The Reading Warehouse

Learn the history of the effort to bring the Appalachian Trail through West Virginia, Maryland, and Pennsylvania in this collection by author Leonard M. Adkins and the Appalachian Trail Conservancy.

Unlike counterparts on other sections of the 2,180-plus-mile Appalachian Trail who could locate the pathway within national parks and forests, builders of the 270 miles of trail detailed in Along the Appalachian Trail: West Virginia, Maryland, and Pennsylvania did not have vast tracts of federal lands on which to construct the footpath, yet they succeeded in creating a trail within many of the states' scenic areas. Hundreds of vintage photographs - provided by the Appalachian Trail Conservancy, National Park Service, state archives, and local trail-maintaining clubs - present an illustrated narrative of the Herculean work and dedication it took for volunteers to plan, build, and continue to maintain the trail in these states.