The Green Tunnel

Long before Harpers Ferry, Virginia became the emotional halfway point for Appalachian Trail thru hikers, it was the site of one of the most important events in 19th century American history. In the fall of 1859, the abolitionist John Brown and 22 of his compatriots attacked the federal arsenal there, hoping to spark an insurrection against slavery in the American South on the eve of the Civil War.

On today's episode, historian Jonathan Earle of Louisiana State University explores Brown's raid on Harpers Ferry and the landscape hikers now pass through today.

Further Reading:

AT hiker photographs: [https://athikerpictures.org/]

Jonathan Earle, John Brown's Raid on Harpers Ferry: A Brief History with Documents (2008).

Harpers Ferry Stories from the National Park Service: https://www.nps.gov/hafe/learn/historyculture/stories.htm

Thomas Jefferson, Notes on the State of Virginia: An Annotated Edition, ed. Robert Pierce Forbes (New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 2022), 36-38.

Pete Seeger, America's Favorite Ballads, Vol. 3, Folkways Records, 1959, vinyl. https://folkways.si.edu/pete-seeger/american-favorite-ballads-vol-3/american-folk/music/album/smithsonian.

Harpers Ferry Stories from the National Park Service: https://www.nps.gov/hafe/learn/historyculture/stories.htm.

Throughout its history, the Appalachian Trail has been a place many hikers go for peace, for inspiration, for community, for physical challenge, and in some cases, as a sort of personal spiritual journey. In our show today, we're taking a close look at the history of these inner motivations to hike.

Have you ever wondered where the center point of the Appalachian Trail is? If you guessed Center Point Knob, Pennsylvania you would be wrong. But it was the location of an infamous crime. Well sort of.

On this special episode of The Green Tunnel, Dakota Jackson, Director of Visitor Experience at the Appalachian Trail Conservancy, talks with Mills Kelly about his new book, Virginia's Lost Appalachian Trail. Dakota and Mills explore the process of digging up the story of Virginia's Lost AT in the archives, and in the memories of the people who remember it. We hope you enjoy this deeper dive into the history of the old section of the trail, and learn a little about how historians recover and interpret the past.

Don't forget to listen to "The Lost AT." https://www.r2studios.org/show/the-green-tunnel/the-lost-at/

Purchase your own copy of Mills Kelly's book. https://www.arcadiapublishing.com/Products/9781467153393

Today, we're going to tell you a story from the earliest days of the Appalachian Trail, a time when trail scouts were still trying to find a complete route north or south through what was sometimes unmapped wilderness. It's a story about a 300-mile-long section of the Appalachian Trail you almost certainly have never heard of.

Today we're exploring one of the more famous trail towns along the Appalachian Trail, Damascus, Virginia.

Hikers don't often realize they're passing through the traditional homelands of many Indigenous nations. In today's episode, we're focusing on some of the Indigenous lands the Appalachian Trail runs through as a way of helping to recover at least some of the Indigenous history along the trail's route.

Today, we explore one of the most infamous sections of the Appalachian Trail. Get ready for the ups and downs of Northern Virginia's Roller Coaster.

Today, we're going to be talking about something everybody does, but not everybody's comfortable discussing. There's no nice way to say this, other than to just get right to it.

Today's episode is about pooping along the Appalachian Trail. And yes, even that has a history.

The AT originally ran right through Monson, Maine, fueling its economy, but when the trail was moved and things threatened to change, the community established itself as a hiker haven.