achievement for us. A big help in keeping the Museum open was our intern, Tyler of Shippensburg University. For most years, we’ve had at least one intern and they are a big help in staffing the Museum as well as working on their individual projects.
The A.T. Museum continues to maintain the largest collection of A.T. books anywhere as well as many other materials led by librarian Kurt Bodling. The library has 3,635 items including 2,785 books, 341 maps, 245 guidebooks and 256 multimedia items (including DVDs and VHS tapes). The library’s online catalogue is at https://www.librarycat.org/libAppTrailMuseum.
Among the researchers this year was one from West Virginia who spent three full days looking into the history of backpacking gear used by A.T. hikers from the early days up into the 1990s.
After a five-year absence, we resumed the Hall of Fame Banquet with a special event this November in Shepherdstown, W.Va., organized by Lisa Kovatch and Jim Foster. The inductees are Richard Anderson, founder of the International Appalachian Trail; Marion Park, an original organizer of ATC; Walter Greene, a Broadway actor, who took the A.T. through the Maine Wilderness; and Ron Tipton, a key A.T. leader as ATC CEO, a founder of ALDHA, and an A.T. advocate on Capitol Hill for a half century.
In the Ironmasters Hostel, we have a room devoted to the A.T. Hall of Fame with plaques for each of the inductees and many of the signature walking sticks awarded to inductees.
Welcoming visitors to the Museum is the lush garden surrounding the Museum entrance and ramp carefully tended by gardener Ann Bodling. The garden continues to morph as plants reseed and jockey for position, ensuring that the garden never looks quite the same year after year. The garden continues to receive compliments and mesmerize visitors when in full bloom and hosting more bees than anyone can count. We received a $500 grant from the Sandy Hollow Arts and Recreation for the Environment to add additional native plants to extend the garden’s bloom season and to create signage to identify the plants that Museum visitors see.
We continue to ask history minded readers to nominate worthy candidates for the Hall of Fame. We are especially interested in recognizing overlooked trail pioneers, members of small clubs and volunteers from the far reaches of the trail who made unusual contributions to the A.T. community.
We also welcome volunteers who come to the Museum for a few days and are welcome to stay at Ironmasters Hostel. We are always interested in adding interns as well.
This year retired Professor Mills Kelly of George Mason University joined the Museum board.
As always, the key to a successful season for the Museum are Museum Manager Julie Queen and Hostel Keeper Missy Shank. We also thank our many volunteers and our supporters throughout the trail community and we look forward to another great year in 2026.
For those in a position to support the Museum’s continued growth and operations, we appreciate any financial contribution. To contribute, please follow THIS LINK. All contributions through December 31, 2026, are added together to give a donor their plaque listing level. Your support makes the Museum the success we all enjoy!
Sincerely,
Larry Luxenberg
Museum President, www.atmuseum.org
Contact info: Julie Queen, Museum Manager, 717-486-8126, [email protected] or [email protected]
Missy Shank, Ironmasters Manager, 717-486-4108, [email protected]
Robert “Red Wolf o’da Smoky’s” Croyle, Museum Membership Secretary, [email protected]
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