2023 marks the 50th anniversary of the NC Trails System Act, and the Department of Natural and Cultural Resources is celebrating with the Year of the Trail campaign, where all types of trails are being celebrated across the state. Join us as we embark on a three-part series where we explore the “sights, sounds, and people” of North Carolina’s trail system. In this episode, we leave the recording studio to take a hike ourselves along the Neuse River Greenway Trail in Raleigh’s own Anderson Point Park. While enjoying the trail, we’ll discuss the beginnings of the North Carolina Trails Committee after it was founded in the 1970s, specifically their efforts to develop the Mountains to the Sea Trail, designed to connect the state from the mountains to the coast.      

Sources:  

General Assembly Session Records, May Session 1973, House Bill 436, “An Act to Create a Scenic and Recreation Trails System and to Provide for the Designation, Administration, Regulation, and Acquisition of Scenic Trails and Trail Rights-of-Way,” SR.66.8 https://axaem.archives.ncdcr.gov//solrDetailPages/series/NCA/Series_detail.html?fq=seriesLevelId:series-31391  

Parks and Recreation Record Group, Planning and Special Studies Section: North Carolina Trails Program File, Boxes 1-4, SR.85.35 https://axaem.archives.ncdcr.gov//solrDetailPages/series/NCA/Series_detail.html?fq=seriesRid:695971 

“Speech by Howard N. Lee, Sept. 9, 1977,” Natural Resources and Community Development Record Group, SR.82.49, Box 02709-0002 https://axaem.archives.ncdcr.gov//solrDetailPages/series/NCA/Series_detail.html?fq=seriesRid:695140