Smith: Steve, you and I did an interview together back in 1999 to coincide with National Trails Day. At that time, we discussed the background and history of the National Trails System, how these trails are managed, and some of the unique maintenance challenges they present. In Part II of that interview, we covered how the trails are promoted and details on some of the unique trails being built across the country. So here we are 7 ½ years later and I imagine that a lot has changed.
Elkinton: Indeed, many things about the National Trails System have changed – and yet many things remain exactly the same. For example, the critical role and value of volunteers remains primary. So, too, does the lack of general understanding by the public about the trails system and the opportunities it offers. Changes since 1999 include additional trails (discussed below), the successes of the Lewis and Clark Bicentennial, more sophisticated demands for mapping and GIS information about the trails, and closer interagency partnerships that support the national trails.
Smith: What are the major issues facing the National Trails System today?
Elkinton: The major issues we face remain largely unchanged over the years. They include:
- National recognition, especially approaching the System’s 40th anniversary on 2008 and 50th anniversary in 2018.
- Resource protection
- Links to communities, states, parks, forests, public lands along the way
- Educational opportunities
- Tourism trends, confusion with other linear corridors
- Interagency coordination
The 40th and 50th anniversaries provide excellent opportunities to celebrate tremendous efforts that have occurred so far to build up this 46,000-mile system of trails and to look proactively ahead to figure out what we, as a Nation, want in the future.
Let me highlight the tourism issue, specifically "confusion with other linear corridors." In recent years there has been a growth spurt in the creation of linear resource corridors that look a lot like national trails: National Scenic Byways, National Heritage Corridors, and Wild & Scenic Rivers. In general these have separate support groups and governing authorities. However, for the touring public, it is easy to get them confused in places where they overlap and cross.
Smith: When we last talked, there were several additional national trails under consideration and they were going through the feasibility study and legislation process, including the American Discovery Trail, a coast-to-coast, 6,600-mile long trail. Can you please give a brief update of which new trails have been added to the system and what they represent in terms of scenic or historic value?
Elkinton: Since 1999 five national historic trails have been added to the National Trails System:
- 2000: El Camino Real de Tierra Adentro National Historic Trail
- 2000: Ala Kahakai National Historic Trail
- 2002: Old Spanish National Historic Trail
- 2004: El Camino Real de los Tejas National Historic Trail
- 2006: Captain John Smith National Historic Trail
These five national historic trails total almost 9,000 miles in combined lengths. They link to hundreds of amazing cultural resource sites in 12 states, including Texas, Hawaii, and the Chesapeake Bay states. In the chronological order of the stories they tell, they could be ranked this way:
The Ala Kahakai National Historic Trail on the Big Island of Hawaii commemorates over 600 years of Native Hawai’ian culture, with an emphasis on sites associated with King Kamehameha I and British explorer Captain James Cook (c. 1750-1819).
El Camino Real de Tierra Adentro National Historic Trail was first established as a Spanish colonial road between Mexico City and the northern colonial capital of San Juan Pueblo in 1598. Later, the road linked to Santa Fe, ranked by Smithsonian Magazine as the oldest and longest colonial highway in North America.
In 1607, English settlers came to Jamestown, founding the colony of Virginia. The next year (1608), Captain John Smith embarked on a 3,000-mile boat tour of the Chesapeake Bay and its tidewater tributaries. The Captain John Smith Chesapeake National Historic Trail commemorates these explorations and their influence on the eastern United States.
Beginning in the late 17th Century, El Camino Real de los Tejas was laid out as a royal road to link together the missions across what is now Texas. Later, after Mexico’s independence from Spain in 1821 and Texas’ independence from Mexico in 1836, settlers from the United States poured west along various branches of this road.
Opened in 1829, the Old Spanish Trail became a Mexican trade route connecting Santa Fe with southern California. It is a system of braided routes that cross the deserts just north of the Grand Canyon.
Studies for three other trails have recently been completed by the National Park Service:
- The proposed Washington-Rochambeau National Historic Trail would commemorate the movement of French troops in 1781-2 who came to the aid of General George Washington to help win the American Revolution.
- The proposed Star Spangled Banner National Historic Trail commemorates British and American troop and naval movements in 1814 associated with the sieges of Washington, DC, and Baltimore.
- The Metacomet-Monadnock-Mattabesett Trail in Massachusetts and Connecticut, if established, would be the first national scenic trail (generally hiking only) established in 24 years.
As for the American Discovery Trail, its supporters (the American Discovery Trail Society) continue to mark the route, feature end-to-end hikers and bikers, and build Congressional support for getting it established as the first of a new category of national trail – a national discovery trail (NDT). Legislation to establish it has already been introduced in the 110th Congress.