Cover Page

Contents

Preface
Letter

SECTION I

Orientation
Summary

SECTION II

History
Needs
Geography
Historic Sites
Competitors
Economic Aspects

SECTION III

Federal Lands
State and Interstate
Local

SECTION IV

Division of Responsibility
Local
State
Federal
Circulation

SECTION V

Educational Opportunities

State Trails

Albert M. Turner, 10 years ago, called State trails a "corollary of State parks." He defined a "State trail" as follows:

For the phrase "state trail" we shall understand a carefully selected strip of land over which the State has acquired a right-of-way for pedestrians, or to which it holds complete title, and upon which it maintains a cleared footway, suitably marked and signed for public use.⁵

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⁵ A State Park Anthology, op. cit., p. 390.

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Massachusetts is thus far the only State which has established and maintained State trails, as distinct from trails located on State parks, forests, or other State land. The Bay State, in 1924, placed authority over this function with the Commissioner of Conservation. Progress in that field has been slight.

Trail construction has been conducted on a much larger scale by organizations such as the Appalachian Mountain Club, in New England the various outing organizations united in the Appalachian Trail Conference, and the New England Trail Conference, the Connecticut Forest and Park Association, the Sierra Club, etc. The most notable undertaking of this type is the Appalachian Trail, extending along mountain ranges from Maine to Georgia. Many miles of this 2,053-mile trail—all but 115 miles of which have been constructed and are open to public use—cross private property by sufferance of the owners, who can halt this use of their property at any time.

In spite of public insistence on walkways along the routes of public highways, which, dependent on the character of the country and the width of the State's right-of-way, could be made to serve to greater or less degree the purpose for which Massachusetts has authorized State trails, little progress has been made in this field.

Quoting a saying of the late George A. Parker, of Connecticut—"When you are in a park, all that you see is in the park"—and carrying that wise observation over to the field of State trails, Mr. Turner advocates:

* * * State trails on the ridges, because from their tops a few acres of legal title may include 50 square miles of park, if we only remember that all we see is in the park. The blue distance is always pleasing he who looks on it owns it as much as anyone can.

But in a wrinkled State there are always hollows between the ridges, and for both convenience and contrast our trails will in many places follow watercourses, as trails always have. The mountain stream needs no special advocate it has always been able to sing its own song. * * * ⁶

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⁶ A State Park Anthology, op. cit., p. 391.

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Last Modified: Fri, Sep. 5, 2003 10:32:22 am PDT
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