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The Pennsylvania State University The Pennsylvania State University The Graduate School College of Health and Human Development VACATION FROM CIVILIZATION: THE ORIGINS AND EMERGENCE OF THRU-HIKING ON THE APPALACHIAN TRAIL A Thesis in Kinesiology by Adam P. Berg © 2012 Adam P. Berg Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Science August 2012 This thesis of Adam P. Berg was reviewed and approved* by the following Mark Dyreson Professor of Kinesiology Thesis Advisor Scott R. Kretchmar Professor of Exercise and Sport Science Jaime Schultz Assistant Professor David Conroy Professor in Kinesiology and Program Director Graduate Program *Signature on file in the Graduate School ii Abstract This thesis delves into the origins and emergence of thru-hiking on the Appalachian Trail. It will discuss why the trail was built, who the first thru-hikers were, and why thru-hiking suddenly increased in popularity in the 1970s. It will consider what type of experiences thru-hiking aimed for, as well as how such experiences became possible. The Appalachian Trail was built to be a place for personalized recreation apart from modern society. Entrenched in how Americans have used the trail is a socially constructed dualism which places civilization and wilderness on opposite ends of the spectrum of human control. Overtime, the trail became a place where growing numbers of people went for prolonged but temporary periods. By the 1970s, a sudden increase of hikers began to take vacations from civilization for months at time. In record numbers long- distance-trekkers began hiking the entire Appalachian Trail in a single trip. Utilizing contemporary wilderness ideals, hikers envisioned themselves gaining authentic experiences that appeared unattainable in the civilization they seemingly left behind. iii TABLE OF CONTENTS Ackowledgements…………………………………………………………………………v Introduction – Civilization at Every Turn……...………………..………….......................1 Chapter One: From Wilderness to Walkway – The Changing Idea of Wilderness…………………………………………………………………..……………..8 Chapter Two: From Social Rearrangement to Personal Recreation – Benton MacKaye’s Vision and the Actual Appalachian Trail……..……………………………………….…30 Chapter Three: From Stunt Hikers to 2,000 Milers – Early Appalachian Trail Thru- Hikers……………………………………………………………….……………………53 Chapter Four: From the Me Generation to the Backpacking Boom – America in the 1970s……………………………………………………………………………………..82 Chapter Five: From Me to Myself – The Emergence of Thru-Hiking on the Appalachian Trail in the 1970s……………………………………………………...............................99 Chapter Six: From Game to Wild Frame – Thru-Hiking, Games, and Wilderness Recreation…………………………………………………………………………...….118 Conclusion – Freedom and Authenticity Reconsidered...…...………...….……….........136 iv Acknowledgements I would like to express my thanks to the Appalachian Trail Conservancy for allowing me access to their 2,000 miler reports, for their kindness while I researched at Harper’s Ferry, and for all their hard work toward maintaining the Appalachian Trail. I am also grateful for the support and guidance of my committee members, Jaime Schultz, Scott Kretchmar, and especially my advisor, Mark Dyreson. v Introduction – Civilization at Every Turn During the Second World War Earl Shaffer spent four and a half years in the Pacific Theatre. Like many young American men of his generation, with the future of human civilization at stake, he served in the war to defend his society. When he finally returned to the United States, the twenty-nine-year-old veteran from Pennsylvania set out from Mount Oglethorpe in Georgia and started hiking north on the Appalachian Trail (AT). When Shaffer reached the summit of Mount Katahdin in Maine over four months later, he became the first person to thru-hike the “AT.”1 From terminus to terminus without interruption, as Shaffer put it, the more than two-thousand-mile-long continuous trek of the entire trail provided a way to “walk the army out of my system.”2 It is hard to imagine today but there was a time in American history when going to nature for recreation would have been unthinkable. Civilization and nature were once quite clearly at odds – the controlled versus the uncontrollable. Yet in 1948, having done his duty to keep the controlled world intact, the wild world is where Shaffer felt he needed to go to escape the grim memories of the killing fields of the South Pacific. In this thesis I delve into the origins and emergence of thru-hiking on the Appalachian Trail, what the hikers that trekked over the Appalachian Mountains affectionately nicknamed the AT. As I engaged this project my research led me to focus on the personal motivations of early thru-hikers, their perceptions of civilization and wilderness, and their preoccupation with individual experience. In choosing to focus on the experiences described by the hikers themselves, I will pass over delving into other areas, such as the role of gender, class, or race. These factors likely played a part in the emergence of thru-hiking on the Appalachian Trail and are important considerations for future research. I focused on the existential aspects of a thru-hike because that was the main focus of the thru-hikers as well. Moreover, connections between modernity, the new individualism of the 1970s, and changing wilderness ideals were overwhelming. A large portion of primary source research was found at the Appalachian Trail Conservancy (ATC), based in Harper’s Ferry, West Virginia.3 Just being there influenced my thinking on the subject of thru-hiking. The ATC is one of many places thru-hikers traditionally stop as they traverse the AT heading north or south. It is about a quarter of a mile off the AT. For hikers who have traveled over a thousand miles to get there and will be traveling another thousand once they leave, it is a nominal distance. Once thru-hikers reach the ATC’s headquarters they pass through a visitor’s center and head toward “the hiker’s lounge.” On shelves in the visitor’s area books penned by thru-hikers about their treks are for sale, some of which were used as sources for this thesis. The ATC’s official, annually updated Thru Hikers Companion is also made available. As hikers enter the lounge they pass by enlarged photos of early path- breaking thru-hikers such as Earl Shaffer and Emma “Grandma” Gatewood. One wall of the lounge is devoted pictures and letters from past thru-hikers. Dating back to 1979, photos of thru-hikers who passed through Harper’s Ferry act as a form of documentation and are shelved in the lounge as well. The lounge is a space set aside for hikers generally. However, when a thru-hiker (or more likely these days a group of thru-hikers) arrives, there is little debate over for whom the lounge is really meant. When thru-hikers reach the hiker’s lounge they leave their packs wherever they find suitable. They often sign the trail register waiting there 2 for them and leave messages for cohorts yet to reach Harper’s Ferry. During the summer you can often find the most recent group to pass through sharing a couch, discussing the parts of the trail they have already covered, and speculating about the upcoming terrain. Some make plans to indulge in “town food.” Others arrange for a place to stay the night, do laundry, and shower. Some hikers make their stay shorter than others, wasting little time before heading back to the AT. Often, day-visitors join the thru-hikers in the lounge to pose the standard questions. Some queries are asked in bewilderment, some reverently. How far? How long? Why? No one complains about the obvious stench of body odor. Adjacent to the lounge there is a large walk-in closet big enough that it acts as an office. There the ATC keeps its unofficial archive on thru-hikers, dating all the way back to a report Earl Shaffer submitted in 1948 as evidence of his feat. Letters to and from the ATC, various trail reports offered by thru-hikers, and newspaper clippings found in that closet yielded a wealth of information for this thesis. After a single box designated for the time span of 1948 to 1972, there is a box designated with information on every annual class of thru-hikers from 1973 onward. In fact, the ATC has a folder for every known person to hike the entire AT. At the ATC thru-hikers are much more than a mere esoteric novelty. As I sat in the hiker’s lounge sifting through letters and articles related to early thru-hikers in the company of contemporary thru-hikers I felt sort of like the long- distance-trekkers. I was hanging out in the lounge, taking advantage of the free coffee, tired and in the midst of a prolonged, individualized endeavor which I engaged in by my own volition. As a white male of twenty-five I also fell into the demographic of most 3 thru-hikers. Seventy-five percent of hikers who have reported covering the AT in its entirety identify as male and judging by the ATC’s photo collection of thru-hikers almost all of them are white.4 Nevertheless, though we would speak briefly there seemed to be a divide between me and the other hikers in the lounge. Part of it was due to my position as a historian observing his subjects. But part of it also was that my longest hike had been one tenth the distance AT thru-hikers travel. I can only imagine what it is like to have hiked a thousand miles and still not have reached the halfway point yet. In truth, although I have a taste for their obsession, as I read about the existential explanations for why thru-hikers took to the AT, I was a historian first and foremost, inevitably questioning the context, dominant values, and beliefs that would make a person want to hike two-thousand miles in the first place.
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