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120 Chapter 5 Acquiring the Corridor The Appalachian Trail offers endless photo opportunities, but perhaps the most popular place for snapping the quintessential shot of a reflective hiker standing high on a mountain, gazing out across whispering forests below, is on top of McAfee’s Knob just west of Roanoke, Virginia. Like many other stretches of the AT, the picture-perfect scenery at McAfee’s Knob became part of the AT experience as a result of one of the most complex land acquisition programs in US history.1 In the 1970s, the trail near Roanoke crossed a perpetual mess of roots and mud on North Mountain that, though less inspiring, was safely located within the Jefferson National Forest. Unlike most southern sections of the AT, McAfee’s Knob lay just outside of the national forest boundary on privately owned Catawba Mountain . Because the 1968 National Trails Act required that the AT achieve “maximum outdoor recreation potential” by protecting “nationally significant scenic, historic, natural, or cultural qualities” along its path—and because an amendment to the trail legislation in 1978 authorized the funds and political authority necessary to achieve the goals of the National Trails Act—project partners began to assess alternative routes through the area.2 In 1978, Bob Proudman, a long-time professional trail builder with the Appalachian Mountain Club (AMC) who was hired by the National Park Service’s Appalachian Trail Project Office (ATPO) to help coordinate the land acquisition program in the late 1970s, met with the president of the Roanoke Appalachian Trail Club to investigate opportunities for relocating the AT off of North Mountain. As the two trail enthusiasts hiked the ridge together, the profound beauty of Catawba Mountain, with its lattice of creeks and farms in the valleys below—the same sublime landscape that inspired writer Annie Dillard’s environmental treatise Pilgrim at Tinker View from Tinker Cliffs near McAfee’s Knob. In the 1970s, the scenic overlook at McAfee’s Knob lay on posted private property. AT project partners battled wealthy landowners and apprehensive Forest Service personnel in order to make this scenic stretch across the Tinker Cliffs in Virginia part of the AT experience. Courtesy of the Appalachian Trail Conservancy. 122 Acquiring the Corridor Creek—also moved the two men. Major barriers stood in the way of purchasing this private piece of land, however. According to Proudman, “The question was ‘Do we battle our way across Catawba Mountain which was four or five miles of private landowners, all of whom are well-heeled, and it’s going take years of negotiations and probably millions of dollars? Or, do we keep the trail on North Mountain?’” After leaving the Roanoke area and returning to ATPO headquarters in Harpers Ferry, Proudman clearly recalled his conversations with project leaders; he reported, “I have bad news. McAfee’s is beautiful.”3 “No Trespassing” signs at McAfee’s Knob. Courtesy of the Appalachian Trail Conservancy. Acquiring the Corridor 123 Relocating the AT across this privately owned section would require taking on local landowners, state legislators, and even regional Forest Service officials who resisted the idea of moving the trail from the agency’s jurisdiction to build a new public resource that would be owned by the National Park Service—a long-time administrative rival. But the ATC and the Park Service decided that the view from McAfee’s was worth the political battle. In the end, AT project leaders threw down the gauntlet by using a combination of grassroots support and the expanded power of eminent domain—forces that were not always politically compatible—to eventually acquire the land necessary to make the scenic stretch across Catawba Mountain part of the AT experience.4 When Congress amended the National Trails Act in 1978, it established the legal groundwork for an aggressive land acquisition program, gave the National Park Service a stronger leadership role in the project, and increased federal appropriations for land acquisition from five million to ninety million dollars. The amendment expanded the power of condemnation from 25 acres per mile to 125 acres per mile, which enlarged the average width of the Bob Proudman (left) leading a trail-design workshop with a group of eager volunteers. Experienced trail workers such as Bob Proudman played a critical role in training new generations of trail volunteers to help build and maintain the relocated AT. Courtesy of the Appalachian Trail Conservancy. 124 Acquiring the Corridor corridor from two hundred feet to one thousand feet. The purpose of the land...

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